Casino Bonuses
| Reels | 5 |
| Rows | 3 |
| Paylines | 20 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.20 - 8 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 20,000x |
| Bonus Buy | No |
| RTP | 95.59% |
| Our Rating | 7.6 |
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Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Game Overview
When a new developer is first beginning to release high-quality online slots, it can be a challenge to secure adequate distribution so that your games appear on the bigger online casinos. To get around this, smaller studios such as Boomerang now arrange licensing deals with more well-known developers – in this case, Yggdrasil – so that a much wider audience can find their games. Lady Merlin has both a prefix – “Strike Zone” – and a suffix – “MultiMax” – which I assume are series or mechanics that the developer releases under. The game has a 95.59% RTP, a 20,000x maximum win, and 20 fixed pay lines. There’s plenty more to unpack, so let’s jump in.
First up, Lady Merlin includes several jackpot prizes worth between 20x and 500x the current stake, but you’ll need to hit both a specific and rare combination of special symbols to receive these big wins. The “MultiMax” suffix of the game refers to the multiplier system, which will increase after every winning combination lands on the reels. You’ll be lucky to reach a multiplier higher than 4-5 during base gameplay, but in the free spin bonus round, this multiplier will not reset in between each spin, making it much easier to build up to higher multipliers. The “wild plus” bonus bet option adds 50% to the cost of each spin in return for additional wild symbols being added to the reel strips.
We haven’t looked at many previous games from Boomerang here at Demoslot, so I’m eager to recommend that you give our free demo slot of Lady Merlin a try below – I think you might be impressed with it!
Lady Merlin Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
In his regular male form, Merlin has appeared in countless online slots over the years. Sometimes we’ll find him just being included as a side-character alongside his best buddy King Arthur, whilst other times the games will centre around the lands of Avalon. We all know that the famous wizard must have been the real star of the party back in his day, of course! Who cares about the strong guy with the sword when there’s another dude who can start fires with his mind? The most famous game based on the legends of Camelot that I can think of must surely be Microgaming’s Avalon, a game which is probably not far off being 20 years old by now! Unbelievably, the game still holds up well today – give it a try at some point; it’s still plenty of fun all these years later!
It’s kind of interesting to compare the ancient Avalon game with this one, actually; the highest win on the paytable of Lady Merlin is the wild with a return of just 2.5x your bet for a full payline of five-of-a-kind. Compare that to the value of the wilds in the ancient Avalon game (which also had 20 paylines), and you’ll see that the wilds in that game paid 150x your bet! What gives? It’s hard to say, but I have to guess that this is related to the valuable multipliers that this game offers, and the older one does not. The rest of the high-paying symbols are represented by spell books, with the open book paying 2x your stake, followed by the yellow and green books at 1.25x, and the blue and purple books at 1.25x your bet each. I guess that the lightning coil symbol should be included here, too, as it can potentially pay you either 20x, 50x, or 500x your total stake if it appears at the same time as a collect symbol. Unfortunately, any time you only land one of these two symbols, they will function merely as a blocker for any other potential wins.
You can choose to bet a minimum of €0.20 per round if your bankroll is looking a little dubious, whilst those with deeper pockets are likely to appreciate the decent range of larger bets up to a maximum of €8.00 per spin.
Base Game & Modifiers
On first impressions, there doesn’t look to be any shocks as far as the base game of Lady Merlin is concerned. The slot features a 5×3 playfield like countless other games, and the cascading reels payout mechanic, which removes winning combinations immediately after they land, is also incredibly common these days.
Hold up, though, as Boomerang has made a few tweaks to the formula, making their game much more exciting and profitable than some of the other games that share these same mechanics!
Multimax Multiplier
Every time a winning combination lands on the reels, your current MultiMax multiplier will be increased by 1x. After new symbols have dropped into view from the top of the screen, any further winning combinations will be boosted by the current multiplier before being removed and triggering a further 1x increase. This will continue until there are no more winning combinations on the reels. During the bonus round, your MultiMax multiplier will not reset back to 1x between each spin.
Strike Zone Modifiers
The “strike zone” is a special symbol position located above the first reel of the regular playfield. Special symbols can appear here on any base game spin, potentially boosting the current multiplier by up to 5x, adding a lightning coil or collect symbol (see below), or giving you an additional scatter.
There are two special modifiers that can be triggered via the strike zone too:
- Multimax Freeze: Increases the current MultiMax Multiplier by 1x, and also locks the multiplier so that it does not reset until the end of the next spin.
- 2nd Chance: This modifier can only be triggered on a non-winning spin and will remove all low-paying symbols from the reels before awarding a free re-spin.
Lightning Coil & Collect Symbols
The lightning coil symbol is responsible for awarding the three jackpot prizes available in Lady Merlin. The MINI jackpot is worth 20x your bet, the MAJOR jackpot is worth 50x, and the MEGA jackpot will pay you 500x your full bet.
As mentioned earlier, these symbols can be something of a double-edged sword because if only one of the pair lands on any spin, it will act as a blocker for other potential winning combinations. This can be frustrating, of course, but you will soon forget about it if you happen to land a couple of the bigger jackpot prizes!
Wild Plus Ante Bet
Many games offer a bonus bet option that increases your chances of winning the free spins or other features, but Boomerang has instead opted to use the bonus bet of this game to increase the number of wilds on the reels instead. I think that I like this decision, as additional wilds can make a big difference to your base game returns, whereas it is much more difficult to gauge if enabling the ante bet in other games is actually making a difference to your returns.
Lady Merlin Slot Bonus Features
We’ve just discussed a whole bunch of base game features, and many games that feature so many cool twists and tweaks to their base game don’t bother with a full bonus round as well. That isn’t the case here, however, as Boomerang has also included a free spin-based feature in their game.
Free Spins
Three or more scatter symbols will trigger this bonus round, but there doesn’t appear to be any benefit when more than three scatters feature in the triggering combination. That seems a little unfair to me, and I’m genuinely surprised that Boomerang would make such an obvious mistake when creating this game.
You will start out with five free spins, although this number can be boosted with five more spins by hitting another set of three or more scatters whilst the feature is in play. Your MultiMax Multiplier does not reset in between spins during the free spins mode, which makes every free spin exceptionally valuable.
I hit one re-trigger several times while testing this game, but I never saw anything more than that. With a maximum of ten free spins, the highest multiplier I reached was 18x – not bad, but definitely not massive. I suspect that this could go way, way higher if you happen to get particularly lucky!
Lady Merlin Slot Review Final Thoughts
I believe that Boomerang has put a lot of effort into creating Lady Merlin because the number of base game features shows that they understand their audience. I wasn’t even put off by receiving only five free spins when the main bonus triggered because almost every one resulted in several cascading wins. I’d recommend you give this game a try, and I look forward to seeing what else this developer comes up with in the future. Recommended!
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