Forest Band Pokie
The title of this online casino pokie from EGT may lead players to think that it’s all about a bunch of musicians in among the trees, but it’s actually themed around the adventures of Robin Hood and his merry men. While EGT specialize in classic dice or fruit-based machines, when they design a game around a specific subject they usually hit the bullseye, and the Forest Band video pokie is a fantastic-looking game, where beautifully rendered images of the main characters, like Maid Marion and Robin are joined by bags of coins, birds of prey and a valuable castle symbol.
Played across 5 reels, there’s 20 paylines running through them and wins come from landing the same symbol across a line on adjacent reels from the left side, although a couple of bonus symbols like wilds and scatters can change that a little. On top of these, players can be awarded free spins with extra winning chances, as well as the opportunity to double each win, and even scoop a progressive jackpot in a randomly-triggered side game.
With luck, players can rob from the rich with bets as low as 0.20, while the maximum wager is set at a high limit of 400 per spin, but free Forest Band video pokies are available for those who want to test things out first.
Playing Forest Band
The smaller wins will come from the standard playing card symbols, starting at the bottom with the J, Q and K that are all worth 10, 20 or 50 coins when landing on 3, 4 or 5 reels across a line, and the A pays out 10, 40 or 100.
A horn and Robins’ pointy hat, complete with a blue feather in it, are both valued at 20, 50 or 150 coins, while the bag of cash that Robin is hopefully hand out to everyone, along with the bird are each worth 50, 125 or 400. Then we move up to the beautiful Maid Marion who only has to land on reels 1 and 2 to pay out 10 coins and if she appears right across a line, the reward is equal to 750.
Robin is the main star, and this handsome chap returns the top winnings of between 10 and 1000 coins depending on how many reels he lands across on a payline.
Forest Band
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Bonus Features
Although it isn’t worth anything on its own, the castle is a wild symbol that can help to complete lines of any standard symbols, either filling in any missing spots across a payline, or stretching a win across additional reels. It won’t land on reel 1, and it won’t be able to substitute for the scatter symbol that’s the picture of an arrow and target.
The scatter lands on reel 1, 3 and 5 only, but when it stops in any 3 positions on them, players are awarded 100 coins and then given 10 free spins. A useful wild feature is in play throughout these, where any time the wild turns up it will stay in place for any remaining bonus games, which in theory, should make it increasingly likely that players get more wins as the spins play out.
Gamble Feature
Like all EGT pokies, there’s the option to gamble wins, with players able to double a prize if they correctly predict if a playing card will be from a red or black suit. There’s the further option to collect the doubled win or try to double it again, but getting any wrong pick at any stage loses the triggering bet along with any gains made in the gamble round so far.
Jackpot Cards
Eagle-eyed players will have seen 4 progressive jackpots featured above the reels, in rising values from the small Club award, through Diamonds and Hearts to the best Spade prize. A randomly-triggered Jackpot Cards round takes fortunate gamblers through to a second screen where 12 face-down playing cards are shown and once 3 of the same suit have been found, the jackpot connected to it is paid out.
It's guaranteed that players will win one of these jackpots, and because the potential is there for a major win, it won’t be triggered that often.
The Verdict
This pokie machine certainly looks good, and with a couple of interesting bonus features, along with the good return to player percentage that all EGT pokies have, it plays nicely as well. There’s a couple of minor issues, the main one being that it isn’t mobile-optimised, and some people may be put off by the 0.20 minimum stake, but otherwise, it’s an attractive and potentially rewarding game.