Medusa Slot Machine

Overview

This is a 5 reel, 25 pay line slot that allows you to bet anywhere from $0.01 to $5.00 per pay line. This makes the minimum bet worth $0.01 per spin and the maximum wager worth $125.00.

You can also use an auto play feature that lets you keep the reels spinning at your selected betting options for 5 to 25 spins.

The theme of this game is somewhat interesting because, as you may know, Medusa was supposed to be a hideous creature whose gaze would turn people into stone. The turning people into stone aspect is still here, however, the slots version of Medusa is depicted as a beautiful woman.

You can hear her hissing in the background between spins along with the sounds of a desolate landscape.

These sounds are fitting because the background is a deserted area with empty helmets of brave solders along with fallen columns, dark clouds, and occasional lightning. As if all this isn't ominous enough, you also hear dramatic music and chanting sounds whenever you spin the reels.

If at any time you get tired of hearing the music and sound effects, you can turn them off with the tiny volume button on the bottom left hand side of the screen. However, we didn't really find the music / sound effects annoying and actually thought they added a lot to the game's atmosphere.

Of course, the symbols go along with the Medusa / ancient Greek theme too because you'll see all of the following.

• Spear tips
• Vases
• Winged shoes
• Snakes
• Medusa shield
• Soldiers
• Parthenon type building

Medusa is the wild symbol, and she only appears in reels 2, 3, and 4. When three Medusas appear on the reels at once, reels 2, 3, and 4 fill up with a large Medusa expanded wild symbol.

This also activates the Turned to Stone re spins feature, where you receive three re spins and all wins are tripled.

The Medusa logo symbol is the scatter, and this multiplies wins by 2x for 2 symbols, 5x for 3 symbols, 15x for 4 symbols, and 250x for 5 symbols. Most scatters don't multiply wins by over 200x or even 100x, so the 250x multiplier is pretty rare.

Return to player in Medusa slots is 95.41%, which is about average for the online slots industry.

Bonus

One really nice thing about this game is that there are plenty of special features.

Our favorite feature is the Pegasus Pick Me round, which is triggered when you get 3 or more Pegasus symbols anywhere on the reels. These winged horses then stay on the reels, and you choose one of them to earn a prize.

The goal is to win up to 50x your triggering bet, but it's also nice if you reveal Win All or Pick Again. Assuming you just reveal a monetary amount, the bonus round is over and you collect that single payout.

We got the Pegasus Pick Me feature twice, earning €15 the first time.

Our second time playing, we received a combination of €20 and a Pick Again option in the same square. The second pick yielded a €17.50 payout, bringing our total prize for the second round to €37.50.

This is a pretty straightforward bonus and definitely something that adds to the game. However, our one complaint about the Pegasus Pick Me is that it didn't come up very often when we were playing.

You can also get the Once Bitten Bonus whenever 3 or more Medusa scatter logos appear on the reels. This awards you 10 free spins with a 2x multiplier on winning combinations.

Yet another bonus opportunity is Super Spins, which are awarded whenever a soldier shows up on the reels. These are called Super Spins because they come with a 5x multiplier.

It's definitely nice that there are two different ways for you to get free spins along with a Pegasus Pick Me round. However, based on the quality of Medusa, it seems like this game could really support a good second screen bonus game.

Gamble Feature

Following winning bets, you can choose to gamble your prize to either double or quadruple the payout.

To double your prize, you choose whether the color of a card will be red or black. To quadruple your payout, you try to guess if the suit will be a club, diamond, heart, or spade.

Given that you only have a 25% chance of guessing right, trying to quadruple your bet is risky to say the least. However, we did try this option a couple of times to no avail on smaller payouts.

Comparison to Medusa II

Based on the success of the first game, NextGen designed another slot called Medusa II in 2014.

The biggest difference between Medusa I and II is that the latter is a 243 ways to win game. You also have to bet at least $0.25 to spin the reels, which is a change from the one cent minimum in the first slot.

Naturally, you'd think that the graphics, bonuses, and overall design would favor Medusa II. But we found that this wasn't necessarily the case.

First off, the graphics are only slightly different, with neither game gaining a true edge in this department. The background has very little difference in Medusa II as well.

You're still in a desolate landscape with columns on the ground and dark clouds in the sky. The only thing that looks like it's changed is the angle you're viewing the game from.

The bonuses are actually a little worse in Medusa II because you only earn free spins one way, and there's no Pick Me feature available. It seems like NextGen put most of the focus on a stacked reel feature that happens when Medusa turns a soldier to stone.

An aspect that changed for the better in Medusa II is the addition of an auto stop button. This is nice for anybody who's played a game over and over and wants to skip the reel spinning theatrics.

Really, though, you won't gain much of a new experience by going from Medusa I to II because they're practically the same slot.