Casino Bonuses
Provider | Skywind |
Reels | 6 |
Rows | 7 |
Paylines | 117,649 |
Bonus Rounds | 2 |
Bet Range | 0.20 - 200 |
Volatility | High |
RTP | 96.50% |
Our Rating | 8.0 |
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Game Overview
I’ll be the first to admit that I may have been a tiny bit unfair to some of the more recent Megaways slots I have reviewed. There’s no denying that these are excellent online slots, my problem with them is simply that they are all so similar to one another. If a game plays identically to the last ten releases by the same developer, then eventually you are going to get tired of it – at least, that’s how I see it. Will Judge & Jury Megaways from developer Skywind have a little bit more originality to it? The game features up to 117,649 pay ways, a maximum win cap of 10,000x, and has an RTP of 96.5%
Looking at the paytable there does appear to be a handful of unique features here – the judge has two modifiers which can activate randomly in the base game to boost winning spins, there is a “Wanted Poster” feature that awards cash prizes of up to 5,000x, as well as the mystery symbol and ascending multiplier free spins that are common to so many other Megaways slots.
In truth, it doesn’t look like there is too much new here, but I’m sure it will still be fun to play anyway! Give it a try yourself with our free demo slot of Judge and Jury Megaways below.
Judge And Jury Megaways Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
There aren’t too many other online slots that feature a courtroom setting, so I guess that aspect of Skywind’s latest is at least somewhat innovative! It’s a fun theme that is excellently presented with top-notch graphics, reasonable sound, and a high-quality user interface. As I said right at the beginning of this review, there is no question about Megaways games being excellent online slots – my issue with lots of the more recent releases is simply that they are mostly just clones of the original Bonanza Megaways that Big Time Gaming first released nearly half a decade ago. I can’t help feeling as if Skywind has been a little bit lazy by repackaging the title yet again, even if there are a handful of additional features on offer.
The paytable is fairly typical for a Megaways game, so don’t expect to see anything huge on offer. With up to 117,649 ways to win and stacked symbols on the reels, there is no way the developer can attach a huge prize to any combination – regardless of how rare it might be. The paytable does not update to match the size of your current stake either, so get ready to do a little math yourself if you want to establish how much you will win from all the possible combinations. The wild symbol and the judge are the highest payers with a return of 6.5x your bet each for a six-of-a-kind combination, followed by the policeman at 3.75x, the robber at 2.5x, and the safe at 2x. Again, you can’t expect anything too huge from a game with this many pay ways – the idea is to win on as many pay ways as possible simultaneously rather than hoping to hit an extremely rare combination.
The Megaways slots are some of the most volatile games you will ever play, so you should adjust the size of your bets to account for this. I’m not sure Skywind got the memo here, however, as whilst the minimum bet might be a low-roller friendly €0.20 per spin, the maximum has been ramped all the way up to a staggering €200.00! Trust me here – you WILL go bust if you play at that kind of level with these sorts of games!
Base Game & Modifiers
The base game in Judge and Jury online slot takes place on the familiar six-reel Megaways layout, with each of the six reels dividing into different numbers of segments on each individual spin. There is an additional row of symbols along the centremost four reels which fall to the left when symbols are removed rather than vertically – this is all stuff we have seen a thousand times before.
Likewise, the payout mechanics work just as with most other Megaways games too – winning combinations of three or more matching symbols are removed immediately from the reels, with new symbols dropping in from the top to replace them. Let’s look at the features including what’s new with Judge and Jury Megaways, to separate it from other existing Megaways titles:
Judge Symbol upgrade Modifier
The first of the two exclusive modifiers can activate after any winning spin, at which point the judge can randomly decide to remove all the royal symbols that are not part of a winning combination from the reels. This can increase your chances of hitting a larger win, but I didn’t have too much success with it during my testing.
Judge Wilds Modifier
The second exclusive Judge modifier was much kinder to me; look out for the judge adding between three and six additional wild symbols to the reels after any spin, including losing ones. This mod seems to guarantee a win as far as I can tell, and I had a couple of big hits because of this feature being triggered.
Column Wild Modifier
This modifier has appeared before in one or two Megaways slots, but certainly isn’t a common feature of the games. If a police beacon shows up in the horizontal row across the top of the reels, then it will expand and fill all the reels underneath it with stacked wilds. Ideally you would hope to hit two or three of these on a single spin, but sadly I never witnessed more than one appears during my testing. I’d love to know if you CAN hit more than one at a time, but sadly the paytable does not mention this.
Wanted Posted Feature
The wanted poster shown to the right of the reels isn’t just there for decoration! The person shown on the poster will change after each spin, and you can win a cash prize by hitting a matching poster on the reel set. The paytable boasts of prizes including 2x, 5x, 10x, 100x, and 5,000x your total bet, however I must have caught these feature dozens of times during testing without ever receiving anything over 5x my stake. I could have just been unlucky of course, but I get the impression that this feature is not very generous most of the time.
Bet upgrade Feature
This is a simple one, enable the switch to the bottom-left of the reels and the game will double your odds of hitting the bonus round on each spin. The cost for this is one quarter of your existing stake, which sounds like a good deal to me. Note that this feature will disable itself after you win a bonus round, so make sure to switch it back on afterwards if you want to keep playing with the boosted odds enabled.
Judge And Jury Megaways Slot Free Spins Feature
Almost every Megaways slot includes a free spin bonus round, usually with an ascending multiplier that increases each time you hit a winning combination. Judge and Jury Megaways video slot sticks to this formula, awarding ten free spins for hitting four scatter symbols, fifteen spins for five scatters, or a maximum of 20 spins for all six scatter symbols.
One thing to note here is that five and six scatter triggers seem to be relatively common on this game, as I had both several times during testing. This is obviously a great thing for the player, and something which makes this game stand out amongst other Megaways slots in my view.
The free spin feature itself is nothing we haven’t seen before – it works just like the one in Extra Chilii Megaways, except for the “ID Parade” bonus game which is a new feature exclusive to Judge and Jury. Hitting three of the ID Parade trigger symbols will take you to a second screen where you can pick a crook to win extra spins, a boost to your multiplier, or a cash prize. One crook will even offer you a second pick.
Each time a winning combination lands on the reels the winning symbols are removed and replaced with new ones from the top of the screen. Each time this happens your current multiplier will be boosted by 1x. The amount won from each bonus round spin is multiplied by your current multiplier before being added to your balance, and it is possible to reach some staggeringly high multipliers if you are particularly lucky.
Bonus Buy Feature
I am unable to take advantage of bonus buy features in my jurisdiction, but I still like to see these options included for players who haven’t been barred from using them by an overly zealous regulator! The cost of a bonus in the Judge & Jury Megaways slot game is just 80x your stake, which seems more than fair to me especially when you consider that the result is quite often a five or six scatter trigger. If this option is available to you, I would recommend using it.
Judge And Jury Megaways Slot Review Final Thoughts
I’ll be honest – I wasn’t expecting to like Judge and Jury Megaways very much before I began to play the game. All the early indications were that this was nothing more than yet another clone of Bonanza, but in the end, I was pleasantly surprised by the package that Skywind has put together here. There is just enough to separate this game from Big Time Gaming’s original model, so I must recommend this one to all online slot players. Go check it out!
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