Wheel of Wonders

Wheel of Wonders: Slot Overview

If you’re longing for something a bit more exotic than Ancient Egypt in a slot, why not head a bit further east to the mysterious land of Mesopotamia - a Greek word meaning ‘between rivers’, referring to the Tigris and the Euphrates. This creative people invented written writing, recorded laws for the first time, while coming up with the world’s first superhero, Gilgamesh. Their muscular art and architecture captured the raw potency of nature in a way that is rarely matched by any other culture, modern or ancient. It is this vibrant old world we venture to in Push Gaming’s slot Wheel of Wonders.

Apologies for the long-winded introduction. It’s just Push Gaming has clearly put a lot of thought into making Wheel of Wonders, earning it a bit of scene-setting. Returning to the game at hand, we find a slot which is initially 6x3 in size plonked in the middle of some desert wadi. A heat hazed background reveals ruins, sand, palm trees and a pyramid-like structure. It could be Egypt, save for the tell-tale bull’s head carvings adorning the reels. There's high attention to detail, such as the mirage effect making the mountains simmer in the distant, or how the symbols turn into stone dust at the end of your spin sequence. There's a lot to discover whilst waiting for the bonus to drop.

The other side of the sensory coin is audio. Push Gaming undoubtedly has a fantastic sound team. Wheel of Wonder’s music is quite subdued while minor events take place on the reels. However, it mirrors the action, so as reels expand, wins pile up, so does the sound. Mix it all together, and Wheel of Wonders gets delightfully intense when it’s hitting its stride.

Offering bets from 10 p/c to $/€100 per spin, volatility is squarely on the high side as it often is with this particular provider. It matches the game dynamics, but you cannot overstate quite how volatile this thing is. RTP, meanwhile, is reassuringly above average on 96.5% while the potential is next level. There is a caveat; mega wins won’t come easy. Wheel of Wonders is the very antithesis of casual gaming.

At its default size, the slot provides 729 ways to win but can reach all the way up to 46,656 win ways by unlocking blocked positions as you will see. Winning combinations start from the leftmost reel and can sit adjacently in any row. Symbols make clever use of the Mesopotamian theme too, starting with four low pay J to A symbols, designed in a cuneiform script. Then we get a wheel, what looks like an axe head, a jug, and a lion’s paw. Everything up till now needs at least three of a kind, while the next batch of high pays needs only two. Here you’ll find a serpent, a bird, and a lion worth from 25 to 40 times the stake for six of a kind.

Sargon the Great is considered by many as the first recorded person to rule over an empire. Push Gaming honour him as the wild, which can substitute for all other symbols.

Wheel of Wonders: Slot Features

There is quite a lot to get through here and it won’t make a lot of sense for the first few spins, maybe longer. The game is all about getting a good momentum going, expanding reels, adding positions, and triggering features. Let’s dive in.

The fundamentals are cascades expansion of win ways. Each winning combination unlocks an Additional Position on the three blocked reels and triggers Cascades. This mechanic removes winning symbols, allowing new ones to fall in for another chance at winning. If another combination hits, more Additional Positions open up, continuing the process.

When a complete row of Additional Positions is added, players trigger the Ancient Wheel. There are three separate wheels in total, and they are stored until a non-winning cascade occurs before being activated. This is what the wheels have to offer:

• 1st Wheel (1 row unlocked) - Awards either a random cash prize from 1x to 5,000 times your stake, a random win multiplier between x2 - x10, or one of the following modifiers – Embellish, Transmute, or Restore.
• 2nd Wheel (2 rows unlocked) - Awards either a random cash prize from 1x to 5,000 times your stake, a random win multiplier between x2 - x10, or one of the following modifiers – Embellish, Transmute, Restore, or Renovate.
• 3rd Wheel (3 rows unlocked) - Awards either a random cash prize from 1x to 5,000 times your stake, a random win multiplier between x2 - x10, or one of the following modifiers – Embellish, Transmute, Restore, Renovate, or Transmute.

