Blockchain Megaways

Blockchain Megaways: Slot Overview

Most people these days are clued up on cryptocurrency, or have heard of it at least, but how much do normal people know about the technology underpinning it? After having a little Google around, one way to describe a blockchain is as a public list of records made up of blocks of data. Are your eyes glazing over yet? Possibly so, and a lot of casual investors are probably more interested in crypto's potential to moon than its technical aspects. It's into this high-tech world of blocks, hashes, and forks that developer Booming Games has stepped with an online slot they've dubbed Blockchain Megaways.

The game gets off to a slow start as a bunch of dull-looking currency icons traverse a 6+1 Megaways grid while a mid-level DJ spins a few tunes. The background's got a sort of Tron meets the Matrix meets The 13th Floor thing going on, which, okay, has 'futuristic' overtones, though something's a little off. Blockchain Megaways hovers in a kind of no-man's-land between being outdated and properly retro. Blockchains might seem a relatively modern phenomenon, yet the idea has been discussed in one form or another since the 80s and 90s. Perhaps Booming Games wanted to honour the early pioneers by giving Blockchain Megaways a look reminiscent of the era?

Expanding on the mechanics, the main part of the grid has 6 reels holding up to 7 symbols each and a horizontally spinning tracker reel adding 4 more symbols. The specific number of symbols in view changes with each spin, producing anywhere from 324 to 200,704 ways to win. Crypto prices are famous for their volatility, and Booming has matched this trait by making their game highly volatile as well. Blockchain Megaways is playable on any gadget and accepts bets of 10 p/c to $/€50 per spin.

A mixture of fiat and crypto tokens have been used for the normal paying symbols. At the lower edge of the table are Rubles, Lira, Yen, Pounds, Euros, and Dollars, paying out 1-1.5x the bet for six of a kind. Premiums are reserved for the crypto icons, such as Doge, Litecoin, Ethereum, and Bitcoin, where landing six of a mind is worth a payout of 5 to 20 times the stake. Lastly, for now, multi-coloured wilds appear to substitute for normal pay symbols.

Blockchain Megaways: Slot Features

Blockchain might be relatively new when it comes to mainstream take-up, but the features used in Blockchain Megaways aren't so much. The first one to cover is the cascade mechanic, which removes winning symbols from the grid, dropping new symbols into the spaces. If a new win is created by this process, another cascade is triggered. This is critical in free spins.

Cash Collect

Landing amongst the regular symbols are money symbols bearing values of 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 10x, 20x, or 50x the bet. If money symbols land at the same time as a QR code on the rightmost reel, players are awarded their accumulated values.

Max Megaways

While reels are spinning, there is a chance the Max Megaways feature is called out. When it is, Max Megaways guarantees the reels are filled to capacity, producing the full 200,704 ways to win.

Mystery Symbols

Guy Fawkes tiles are mystery symbols, and when these hit, they all transform into the same identical symbol. Revealed symbols can only be normal pay symbols.

Free Spins

Play moves to the bonus round when at least 4 scatter symbols land to award 10 free spins. A progressive win multiplier is used during free spins, which starts at x1 and is increased by +1 by each winning cascade. The multiplier does not reset, and should 4 scatters land, you get +5 extra free spins added to your total. Finally, if available, players may be able to buy free spins rather than wait for the scatters to appear on their own accord. The cost for buying them is 110x the bet.

Blockchain Megaways: Slot Verdict

Blockchain Megaways is Booming Games' second Megaways slot, following on from the wildlife-based number Howling Wolves Megaways, which didn't overly impress. It looked okay, played okay, but was severely undercut by one of the lowest winning potentials you'll find in a Megaways slot. Perhaps the lowest. In some ways, Blockchain Megaways is an improvement; in others, it's a sort of sideways step. Let's dissect the theme. First off, it is encouraging to see Booming being brave with their subject choice, as crypto is hardly a common slot theme. And yet, it doesn't feel like Blockchain Megaways had a real blockchain zealot pushing the project in the same way as competitor slot NFT Megaways did. Red Tiger's game was so stuffed full of cultural references, it was as if the team scraped data from every crypto-related subreddit they could find and rammed it all into one colossal meme-fest.

They've tried, though, and players get a taste of the hacker-ethos at times in Blockchain Megaways. It might have worked better if Booming had put extra effort in to be more original with the features. Even one new bit would have been nice, rather than the rundown of traditional Megaways extras. Not downplaying the features, but they hold back the revolutionary nature of the subject matter rather than join it out there at the edge of the envelope. The mini-cut scenes are quite neat, yet using standard features in a crypto game creates the impression that Booming wasn't obsessed with really pushing boundaries. They've come up with one or touches, but Blockchain Megaways doesn't capture anywhere near the same level of zeitgeist NFT Megaways did. Red Tiger's contribution was akin to a time capsule of the early 2020s, whereas Blockchain Megaways feels more like a glorified fruit machine.

Crypto's volatile nature means it's not the ideal investment instrument for everyone's tastes, and the same can be said about Blockchain Megaways. Hardcore hodlers or Bitcoin Maxis might be intrigued to see digital currencies plastered across the reels, but the standard gameplay and middling visuals make it a lot less cutting edge than the topic it portrays.