10,001 Nights Megaways

10,001 Nights Megaways: Slot Overview

Arabian themed slots are perennially popular, so it shouldn't be a huge surprise to see Red Tiger return to 10,001 Nights and retrofit it with the Megaways game engine. On the other side of the revamp, Red Tiger has left much of the experience unaltered, preferring to let Megaways' set up and cascades provide the bulk of the newness. Original features such as Magic Lamps, Imperial Spins, Random Wilds, the Multi-Pick, and Mega Wilds return more or less intact. Interestingly, most of the stats have remained the same as well, though RTP has taken a slightly positive turn, so if you're up for some Arabian flavoured action, read on.

10,001 Nights Megaways has taken one or two cues from the famous collection of tales known as the One Thousand and One Nights. Amongst this anthology of stories with Arabic, Indian, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Persian roots, are classics such as Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and Aladdin's Wonderful Lamp. Thanks in part to companies like Disney, these are internationally well-known stories, and the imagery contained therein makes for wonderful backdrops in online slots when done right. 10,001 Nights was one such slot, as is 10,001 Nights Megaways. The graphics are as attractive as ever, so is the sound, getting the Megaways upgrade off to a warm start.

Lurking behind the scenes, like a genie trapped in a bottle, lies 10,001 Nights Megaways' math model. In a positive move, Red Tiger has tapped the RTP up a few notches, now creating a return value of 96%, while volatility remains on a high setting. Bets range from 20 p/c to $/€8 per spin, and although the max win is the same as before, with the extra Megaways muscle, does hitting it become a more realistic prospect?

Moving the focus to the grid now, where 10,001 Nights Megaways has 6-reels holding 2-7 symbols each, providing up to 117,649 ways to win. Wins arise when matching symbols land in adjacent reels (any row height is fine) starting from the leftmost side of the grid matrix. Wins trigger the cascade feature, which removes winning symbols and lets others fall down into the empty spaces. If a new win is formed from the dropping symbols, another cascade takes place.

The pay symbols include low pay card suits, followed by higher-value shoes, pots of gold, camels, tigers, and a male character. Symbol values have dropped compared to the first game to compensate for the vastly increased number of ways, so landing a premium sic of a kind way is worth 0.8-3 times the stake. Wilds appear at various points, with the task of replacing pay symbols to help make winning combinations.

10,001 Nights Megaways: Slot Features

The original game's quest-like dimension has been carried over to 10,001 Nights Megaways, so the further you progress, the more features are unlocked. Above the reels is where the collection metre is located, and when magic lamp symbols hit, they are collected there. When a certain number of magic lamps have been collected, features are unlocked in this sequential order:

• Imperial Spin – unlocked by collecting 6 magic lamps. Lower paying symbols are removed from the reels when triggered.
• Random Wilds – unlocked by collecting 13 magic lamps. Up to ten wilds are randomly added to the reels when activated.
• Multi-Pick Bonus – unlocked by collecting 21 magic lamps. Players pick one of three cards to have an x3, x5, or x8 multiplier applied to the next win.
• Mega Wilds – unlocked by collecting 30 magic lamps. Up to four full reel wilds appear on the grid, each carrying a multiplier of x2 to x7.

Progress is locked to the stake level, so changing your bet starts the collection process all over again. These four features can also be combined so more than one can be in effect at the same time.

Destiny Free Spins

To enter the bonus round requires landing at least 3 Destiny Spins symbols; 3 awards 8 free spins, plus 2 free spins for each scatter from four onwards. The feature can be retrigged as well by landing 3 Destiny Spins symbols to collect 6 additional spins. What is added to free spins is a progressive win multiplier. This multiplier begins at x1 and increases by 1 following winning cascades. It's not unlimited, though, and is capped at x20.

10,001 Nights Megaways: Slot Verdict

In stories, genies typically grant three wishes, yet some people say they'd get around this limitation by asking for an unlimited number of wishes. Perhaps there was some of that thinking going on when Red Tiger designed 10,001 Nights Megaways. The reason why we jumped to this conclusion is because the progression between this and the previous game has been kind of subtle, rather than a massive change request brought about by having a low number of wishes. There's nothing particularly negative to say about 10,001 Nights Megaways, but some may be wishing Red Tiger had been a bit braver for the overhaul.

One of the main reasons is that the max win has stayed the same as before, at the albeit respectable level of 10,347x the bet. You might think with the addition of cascades, an extra reel, and a ton of extra possible ways, the upper winning total could have been higher. In its defence, would it have been weird calling a game 10,001 Nights Megaways and having potential of 20,001x? Then again, 10,347 isn't 10,001 either. Anyway, it feels like we're splitting hairs, looking for something to critique. The main gameplay quest is the same as before, so you'll have to be comfortable not having access to all of the features from the first spin. Instead, players have to put in a bit of time to unlock them one by one. Red Tiger is experienced in structuring slots like this, having used the idea on more than one occasion, so are generally pretty good at getting the balance right.

So, maybe not the most daring of Megaways overhauls, but a finely executed one all the same. Players who enjoyed the exoticism displayed in the first 10,001 Nights get a chance to experience it again in a Megaways setting, although a higher max win would have spiced up the deal.