Coin wins or win multipliers bring the sequence to an end, while the modifiers are immediately applied:

• Embellish - the most common symbol type in view is transformed into a higher value symbol on the reels for a re-evaluation.
• Renovate – each low pay symbol in view is converted into a random mid or high pay symbol. The reels are then re-evaluated.
• Restore – several Additional Positions are randomly added to the locked rows section. New symbols cascade in and any wins paid.
• Transmute – a number of symbols turn wild, leading to a re-evaluation.

Should all 18 Additional Positions be added to the grid, then The Wheel of Wonders is awarded on the next non-winning cascade. This wheel has 3 levels, and the prize is dependent on how many Ancient Wheel features are stored at the time. The Wheel of Wonders spins to award a win multiplier.

From the Wheel of Wonder, the win multiplier is carried over to free spins. Now, 5 free spins play out with the full 6 row grid in effect throughout the round. At this level, pay ways increase to 46,656 and all wins are subjected to the multiplier.

It doesn’t end there though. During free spins, players may score a retrigger depending on how many winning combinations are generated. If more than 5, 9, or 15 wins occur, players get an additional 2, 3, or 5 free spins. If retriggers are awarded, players also benefit from the Wheel of Wonders feature, again increasing their total multiplier.

Wheel of Wonders: Slot Verdict

Push Gaming has a strong reputation for designing killer slots and Wheel of Wonders is another fine example of their devotion to the craft. It’s clear they spent a lot of time getting every aspect of Wheel of Wonders just right. Each part integrates together, creating an intricate whole. This is a complex slot with simple enough core rules, but a ton of extras enhancing (or complicating) the heck out of play. At first it can be confusing and the initial trip to the extensive rules section feels like it’s written in cuneiform itself, hindering more than it helps. Playing Wheel of Wonders for a while clears the air, so demoing might be the order of the day until you’ve come to grips with the gameplay.

Wheel of Wonders sits squarely in the category of slots that’s all about getting a massive roll on – when it’s in the mood. A single spin can lead to a huge number of consecutive wins, triggering features when extra rows are filled, eventually leading to free spins. As you’d expect from Push Gaming, the volatility is outrageous, so swathes of dead spins can blow through like lifeless desert wind. Getting stuck in a rut can hurt, and hitting low-level bet multipliers from the wheel feels more like a slap in the face than a reward after unlocking reels. Yet, it just takes one lucky spin for the game to go next level crazy. How crazy? Well, the theoretical max win is officially listed as ‘infinite’, which makes for some interesting big win videos. The observed max win, however, is a bit less abstract, though still impressive. Here, Push Gaming note recorded wins of up to 47,233 times the bet. Given the extreme volatility though, a lot of players are going to have to lose to make that high potential possible.

It’s not just impressive numbers that make this a big game. With great power comes great responsibility. The game will test your patience to the utmost. Perhaps the most delightfully frustrating moment occurred when all but one position was unlocked on a non-winning spin. Watching all your hard work evaporate in a moment is tough. Yet, you head into the next spin knowing the game can blow to epic proportions at any moment. This is a slot that will frustrate you a whole lot and there will be times you will want to hit the screen. Even triggering the first wheel can cost you a lot, and when it finally does appear it always seems to favor the low award segments more than the others. A large chunk of the RTP is probably allocated to those wheels, and so in between, there can be a whole lot of nothing.

To sum up, Wheel of Wonders is definitely a viable alternative to the bloated Egyptian slot category. Just don't expect a ‘book of’ slot set in Iraq. In fact, there's a danger it'll cause Ra fanatics to go cross-eyed. Simple gaming this ain’t, but for something complex with huge potential, it’s well worth the trek east. Prepare to commit, though. Push Gaming has a reputation for ferociously volatile slots, and Wheel of Wonders is up there with their most savage.