Crystal Land

When is a slot not a slot? Crystal Land, by Playson, looks like a slot – it has reels, columns, spins, gaming symbols, and bonuses – but plays like an interactive puzzle game. This addictive and thought-provoking title offers players a thoroughly unique gaming experience, with plenty of winnings to be won, often on a single spin.

Theme

This slot is set in a Candy Land-like realm of glowing crystals, bright colors, and a quaint village complete with hut houses and windmills. Gaming symbols include six gems in pastel tones, with the blue diamond and the round ruby the top-paying among them. Bomb symbols also appear – these wait until there are no winning combinations on the reels, then detonates to clear space and keep the play going. There are two wild symbols, regular and ruby, the latter of which transforms into the bomb symbol after being involved in a winning combination. The game screen is awash in information, a useful feature in this original game – detailed game rules are available on a separate screen for players who want to glean a full understanding of how these crystals will behave.

Betting Options and Functions

An original title demands exceptional attention to detail in design, a challenge the team meets with a flourish. There are no paylines of any kind here. Rather, a win is awarded any time five or more symbols of the same kind appear in vertical or horizontal contact. After the win is awarded, those symbols disappear, with the symbols that were above them falling to take their places – this creates the opportunity for a second round of wins, and so on, so forth, without limit. The total bet is set simply from 0.20–100.00 times the betting currency, with autoplay available up to 100 turns of the reels, with optional loss and total win limits. The theoretical RTP sits at about the industry average of 95.20%.

Features

Wins open more and more of the game screen, as the blocked areas of the reels are cleared for action. In addition to providing more potential for winning combinations, this opening of the reels comes with extra bonuses: after clearing two columns, random wild symbols will be added; two more columns cleared adds random ruby wilds as well; and clearing the entire game field opens up the bonus round.

Throughout gameplay, a progress bar tracks player’s success. When the progress bar is filled, players can advance from one level to another: each level has its own signature feature. In one, three wild symbols are added at random; in another, three ruby wilds; and in another, a magic potion substitutes one kind of symbol for another randomly, by coloring position. Changing levels also trigger cash prizes, which will either be awarded, doubled, or stored up and added to the next level. Each new level also offers a new background design, which helps to keep things fresh.

The bonus round is where this game can shift from fun to extremely lucrative, as total win multipliers can be added. Players spin the reels in order to open treasure chests, each containing stars, with each revealed star increasing the multiplier by one. The maximum total win multiplier is 9x. New symbols do not fall down in this phase of gameplay, although three color-changing potions and abundant bomb symbols are present in order to facilitate wins.

Our Take

Players will delight in Crystal Land. This title is a complete departure from business as usual in slot gaming, with every spin essentially acting as a potential set of freebies. Playson has done remarkable work here.