Jackpot slots are the new trend, just ask Pragmatic Play, a company that has been producing them at an almost ridiculous rate as of late. Sadly, the quantity over quality approach they've adopted rarely works out well in the long run. Looking at our notes, five of the seven most recent Pragmatic games we've reviewed have been jackpot slots, and seeing how generic and tedious most of them have been, it's evident that the company is on a bit of a decline, starved of new creative ideas. Loading up Medusa Strike, it quickly becomes apparent that we're faced with another one of those recycled jackpot slots, unfortunately.
Powered by Pragmatic Play, Medusa Strike is a 5-reel, 243 win ways slot with a Greek mythology theme akin to NextGen Gaming's legendary Medusa slots. Playable on desktop computers as well as mobile devices from 38 cents to 190€ per spin, it comes with 4 fixed jackpots and a free spins game played with reels made up solely of high paying symbols. The default 97.09% RTP is quite generous, but this number can be lower depending on where you play the game so always make sure to check the paytable.
Many slots have been made throughout the years based on the snake-haired gorgon, and while there's only so much you can do with the theme itself, the quality of the artwork can differ quite a lot. Medusa Strike comes in somewhere in the middle - it looks good and gets the job done, but it's rather basic nevertheless. What stands out is the epic soundtrack that gives the game an ominous feel. Set in the heavenly realms of the Greek gods and designed with a greenish tinge, symbols on the reels include A to 9 royals as well as more rewarding winged Pegasus horses, Cretan bulls, lions, and Achilles. Medusa is the top payer with 5 of a kind rewarding you with 5.2 times your stake. The wild, which is represented by a temple, appears on all reels but the first, and performs the usual substituting duties, replacing all symbols except the scatter.
>Whenever a wild symbol hits in the base game, it can randomly trigger the Jackpot Bonus Game. If so happens, you will be presented with 12 gold coins and asked to pick until collecting 3 matching jackpot symbols to be awarded the corresponding jackpot. These are Mini (30x), Minor (50x), Major (100x), and most importantly, the Grand jackpot worth 1000 times your stake.
Also keep an eye out for the snake scatter as 3 or more on consecutive reels, starting from the first, will trigger the Free Spins feature with 10 spins. Moreover, the feature will add 10 more spins to your total if 3 or more scatters appear in view during the feature, with no limits. In the Free Spins game, you will benefit from enhanced reels made up solely of high paying symbols, meaning higher payouts, in theory at least. This feature has a max payout of 850 times your stake.
Given how disappointing most releases have been so far this year, Pragmatic Play should spend less time begging casino streamers for exposure on Twitch, and focus on trying to come up with decent games that can compete on their own merits instead. In a competitive market such as this, churning out wishy-washy games of this kind is simply not durable. While we've seen some other promising providers stagnate as of late, Pragmatic Play, meanwhile, seems to have completely lost their bearings.
The company is in desperate need of a strong title at this point. Unfortunately, Medusa Strike can only be regarded as more of an obstacle rather than a notch on the belt. It could possibly come to some use as an alternative to wager your bonus funds (if it's set to the highest RTP that is), but other than that there's little of interest here. In the end, the flaws are not just something that crops up regularly - they define the whole experience.
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