Recently, Fantasma Games has been living up to its name by releasing a slew of games with fantastical themes. They’ve also showed a promising readiness to try out new combinations of reels, rows, and symbols in search of originality. In Golden Castle, a game powered by Fantasma’s innovative Titanways gaming technology, players are treated to a scary medieval setting populated by ghosts, phantoms, and gargoyles.
A golden figure with vague Hindu overtones watches over a grid covered with various symbols. The castle where the story takes place has an air of unease about it. The word “bleak” immediately comes to mind, conjuring images of a deserted castle perched high above a town so cursed that no one dares to say its name. One where a glance away from it displays sinister shadows hastily retreating from the windows. Heavy music adds tension, yet the sight of gold peeking out from between the stones should serve as inspiration.
Bets range from 20 pence to £/€50 each spin, so players may use whichever device they choose to try their luck. The very unpredictable math model and RTP of the first Titanways slot by Fantasma come in two decent flavors. The first has a starting point of 96.34% and increases to 97.12% with the feature buy. With a maximum payout of 20,000 times your wager, it’s easy to see why buying free spins might be appealing.
The ‘unique’ aspect of the Titanways system, which takes place on a 6×6 grid, is that symbols can land in any of the four possible sizes: 1×1, 1×2, 1×3, and 2×3. It doesn’t matter how big or small a symbol is on a single reel (1×1, 1×2, 1×3), it still only counts as one symbol. A 2×2 or 3×3 sign is counted as one symbol on each reel it occupies. To win on Titanways, simply line up at least three like symbols in a row, beginning with the first reel. The symbols’ gemstone components translate to payouts ranging from 1x for 6 of a type to 10x for 6 diamonds.
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The Phantom Free Spins feature, activated by a set amount of bonus symbols, is your best bet for wringing some cash out of the castle. In addition, there is a unique Ghost King emblem and an avalanche winning system.
The avalanche function removes winning symbols from the board and replaces them with new ones that fall into place. As long as the right conditions are met, it is feasible to win several times in a row. When larger symbols are placed on top of smaller ones, the smaller ones are pushed down.
When a Ghost King emblem appears, the next function is activated, and it’s called Wild Haunt. The next step is for the game to pick a random bigger symbol and reduce it to 1×1 tiles. The King may even transform them into wild cards for you. After then, the Ghost King icon becomes wild, and a victory is calculated.
If you get three scatter symbols in a row during a single spin, you’ll win 10 Phantom Free Games. An initial x1 win multiplier is activated at the start of the round. The multiplier always goes up by 1 after an avalanche rather than reverting to its initial number. In all other respects, the rules of the main game remain in effect, such as the ability to retrigger an additional ten free spins by getting three bonus symbols.
Rather from waiting for them to appear at random, you may be able to purchase free spins instead. You may skip the base game and go right to the bonus round, which has a return to player percentage of 97.12% and costs 70 times your initial bet.
Castle of Gold: The Slots Have Spoken
Right from the get-go, Golden Castle has that familiar Fantasma vibe. Not as imaginative as Serpent Shrine or Hades River of Souls, but after the grid slot with Elemento, they’re back on familiar terrain. Even if Golden Castle isn’t the most polished of the studio’s settings, it still offers plenty to keep fans of the fantasy genre entertained. The tunes are bound to spark additional debate. The gothic overtones may appeal to certain listeners while others may find they need to sometimes turn it down. The fact that Fantasma persists in pursuing its goals and doing things in its own unique way rather than simply following the crowd is encouraging.
Titanways isn’t going to take off in a big manner, despite the fact that it has a catchy name. There are benefits and drawbacks to it. The fact that taller symbols only count as one while taking up more real estate on the reels isn’t always a positive thing. It’s possible the results would be comparable to Megaways’, but you can’t help but question whether it wouldn’t have been better if the bigger symbols were evaluated separately. But that would have been missing the idea of what Titanways is all about.
Even the bonus game is a little letdown. Not that it fails to provide, but it’s no different from the free spins rounds in any of the other Megaways games out there; the only difference is the progressive multiplier. To show off Titanways, we were anticipating something more original. Titanways’ unconventional approach to symbol evaluation does not diminish the game’s potential, however. Because to the increasing multiplier during free spins, payouts of up to 20,000 times the initial wager are feasible.
Taken as a whole, Fantasma’s new mechanism has a solid debut but fails to leave a lasting impact. Sure, you may have a good time playing, but despite all the precious stones and riches, Golden Castle is missing something.