Black Knight Slot Machine

Game Basics

The game's overall theme is derived from the Arthurian legends of old, in which heroes like Perceval, Gareth, and King Arthur himself all did battle with a mysterious knight figure clad in black armor. More a representation of general evil than anything else, the black knight character eventually became a literary trope, used by authors as a standard adversary standing in the way of his rival, the do-gooding white knight. Acclaimed writers such as Alfred Lord Tennyson, Sir Walter Scott, J. R. R. Tolkien, Raymond Chandler, and Geoffrey Chaucer have each penned stories involving a black knight character.

Contemporary figures like Batman, who is also known as the Dark Knight, are believed to have been inspired by the black knight's routine portrayal in popular culture.

While the black knight holds true historical significance, it's role within a video slot theme is less clear, and Black Knight stands out as a relatively generic WMS Industries machine. When compared to the company's movie based games like Wizard of Oz and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, a simple stock character like the black knight doesn't inspire much in the way of imagination.

The title screen for the game is appropriately generic, showing an anonymous black knight clad in his darkly colored armor. The knight carries his trusty shield and jousting lance, both of which are curiously colored in gold rather than black. The words "Black Knight" are spelled out in Old English font while the borders of the title screen are meant to resemble gilded edges. The background of the title screen displays the inner sanctum of an Arthurian castle, with crown figures and other signifiers of royalty.

Once you enter the actual base game, the background screen for Black Knight consists of nothing more than a purple hued sunset, with a large castle standing out on the left hand side.

As for the reel symbols, you'll only be playing for themed symbols, as this game drops the usual assortment of low paying card suit symbols. Instead, you'll find the Black Knight himself, the black and gold shield, the king, the queen, the jester, the crown, the map, the ring, the golden ball, and the jeweled scepter.

Playing Black Knight

Black Knight is a standard five reel, 30 pay line video slot machine game.

With three symbol spaces on each reel, you'll be working with 15 symbols in play on each spin.

The minimum coin denomination for Black Knight begins at just $0.01, but as a fixed pay line game, you'll be activating all 30 pay lines on each spin. That bumps the minimum cost to cover per spin up to $0.30, which is just about standard for multiple pay line penny slots games nowadays.

On the other hand, high rollers can increase the wager amount to a maximum of $5.00 per line, making for a $150.00 maximum cost to cover per spin.

As a fairly standard video slot offering from WMS Industries, the Black Knight base game is comprised of the usual assortment of wild symbols, scatter symbols, and free spins. The game lacks any multipliers which can increase line pays, and no wider progressive jackpots are connected to either the land based or online versions. For a list of basic game specifications for the Black Knight slot, see below:

During the Black Knight, base game players are shooting for their share of a fairly small sized pay table. Like many WMS Industries games, the base game in Black Knight can be somewhat of a grind, and you can expect to generate minor line pays here and there while waiting to trigger free spins or hit the perfect winning combination.

The largest line pay in the game stands at 2,000 credits, which occurs when you land five of the king symbols on any pay line. When you land four of a kind in king symbols, the payout drops to 500 credits, while three of a kind returns a 100 credit reward.

Score five of a kind in the black and gold shield symbol and you'll earn 1,500 credits. For five of a kind in either the queen symbol or the jester symbol, the payout stands at 500 credits. Five of a kind in either the crown, the map, the ring, the golden ball, or the jeweled scepter symbols will pay out 100 credits.

The wild symbol during the Black Knight base game is, of course, the Black Knight symbol. This wild Black Knight symbol can substitute for any other symbol, except for the scatter symbol, to form winning combinations. Additionally, the wild Black Knight symbol will only appear on the second, third, and fourth reels.

During the base game, the black and gold shield represents the scatter symbol, which can generate winning combinations from anywhere on the reels. Any line pays generated using a black and gold shield scatter symbol are also multiplied by the total bet. More importantly, however, the black and gold shield scatter symbol is used to protect the game's free spins bonus round.

Triggering the Bonus Round

Whenever you land three or more of the black and gold shield scatter symbols on adjacent reels, beginning with the first reel, you'll automatically trigger the Black Knight free spins bonus round.

Unfortunately, you won't find an escalating allotment of free spins based on the amount of scatter symbols landed, so no matter what you'll be playing with seven free spins.

Because the game also lacks a retrigger function, which allows you to earn additional free spins during the bonus round, many players may balk at the low amount of free spins offered by Black Knight. And with other games designed by WMS Industries offering 80 or even 100 free spins, this complaint is more than understandable.

During any free spin, if you land the Black Knight wild symbol on either the second, the third, or the fourth reel, it will expand to fill the entire reel with wilds. Even better, this stacked wild covering the entire reel will remain in place for the duration of your free spins bonus round.

With a little luck, you can easily get the entire second, third, and fourth reels covered with stacked Black Knight wild symbols. After that, anything that lands on the first and fifth reels will automatically create winning combinations, so players can reap bountiful rewards from just those seven free spins.