The Great Gambini’s Night Magic

The Great Gambini's Night Magic (Novomatic): Review

If you Google "Gambini", a Wikipedia article on a fellow called Pier Gambini comes up who apparently was an Italian writer and journalist. Gambini is, of course, an alias for Houdini, the world-famous illusionist and stunt performer, whose name is trademark protected, thus prompting Novomatic to come up with a variation. There is an abundance of magic-themed slots and nearly every provider has at least one such in their catalogue.

Anyways, with a setup of 5 reels, 3 rows and 20 paylines, it's a construction rather typical of Novomatic used in the majority of their slots. The game is playable from 0.20 to 100 Eur per spin on all devices, including iOS and Android and comes with a set of randomly triggered base game reel modifiers as well as a free spins bonus where players will benefit from a magic reel and fully stacked symbols.

In terms of visual presentation, it's undoubtedly one of the company's best efforts to date. With an enchanting soundtrack, the story unfolds on a cobblestoned side street at night where you'll see the great Gambini himself standing next to the reel set. Of course, being a magic-themed slot you'll find A, K, Q and J card suit symbols on the reels as well as magician related objects such as elixir bottles, pocket watches, magician books, crystal balls and chests. The top hat is the wild and is also the most lucrative of all symbols, giving you 25x for 5 on a payline.

The Great Gambini's Night Magic (Novomatic): Features

As you probably know if you've played the classic Novo slots, they're usually quite volatile with heavy focus on the free spins. Such is the case here as well, although it's a slightly more modern and balanced creation that comes with a set of 4 randomly triggered reel modifiers in the base game. It can trigger at any point following a losing spin - this is what you can get:

• Guillotine modifier - A guillotine drops to reveal a winning combination or even trigger the free spins.
• Levitation modifier - Defying gravity, symbols will levitate off the reels as Gambini add new ones to help you land wins.
• Reel Magic modifier - In this feature, the reels swap positions to form winning combinations.
• Quick Change modifier - The symbols change position to award you a guaranteed win.

It all comes down to the free spin feature in Great Gambini. To trigger it you need to land 3, 4 or 5 scatter symbols anywhere on the reels which will award you 5, 10 or 15 spins respectively. In typical Novomatic fashion, you'll be assigned a special symbol. However, in contrast to classics such as Book of Ra, where you play with one special symbol throughout, a new one is awarded on each spin here.

Central to the free spin feature is the magical third reel. If your assigned symbol lands on it, it expands to cover the full reel as well as spreading to reels 1 and 2. To great effect, the magic reel can even be copied to reels 4 and 5 where it will remain in place throughout the rest of the free spin session. As a result, it is possible to land a full-screen of wilds to a total value of 500 times your stake per spin. The bonus can retrigger as well, with Gambini appearing to grant you additional spins.

The Great Gambini's Night Magic (Novomatic): Conclusion

When it comes to Novomatic, nothing seems to beat their old classics, namely Book of Ra, Lucky Lady's Charm, Dolphin's Pearl and the likes. The Great Gambini share many similarities to those games but is a modern take with a bit more focus on entertainment due to the addition of the reel modifiers. It's not as volatile either and appears to sit somewhere in the medium range. Although not as explosively volatile as the classics, it does come with decent win potential that can be bestowed upon you should you land a few full-screen top symbols.