Kingdom Below

Kingdom Below: Slot Overview

If money symbol collection games are hot, and let's face it, they are extremely popular, wait till you get a load of Kingdom Below designed by provider Play'n GO. For one thing, this is not a slot that uses a bearded fisherman symbol to reel in cash. Instead, Kingdom Below is a fiery slot that takes place somewhere very warm indeed. Maybe the abyss, but it's a cutely rendered form of the abyss if so. While avoiding getting stabbed by a trident, players are aided by a floating Beast who collects cash symbols, and can look forward to a progressive free spins round that just might have taken cues from slots like Blueprint Gaming's Fishin' Frenzy The Big Splash.

Obviously, we aren't on clear blue water for this one, but rather somewhere all, rocks, chains and flames. It's a nicely designed spot, with music that imbues Kingdom Below with haunting dramatics. In a good way. Buzzing about above the 5-reel, 4-row game grid is a floating Beast who is needed to collect cash symbols, or as they are referred to in Kingdom Below, grab symbols or grab prizes.

Play'n GO's horizontal plus and minus bar is where players can choose a stake of 10 c to $/€50 per game round. Rated 7 out of 10, Kingdom Below is a medium-high volatile game, where the highest RTP gamblers may find is 96.25%. Four lower return models can also be found. Collecting cash symbols might be more exciting, but line wins also pay when matching symbols land on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost reel, across 12 paylines.

Flaming stone 10-A card ranks are Kingdom Below's low pays, awarding 10 times the bet for a line of 5 matching symbols. Flames follow on the flaming sword, flaming ring, flaming trident, and flaming crown high pays, awarding 50 to 200 times the bet for 5 OAK. Wilds do not appear in Kingdom Below; perhaps they were not flammable enough.

Kingdom Below: Slot Features

One thing you'll likely notice quickly is the floating Beast drifting above the reels. When it activates, one of these effects occurs:

• Grab Feature - collects all prizes on the reels beneath the Beast.
• Slide n Grab - the Beast collects all prizes on the reels. A multiplier equal to the number of reels containing prizes is applied to the total win.
• Under Reel - a mystery grab prize is pulled from beneath the reel. These prizes can be either a grab prize, a valueless dud, or, in free spins, a scatter symbol that progresses the free spins trail.

Grab prizes have values of 1x to 50 times the current bet. They also pay up to 40x for 5 OAK when forming winning lines. The Grab Feature and the Under Reel features can trigger simultaneously, but the Slide n Grab cannot trigger at the same round as the Grab Feature and/or Under Reel collection features.

Free Spins

Scatters appear on all reels, and hitting 3+ scatters awards 10 free spins. At the start of the free spins round, a Pick a Fire feature commences that awards 1 of 8 possible modifiers. Modifiers come in regular or upgraded forms. The regular modifiers are: 5 additional free spins, More Grab triggers, More Slide n Grab triggers, More grab symbols, Lowest pay symbol is removed, At least 1 grab symbol on every free spin. Wins are not guaranteed, Grab multiplier increases to x2, and 1 random grab symbol is sticky for 1 spin.

Upgraded modifiers are: 10 additional free spins, More Grab triggers at x2 multiplier, More Slide n Grab triggers at x2 multiplier, More grab symbols and 2 lowest paying grab symbols removed, The 3 lowest pay symbols are removed, At least 3 grab symbols on every free spin. Wins are not guaranteed, Grab multiplier increases to x5, and Up to 2 random grab symbols are sticky for 1 spin.

Only 4 modifiers can be active throughout free spins - one type of each specific modifier, so you can't have regular and upgraded versions of modifiers at the same time. When multipliers are combined, their values are added, keeping in mind some multipliers are feature specific.

For the free spins feature, a 12-position trail is used. Collecting scatter symbols progresses the trail. Scatters are only collected if they are on the same reel as the Beast during the Slide n Grab or Under Reel collection. Reaching positions 2, 6, and 10 triggers extra picks, while reaching positions 4, 8, and 12 triggers +10 free spins. Win multipliers for each retrigger step are x2, x3, and x10. Multipliers are applied to grab wins only. After reaching position 12, no more free spins may be awarded. The maximum number of free spins possible is 50.

Kingdom Below: Slot Verdict

Kingdom Below does well to disguise the winding family tree that lies behind its existence. No one is saying Play'n GO set out to copy what has gone before it, but the links to slots like Pragmatic Play's Big Bass Bonanza and Blueprint Gaming's Fishin' Frenzy The Big Splash (and a bunch of related slots) are clear to see. For better or for worse, Play'n GO has forgone fish and used an Underworld-style theme instead. Sad for gamblers who are absolutely besotted with fish slots, smile-inducing for others who are sick to death of the sea but want to collect cash symbols using a fresher format.

Fresher is debatable in some ways since much of Kingdom Below's core mechanics are recognisable, but there are newer elements here, as well. The floating Beast is one such innovation, not doing a lot to help out a lot of the time in the base game, but occasionally activating and slinging a bit of cash players' way. Having three different ways of collecting awards is a nice feature as well. As mentioned, the Beast took it pretty easy in the base game before it put in a bit of extra work when free spins triggered. The bonus round is quite well done, with pre-game picks adding suspense and a progress feature that gets better the further you are able to move along it. Hey, this sort of system has worked well in several previous games, and it works well here, too, with a variety of effects on offer.

Kingdom Below's max win is 6,000 times the bet, which is not too shabby, though it has a 1 in 868,685,581 probability of occurring. When comparing this figure to Bigger Bass Bonanza for a similar in some ways example, where the probability is 1 in 981,884, choosing King Below might make certain players pause. Otherwise, if odds be darned, Kingdom Below is an interesting take on cash symbol collecting, which dares to be different.