Roundabout Slot Review

When it comes to car based slot machines, we’re used to seeing the typical racer styled games that are all about speed and aggression, but Roundabout shows the softer side of driving. The change of pace is quite nice, and appeals to a niche audience that isn’t normally addressed, a trait that Merkur is known for.

As you’ll no doubt become used to having played with the brand before, the paytable delivers a single feature and that’s it; it doesn’t overdo it with novelty extras, which for this game works out well. Everyday driving is about enjoying the ride at a reasonable pace, not rushing in and missing out on all the details.

Did Someone Call the Police?

We all like to think we’re safe drivers, but sometimes the law has to step in to give some much needed clarity; in this instance it’s a busty redheaded officer, who most of us would welcome seeing. She does little on her own, but put together with the Roundabout sign, the action starts to heat up.

What is more, when the sign is played, another police officer will show up to increase your odds further. It’s a short and simple way of keeping the gameplay lively, but without bombarding you with special symbols and tricky mini levels.

Round and Round We Go

Now that we’ve introduced the feature symbol, the roundabout, it’s time for us to tell you about what it does. True to its name, it rotates three of the reels that surround the icon, which seeing as the icon only shows up on the third reel, means that the second, third and fourth columns get a new set of tiles.

It’s essentially a giant wild symbol, similar in nature to the spiral one seen in Rising Liner, only here it impacts on several reels rather than a large square of tiles. The change is small, but it’s enough to make the two feel different from one another.

Road Tax

Nobody likes paying it, but road tax is the only way we can legally use the roads; just as we do in real life, here you have to pay a form of tax, only this time it’s a bet of between 0.05 and 10 credits.

Neither sum of money is daunting in size, but there will always be come customers that shy away from the maximum bet, due to the sense of increased risk associated with the amount. You can feel okay about losing 0.05, but when you lose 10 coins, it hits home harder. That being said, the top pay-in enables a greater return on the symbols, with the highest reward being 4,000.

Finding Your Path

There’s always a variety of ways to play a slot machine, and with the gamble option you experience one of two options; play with cards and guess the hidden suit, or hop up and down the ladder of cash. You can experience the two of them throughout one playthrough, but only one of them can be played at a time.

They both have the same level of risk, and they both have up to 140 coins to offer those who make it through the five rounds laid out before you; guess right and you keep progressing to the top of the coin pile.

Going Around in Circles

Roundabout is a standard Merkur slot machine, and for that we’re both grateful and annoyed, for the mechanics of the game have been enhanced and limited by this fact. One of the obvious limiting features is the lack of variance, but one of the enhancements is the diverse betting range.

As a whole the game just about works, but we’d still like to have seen more features, even though we tend to find that less is more with titles of this size and calibre. We’d give this a three star rating, mainly because while decent to play, it lacks depth.