Slot Review: 9 Masks of Fire
Despite the everyday attractions of our modern world, some aspects of the dark continent of Africa never seem to lose their enduring appeal. Perhaps it’s the slightly scary aspects of traditionally crafted wooden masks which suggest a devil or zombie presence, or maybe it’s the powerful, pulsating drumming sounds which feature in so much of Africa’s rich tapestry of musical styles. But whatever the reason for your attraction to African themes, Gameburger’s 9 Masks of Fire is another amazing online pokie game to feed your obsession. This exciting new game is distributed by Microgaming and due for release on 16 October. So are you ready to journey with the African Masks and discover the mysterious Spirit of Fire?
Environment
Tribal masks and African art influenced graphic symbols abound in this strikingly colourful game environment. And likewise, the element of fire with its palette of yellow, orange and red hues is a constant feature though in many different guises: sometimes as a cool, yet brightly flickering blue, sometimes as leaping tongues of golden-yellow flames which hint at the cash rewards on offer, and sometimes as a deep red core with a swirling, smouldering mass of fearsome heat. Meanwhile, the deep throbbing drumbeats of the specially composed audio track never let the player forget that this is an online casino slots tribal gaming experience of awesome quality.
Slot symbols
The game logo features the 9 Masks of Fire title together with an African-style golden mask. This glittering mask also appears in its own right as the game’s principal cash prize-winning Scatter symbol. Continuing the tribal theme, the Free Spins symbol features a war shield and crossed spears with a backdrop of flames. The Wild symbol appears to depict a sparkling ring with a blue-tinged diamond as its centrepiece. The remaining symbols are more traditional in nature: there are three stylized ‘lucky 7’ Fire symbols, featuring one-, two- and three sevens respectively – each graphically portrayed amidst burning flames. There is also a golden dollar sign, plus a golden bell, a bar label and a cherry symbol.
Slot features
9 Masks of Fire is a 5 x 3 spinning reels game with 20 fixed paylines. Those who may have played the classic pokies casino favourite ‘Lucky Sevens’ in land-based casinos at some time will find something reassuringly familiar about the Fire 7 symbols in this slot game. But there’s far more to this African tribal celebration of fire, where more masks always mean more money. In fact, if you can bag all 9 of the escalating scatter masks you’ll be in line for a winning payout of up to 2000 times your original bet! The Scatter symbol pays out in any position, but all other wins pay left to right. Any win, except the Scatter symbol, will be multiplied by the bet per line, with the final payout always on just the highest winning combination.
As with many other pokies casino favourites, the Wild symbol can replace any other symbol except the scatter masks and free spin symbols. Expect Free Spin shield symbols to appear on reels 2, 3 and 4, and every player will want to get three free spin symbols because that awards them 1x their total bet, and also gains them a chance to spin the game’s Free Spin Wheel. This spinning wheel has ten wedge sections, and each of these areas contains between 10 and 30 free spins, plus a x2 or x3 Multiplier. These productive multipliers can be used to boost all your wins – but mask symbol wins are specifically excluded. Even better, your free spins can also be retriggered with the number of free spins awarded being the same number as you gained on the initial trigger.
Game specifications
9 Masks of Fire is a medium volatility game which thus strikes a balance between the number of larger wins available and the more frequent appearance of smaller win payouts. This game’s RTP (return to player) percentage is quoted as 96.24%, which is around the average for these types of casino online pokies. It also has a hit frequency of 39.75% - therefore, on average, this casino online slot game will form a winning combination almost 40 times in every 100 plays.