Ghost Rider

Ghost Rider is one of the scarier characters in Marvel's pantheon. I mean really, think about it for a second. He's a dude who's head goes on fire. If I was sitting next to someone at, like, a restaurant, and their head went on fire, I would be somewhat perturbed.

The writing of the Marvel comic is dark, brooding and more than a little disturbing. The story arcs tend to get somewhat involved. It's seriously good stuff - I was a bit let down by the film adaptation of it. What is with Nicholas Cage phoning it in these days?

Cryptologic, however, have not phoned it in when it came to developing this game. Oh no. They have delivered an outstanding gaming experience that will delight both slots players and fans of the original Marvel comic alike.

Because what Cryptologic have opted to do here is not a lame movie tie-in. Instead, they've drawn source material from the original comic book, and it shows. The graphics are beautifully dark and sleek – if I had to choose a word, I'd say “steely.”

On the reels you can expect to see all manner of symbols from the Ghost Rider story, including a weighty tome with a pentagram on its cover, Ghost himself, his flaming Harley, his studded gloves, his less flamey self, and more besides.

Cryptologic's Ghost Rider is a five reel video slot game. If you like, you can just run the centre line, but the game also allows you to activate a total of 25 discrete pay lines if you want to increase your odds on a single spin.

The Ghost Rider (obviously) is the Wild symbol in this game. If you've played any sort of slots game before you know what the Wild symbol does – it completes winning combinations that are otherwise missing a something. A cool thing here is that when Ghost does this, he breathes a huge cloud of fire at the screen – pretty neat.

Now, if there's three or more Ghosties anywhere on the screen, the bonus game launches, which is awesome. I love the bonus game. In it, you have to rescue people from cars that are on fire. Presumably you didn't set them on fire in the first place.

There are three stages that all find you zooming along through some kind of scrap yard. Click on one of the burning cars to attempt to save the people inside. The number of people you've saved by the end of the three rounds translates to a cash bonus – this is multiplied by whatever your initial bet was on the round that triggered the game.

Coin sizes are between 1c and $5, and the top combination pays 10,000 coins, or $50,000 at max bet. Don't forget that as part of the Marvel Superheroes series this game has three progressive jackpots that you could trigger at any time – even on a losing spin.

​​Please note: The existing agreement between Playtech and Marvel for the licensing of Marvel brands for Playtech games has ended.​ From 1st April 2017 this game will no longer be available.