I had no idea what to expect when I received the link to review The Hatters Mad Tea Party as I had never heard of the developer – Arcadem – until now. First impressions were good – the graphics did look a little sparse when viewed full screen on a large monitor but appeared perfectly fine on smaller screens such as my smartphone and tablet. The game itself is a 25 payline slot with a 96.03% RTP and a maximum win of 4,000x your total stake, all of which are middle-of-the-road, decent statistics for a modern online slot in 2022. So far, so good then – but is it fun to play?
The game’s introduction screen promises several mods and features – a free spins bonus round triggered by three or more scatters, a pick-me style bonus that is triggered by a separate set of symbols, a 2x multiplier is added to the wild during free spins, and a “broken scatter” symbol which acts as a single-symbol retrigger during free spins.
Intrigued to find out more about this title? Then read on in our full review where you can also access and play a free demo slot of The Hatters Mad Tea Party. This can practised upon anytime via your desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
| Provider | Arcadem Slots |
| Reels | 5 |
| Rows | 3 |
| Paylines | 25 |
| Bonus Rounds | 2 |
| Bet Range | 0.15 - 45 |
| Volatility | Low |
| RTP | 96.03% |
| Our Rating | 7.5 |
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The Hatters Mad Tea Party Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
If the name of this slot hasn’t yet tipped you off as to what to expect as to the theme of this game then … wait up a minute, firstly I think you are probably not telling the truth for whatever reason! As I was saying, Ahem, seeing the various symbols on the reel strips of The Hatters Mad Tea Party video slot should certainly do the trick. The game is unashamedly based around one of the most memorable chapters from the ever-popular children’s book Alice in Wonderland. I suspect that many of you could also remember it from the associated scene in one of the (seemingly endless) movie, theatre, or animated versions of the tale instead. In today’s world, reading is not quite as universally loved by our 21-century children as it was by their ancestors – it takes far less patience to watch a video than to read a book.
Looking at the paytable, the mad hatter immediately stands out as the scatter symbol with a payout of 666x your stake for hitting five-of-a-kind. This is a fortune compared to the other symbols which top out at just 20x your stake for hitting five on a pay line. I wondered if the wild symbol could be stacked considering this low figure at first, but I soon discovered once I had begun to play that the game pays these smaller wins very frequently, which explains why they look a bit lower than I had expected. I found that The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party online slot was much more fun to play than other low-variance games such as NetEnt’s Starburst, which was a pleasant surprise. Unsurprisingly it is Alice herself who pays that 20x stake for five-of-a-kind, by the way, who is followed by the Hare & Dormouse paying 10x, along with the “Drink me” potion which also pays 10x for all five on a pay line.
As for the betting range, you select from 14 possible denominations to change your overall stake per spin. The surprising part of this is that the first option is €0.01 but only costs a total of €0.15 per spin – there are 25 paylines so I would have expected the minimum bet to be €0.25. It doesn’t matter of course, and low rollers will surely appreciate the option to bet a little less than a penny per line. The other end of the scale tops out at €3.00 for a combined price of €45.00 per spin. This isn’t as crazy as some other games and seems less risky than most other online slots. Nevertheless, you must have seriously deep pockets to be betting that kind of money every few seconds – think about it, do you even earn that much per hour at work? Congratulations by the way, if you do! – for the rest of us, this should be a major red flag. Only bet what you can afford to lose!
Base Game & Modifiers
The basic gameplay is straightforward enough – a typical playfield of 5×3 is used and there are 25 paylines spread across this area. Opening the paytable and choosing the third tab, also labelled paytable, contains a diagram of the pay line arrangements. This is worth having a glance at before beginning to play because the positions are not all where you may expect them to be. I generally liked the positioning of the pay lines overall though – I seemed to win more often than I do when playing most other online slots!
The Hatters Mad Tea Party Slot Bonus Features
The Hatters Mad Tea Party slot game features a few features to break up the regular gameplay; I thought there was just enough here to keep things fun, although the game did feel a little bit slow until I enabled the “turbo” feature from the settings page. Unfortunately, this option is now banned in my country when playing for real money – a decision I absolutely abhor and think that the UKGC is completely overstepping their bounds by insisting on the removal of things such as fast play, autoplay, and feature buys. This isn’t the place to complain about such things though – Arcadem has no choice but to comply with such nonsense, so let’s move on:
Pick Me Feature
Triggered by hitting a “bonus” symbol on reels two, three, and four simultaneously, the pick-me feature shows ten teapots on the screen and lets you pick winnings from them until you stumble upon a “collect” symbol instead of a cash prize.
I managed to pick all but two of the teapots on one occasion, which suggests there are probably no more than two “collect” symbols hidden away. I never ended up choosing “collect” without finding at least one cash prize, and am unsure if this can happen as the rules do not state it is a possibility or not. Hopefully, the game is programmed in such a way that you cannot find yourself being kicked out of the bonus game without any winnings!
Free Spins Feature
A separate set of “scatter” symbols appear only on reels one, three, and five. Hitting all three of these together will award you ten free spins with the wild symbol also being boosted to a 2x multiplier wild for the duration of the bonus. The scatter symbols have been removed in this mode, which may be a bad thing in some online slots as it prevents you from winning a re-trigger; fortunately, Arcadem has thought of this.
A ”broken scatter” which appears on reel two only, and only during free spins, adds the ability to score extra free spins back into the game. You only get two each time the broken scatter lands, but you do only need one symbol; I saw this at least once every time I saw the bonus round.
I feel that Arcadem put some definite thought into the positioning of the various bonus symbols in this game. In other online slots which have two sets of triggering scatter symbols, you can end up with a screen full of mismatched scatters blocking regular wins whilst rewarding you with nothing. The addition of the broken scatter and the 1/3/5 and 2/3/4 positioning definitely helps here, but the removal of the scatters during free spins should make the pick-me bonus easier to hit; it certainly feels that way to the player, which is always the most important thing!
The Hatters Mad Tea Party Slot Review Final Thoughts
This was my first experience playing an Arcadem online slot; I was pleasantly surprised. Low variance slots aren’t usually my favourite thing, but they certainly have a place in the online casino industry. Some players would much rather bet higher on this game and get a lot of playtime for their money than spend their time playing an ultra-high variance Megaways slot which empties their wallet in ten minutes flat.
It’s nice to have options, and this is how a low-variance game should be done. I’m looking forward to seeing what this company comes up with next!
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