Moon Drifter Pokie
Moon Drifter is an atmospheric online pokie from Aristocrat that features a mysterious cowboy character, (or maybe an assassin, who knows?), along with horseshoes, knives, spurs and a cattle skull.
In common with most pokies from this Aussie developer, it comes complete with bonus features, which in this case include wild substitutions and a free spins game which can bring up to 3,125 lines into play for lots of winning chances.
An image of a desert landscape at night, with a huge Moon above it sets the theme of this classy game that has 5 reels of wild western action to experience.
Spurring into Action
While the background image is undeniably set in the American desert, the reels themselves add to the overall ambience by looking as if they are made from Demin, but of course it’s the symbols that spin on them that are most important.
Lower value symbols are the classic 9, 10, J, Q, K and A taken from playing cards, which makes it clear what each is worth in relation to each other. The lowest-paying are the 9 and 10 which are worth 5x, 10x or 50x the bet per reel when 3, 4 or 5 stop on adjacent reels running from the left side.
The K and A therefore, are the most valuable of the card symbols, with prizes of 10x, 25x or 75x, while the picture symbols that are specifically designed for this pokie make up the higher end of the paytable.
First up is the horseshoe, with the spurs and skull next, all topped off by the crossed daggers which pay 5x when just 2 appear and players win 30x, 50x and 300x for lines of 3, 4 or 5 in any positions on reels next to each other.
Moon Drifter
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Bonus Bonanza
The shadowy hero of this game looks like a cross between Zorro and the Guy Fawkes mask worn by members of Anonymous. He’s one of the good guys however, as he’s a wild symbol, landing on reels 2, 3 and 4 where he can substitute for other main symbols to complete winning lines.
The other bonus comes from landing the cattle brand scatter symbol, which works its magic by paying out 2x the total bet when landing on reels 1, 2 and 3 at once, it will then take players to the free spins bonus game, where they can claim some impressive rewards thanks to a More Power feature.
In normal play, there are 243 ways for the symbols to line up for a win, in what Aristocrat call Reel Power. However, in the 10 free spins that are awarded, a red rose symbol will appear and if between 5 and 9 land, the reels turn to Xtra Reel Power mode where there’s 1024 potential winning combinations over 4 rows rather than 3.
Should 10 or more be collected, the game switches to Super Reel Power and players will enjoy 3,125 ways over 5 rows, which should lead to win after win, although getting the 10th rose symbol on the final spin of the round would be pretty frustrating.
There’s extra wilds on the reels to make things a bit more interesting and any reel that contains one will turn fully wild, so even if players don’t manage to collect enough rose symbols, they should still be in line for some regular payouts during the bonus game.
If 3 more scatters appear, the round is re-triggered but only with 3 spins, so there’s not a lot of chance to collect 10 roses.
The Verdict
Moon Drifter has an interesting theme, which perhaps isn’t exploited to the full but looks nice none the less. Of more interest perhaps, are the winning potentials and while the base game should see some nice payouts from the 243 ways to line up symbols, it’s really the bonus game where the major action takes place.
This can be a highly rewarding round to trigger, although unlike other Aristocrat pokies which have a similar feature, players are limited to just the 10 spins and the potential for another 3, so it’s perfectly possible to get the 10th rose on the final spin, which isn’t much good to anyone.
But the extra wild reels should be a reasonable consolation, so anyone quick off the draw will find this a passable pokie with a nice theme and the potential for multiple winning spins.