A melee is disorganised hand-to-hand combat in battles being fought at abnormally close range. Another notable feature of melee combat is the lack of central control once the fighting begins, often leading to a confusing intermingling of friend and foe. That sounds a lot like the queues at my local Aldi, to be fair! It’s also the idea behind Thunderkick’s Grand Melee online slot, a 96.17% RTP machine with a top jackpot of 5,000x the current stake. The game also uses the unusual ‘connected payways’ payout mechanic for a total of 1,193 possible ways to win.
I’m sure you’re wondering what features are involved in this exciting melee combat, so let’s take a look! First up, the game includes a ‘sticky respin’ feature which selects a random symbol which will become sticky if enough of them land during a single game round. The sticky respins can be further enhanced by two more features dubbed ‘symbol upgrade’ and ‘symbol expansion’, which we’ll explore in depth later in this review. The reels also include a special game area expansion symbol which will transform into the current sticky symbol whenever it lands before adding a new row at the bottom of the playfield. Multiple occurrences of this symbol can result in a maximum playfield size of 6×7 rows. A larger playfield obviously helps you to win on more pay ways simultaneously, but it’s also beneficial when it comes to triggering the bonus game.
Are you interested to discover what melee combat is all about? I’m not sure if this game is the best example out there, but at least you won’t get killed by playing our free demo slot of Grand Melee! It’s available to play below.
| Provider | Thunderkick |
| Reels | 6 |
| Rows | 4 |
| Paylines | 1,193 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.10 - 100 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 5,000x |
| Bonus Buy | No |
| RTP | 96.17% |
| Our Rating | 6.5 |
Grand Melee Slot Casino Bonuses
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Grand Melee Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
I don’t remember coming across any previous online slots that featured the word ‘melee’ in their titles, but there are certainly plenty which includes wars and fighting in some way. One of my favourite examples has to be NetEnt’s Street Fighter 2 online slot, a machine which did a remarkable job of recreating the feel of playing the classic arcade game! Then there’s Nolimit City’s The Cage, an MMA-based game with a huge jackpot of 25,000x the total bet. You would expect a game based around melee combat to be much darker than either of those games, but Thunderkick has taken a much more light-hearted approach here – the fighters look nothing short of hapless in their medieval gear, whilst the backdrop wouldn’t look out of place in a circus-themed game! It’s still a well-presented slot, but I’m not sure everything glues together quite as it should.
If you were hoping that the switch from regular payways to connected ones would result in a notable increase in the payouts on the paytable, I suspect you’ll probably feel slightly disappointed at this part. The highest-paying symbol is the golden knight, offering a top payout of 10x the total bet for a full payway of six of a kind, whilst the red knight returns half as much at 5x for all five of his symbols. There are three more high-paying knights – the pink guy will award 4x the current stake for a six-of-a-kind combination, whilst the green and blue varieties return 3.5x and 3x, respectively. As for the low pays, six aces will get you 1.5x the total bet back in winnings, followed by 1.3x for six kings, 1.2x for six aces, 1.1x for six jacks, and 1x for the tens.
Clicking on your current bet, displayed next to the main spin control, will open a pop-up window with a choice of different wager amounts. The minimum/maximum limits have been set at €0.10 and €100.00 per spin, respectively.
Base Game & Modifiers
The initial reel setup used in Grand Melee consists of six columns of four rows each, but this can be expanded up to seven rows via the expansion symbol. The payways used in this game are a little different to what you may be used to as well – wins require all symbols to be connected horizontally or at the corners rather than just having them on adjacent reels as with standard pay way slots.
During the base game, special features such as the sticky re-spin can trigger randomly as modifiers. When the bonus game is triggered, the same features are available on every spin.
Sticky Respin
In between the words ‘grand’ and ‘melee’ at the top of the reels is an additional symbol position used to show the current sticky symbol. When a symbol appears in this box, you have the chance to activate the sticky re-spin feature by hitting at least five matching symbols anywhere on the reels. When that occurs, all instances of the sticky symbol will lock into place, and the remaining positions will re-spin repeatedly until no further matching symbols land.
Symbol upgrade
A special symbol featuring a pink flag can appear during the sticky re-spin feature, transforming all instances of the current sticky symbol into more valuable ones.
Symbol Expansion
The red flag symbol can appear during the sticky re-spin feature and transform into the current sticky symbol before expanding vertically to cover its entire reel with a stack of matching symbols.
Game Area Expansion
You can’t miss this special symbol, as it appears surrounded by beams of light! Every instance of the game expansion symbol acts as a wild and will add a new row to the bottom of the playfield. The game can expand to a maximum size of seven rows tall.
Grand Melee Slot Bonus Features
You’ll need to hit at least five bonus scatter symbols simultaneously to trigger the bonus game, but you can get a little help with this courtesy of the sticky re-spin feature. If the scatter symbol appears above the reels, any bonus symbols that land during that spin will lock into place, allowing you to accumulate additional scatters during subsequent re-spins. The number of spins awarded equals the final number of visible bonus symbols.
Free Spins
The free spins feature – dubbed the ‘bonus game’ in the paytable and help pages – plays almost identically to the base game, with one crucial difference; A random symbol is always shown above the reels during the bonus game, but you’ll still need to land five matching symbols on the playfield below to activate the sticky re-spin feature.
Pros
- Plenty of features to keep you entertained in between bonus rounds.
- The unique payout mechanic makes for interesting gameplay.
Cons
- The free spins feature lacks new features not present in the base game.
- A Jackpot of 5,000x is only average in today’s market
Final Thoughts
The theme of Grand Melee didn’t really do it for me – it appeared a little rushed and seemed to lag heavily on my machine. The numbers on the paytable don’t seem any better than games with many more payways either, which makes the advantage of using connected pay ways somewhat questionable. There’s still fun to be had here, but it’s probably only going to keep you interested for a handful of sessions at the most.
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