Castle of Terror in detail
Released on 19 October 2022 for the Halloween season, Castle of Terror is Big Time Gaming's vampire slot. A correction has to come first, because the web is full of errors about this title: it is not a Megaways. No variable reels, no fluctuating count. The grid is fixed at six reels by four rows, and the game pays on 4,096 ways to win from the first spin to the last. The confusion probably comes from the fact that Big Time Gaming is precisely the inventor of Megaways, a mechanic the studio designed, patented and trademarked with Bonanza in 2016, then licensed out to Pragmatic Play, Blueprint, Red Tiger and Relax Gaming. Many pages online conclude that every one of the studio's games must be a Megaways. That is wrong: Big Time Gaming also builds conventional grids, and Castle of Terror is the clearest example in its recent catalogue. The atmosphere is gothic and unusually restrained for this studio: four vampire characters as premium symbols, a castle against a blue night sky, playing cards for the low payouts. The house mechanic is called Holy Water. At random moments in the base game, a splash crosses the grid and turns two or more character symbols into wilds. Every wild created adds a point to the win multiplier, and that multiplier carries over from one spin to the next as long as the run continues. Two scatters coexist: a standard silver scatter, and a Gold Megascatter that only appears on the sixth reel. Three or more scatters open twelve free spins, with three extra spins per additional scatter. If the trigger includes the Gold Megascatter, the Enhanced Free Spins launch instead: Holy Water then fires automatically at the start of every spin, and each wild created is worth two multiplier points rather than one. The gap in output between the two bonus versions is considerable. Big Time Gaming states a 96.72% RTP, high volatility, stakes from €0.20 to €15 and a ceiling of 61,720 times the stake. The studio notes that the base game can reach roughly 29,690 times the stake, with the rest reserved for the bonus. A bonus buy exists where legal: 70 times the stake for the standard free spins, 200 times for the enhanced version. A Win Exchange also lets you trade certain mid-sized wins for bonus access. One last warning: alternative settings at 95.75% and 91% circulate at some operators.
