Wonder 4 Pokie
In todays crowded online pokie market it takes quite a bit of lateral thinking to come up with something truly unique, but that’s exactly what Aussie developer Aristocrat have done with Wonder 4.
Instead of 1 set of reels, we have 4, hence the title, but while other manufacturers have produced 4-reel pokies before, this is the first time the reels have come from separate games, with Fire Light, Pompeii, Buffalo and Wild Splash each playing out in their own corners of the overall game screen.
It sounds more complicated than it looks as each game plays and pays separately, the real tricky bit is that players can decide which games play in which of the 4 positions, so they could for example have 4 different games on the go, or choose to play just a single title in all 4 parts, or any other mix.
Playing Wonder 4
It all starts with a busy-looking screen where players see the 4 games ready to play. But the first duty is to click the ‘Select Games’ button right in the middle which will bring up the title of each one. Clicking on the title and then on the reel positions will adjust the screen format to suit.
Bet sizes will then need to be decided upon, with the minimum being 100 coins which is done by having Pompeii in all positions. That equals 25 coins per game, but the point of Wonder 4 is to see all sorts of different games in action, which costs 135 coins per spin, although players can then adjust the bet size up from there.
Although the bet sizes are bigger, players will often see 2 or more games land winning combinations at once, so they won’t be at a disadvantage and if a bonus round is triggered, players click to start the feature and the game in question will expand across the screen while it plays out, so they won’t be missing out on the extra rounds that each title can award them.
Wonder 4
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Game Outlines
Pompeii is a 25-line game that has Roman coins, daggers, shields and helmets across the reels, with the infamous volcano being a wild symbol that lands on reels 2 and 4 only. If the coin scatter appears in 3 or more positions at once, a free spins game is triggered, with 10, 15 or 20 awarded, depending on the number of scatters that appear.
If the volcano lands on reel 2 or reel 4 during the free games, any winning line that it completes will be multiplied by 3x or 5x respectively, while landing the wild on both reels at once will award a 15x multiplier if they complete a combination.
Anyone playing Buffalo will see various North American creatures landing across the 5 reels, while conventional paylines have been replaced by an any way wins format where matching symbols just need to land on adjacent reels running from the left side to be worth a prize.
Up to 20 free spins are awarded by the scatter symbol and wild substitutions will be multiplied by between 2 and 4 times over. Further free spins can come from just 2 scatters appearing during the bonus round, while 3 or more will again trigger up to 20 of them.
Wild Splash is set in and around a Japanese garden and has symbols of storks, pagodas, bamboo and turtles decorating the 5 reels and 40 lines. Bonus features include wild substitutions and scatter wins, with the free spins games enhanced by stacked wild symbols on the middle 3 reels that can lead to multiple payouts at once.
Fire Light features Aztec drums, idols and warriors, which can line up to bring in big wins, plus a fiery phoenix that awards massive prizes of up to 1000x plus entry to free games. Although only 12 free spins are possible, the odds of getting some nice wins out of them is boosted by having reels 1 and 2 twinned, as are reels 4 and 5, with the wild volcano symbol appearing on reel 3.
The Verdict
Having a unique layout makes this a fascinating game, but perhaps not one for beginners. It can be a little difficult to understand how it all works, but anyone who has played pokies before should get to grips with this one pretty quickly.
Each of the games is of a good quality on their own, so having 4 times the action can lead to lots of wins and bonus rounds, but of course players need to understand that they are placing a bet on each game, so the amount wagered per spin is higher, as are the potential returns.