Heavy Metal Pokies
Some pokies follow a clear theme, based on a particular subject or story, while some of them, like Heavy Metal, don’t seem to be based on much at all. It’s not themed around rock music, metallic elements that weigh a lot or even the term for large aircraft, as what we have here is a green haired cartoon girl with a gun and bullets making up the majority of the symbols.
But never mind, all it looks OK and follows an established pattern of the 3-reel pokies with 3 paylines that developer Microgaming are experts at producing. These games are fairly straightforward, without the distraction of bonus rounds, so all players need to do is set a bet size, spin the reels and hopefully collect some nice wins as the symbols come to a rest in the right patterns.
The layout is as standard as the gameplay, with the reels in one corner and below them we see the logo along with our heroine in a tight fitting cat-suit and brandishing a big gun. (Maybe that’s the heavy metal of the title?)
The other side of the game is taken up with a payout schedule that shows players what to expect when winning combinations are formed, while details about how the jackpot wins are created can be found at the top of it.
Heavy Metal
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Betting Range
Underneath it all is a series of control buttons that players can use to set the size of their bet per line from 0.25 up to 5.00, while to ensure that they qualify for all winning combinations and the jackpot prize, they can place a bet on just a single line or on each of the 3 paylines.
This adds up to a maximum bet per spin of 15.00, which is fairly low for this type of game and makes Heavy Metal more suited to casual players rather than high stakes gamblers.
Players can also click the Expert button to choose to have the reels spin automatically, stopping after a certain number, when a win of a set size is hit, or when their account balance dips to a certain level.
The payout schedule details how many times the value of a coin will be won when certain combinations stop across an active line. The bullet symbols are labelled with the traditional ‘Bar’ wording and come in single, double and triple versions, with any combination of them landing across a line on all 3 reels being worth 5 coins.
If the single bar icon lands right across a line, players get 10x the coin value, while the double bar is worth 20x and the triple bar 50x.
A silver 7 is the top paying regular symbol, being worth 150x, although if the gun toting girl turns up on the line along with some 7’s, players receive a prize of 75x.
That girl makes up the highest wins when landing right across any of the 3 lines, including an enhanced jackpot on the third one.
If she fills the first line that runs through the centre of the reels, the players get a win equal to 1000 coins, while the second line pays out 2000x. If she lands across the third line however, she’s worth 4000x, which is an incentive to have a bet on all 3 of them, which at the minimum coin value calls for a stake of 0.75 per spin. At maximum bet, 4000x a coin valued at 5.00 equals a nice prize of 20,000.00.
Heavy or a Lightweight?
Heavy Metal may have a slightly confusing theme, but it still looks quite good and with 3 reel pokies, where the themes can be somewhat incidental to the way they play, if the design appeals, then have a go.
It’s unusual that the jackpot symbol can work as a wild to help make up winning combinations, but only with the 7’s, however it’s not a big issue and overall this is simple game to learn and play. All that’s needed is for players to decide how much to stake, how many lines they want to play and then spin the reels to see what happens next.