Wild Knights King’s Ransom Slot Review

In the sequel to Wild Knights, Barcrest have pulled out all the stops and all the tropes, creating a medieval romp replete with swords, shields, honour and valour. It’s not much to look at, but the soundtrack is epic and the prizes are mighty.

Slots featuring a preponderance of playing card symbols rarely score highly for graphics. Indeed, slots released under the Barcrest moniker in general rarely catch the eye. An unassuming backdrop features a tiled medieval motif, with a trifecta of shields standing stoutly below the reels.

Unlike many of Barcrest’s slots, Wild Knights King’s Ransom keeps its controls below the reels, with regular sized buttons instead of the oversized panels that characterise many Barcrest games. The animations are kept to a minimum, with little to look at save for the shields below the reels which turn from grayscale to full colour to denote a shield appearing on the corresponding reel in positions 2-4.

Maximum 500

The green plus and red minus buttons that normally loom so large in Barcrest slots have been shrunk to fit into the narrow space below the reels. The minimum stake is 0.01 for the game’s 10 paylines, rising to a maximum of 50, which will result in a cost of 500 per spin. The spin button sits centrally below the reels, with auto play sited to the right; it’s possible to select anywhere from 10 to 25 auto spins.

That leaves just one button left below the reels, the purple one marked Big Bet. This feature will be familiar to anyone who’s played Barcrest’s other slots in this series. Activate big bet and you’ll be given an option of selecting one of two shields, the first a silver shield priced at 20 credits and the second a gold shield priced at 30. Both big bet options include the possibility of a round table bonus. After activating big bet, the reels will roll for 5 spins, almost as if you’d selected autospin.

Look for a Pot of Gold

In the standard game, which is entered into when the stake per line is set at less than 2 credits, the highest amount it’s possible to win is 1,000 for 5 kings in a row. The various knights, depicted as a helmet and shield combo, are worth between 200 and 500 for 5. Wild will substitute for any of the regular symbols except for the crests and the pot of gold.

The pot of gold is the scatter symbol. It will appear on reels 1, 3 and 5, with a trio of scatter enough to trigger the pots bonus. Meanwhile, the crested shields also act as scatters, appearing on reels 2, 3 and 4 to trigger unlimited free spins. As standard games go, this qualifies as a feature-rich effort from Barcrest; they’re usually more miserly with their standard games, saving the bulk of the action for the big bet feature.

Super Big Bet

There’s more than one way to bet big with Wild Knights King’s Ransom. You’ve got your big bet and then you’ve got your super big bet, the latter costing 30 credits and the former 20. The primary feature you get with the two big bet options is round table bonus. This will either multiply any win or grant you entry into the unlimited free spins bonus. If you’re awarded the latter, you’ll be given the option of collecting your current win or swapping it for unlimited free spins.

If you’re wondering what the difference is between the big bet and super big bet games, incidentally, save for the cost of entry, there’s an additional bonus with super big bet: pots bonus. This results in the pots bonus symbol being added to the wheel, which you’ll be given the option of collecting instead of your current win. And that’s about all there is to Wild Knights King’s Ransom: it’s not much to look at, but it’s great fun to play once you push the credits past 2 and start playing for some serious money.

Knight Out

Wild Knights King’s Ransom is a worthy sequel from Barcrest and a fine game in its own right. Visually, it’s nothing special, but the big bet and super big bet features elevate this game from the ordinary into something pretty special.