So Many Monsters Pokies
Cute, colourful and really not very scary at all monsters are the stars of the So Many Monsters pokie from Microgaming, that comes with 5 reels, 25 lines,a free spins round where the player has some options on how they work and a potentially very rewarding Split Symbol feature.
There’s a surprising number of online pokies that have monsters across their reels, so clearly it’s a popular topic and one that Microgaming have covered very well in this example. It lives up to the name by having a background image covered in the critters, although in the game itself they must share the reels with the ubiquitous high card symbols that some players like to see and others think are a bit of a cheat, as the game designers didn’t need to think of as many unique symbols to fill the spaces.
Creature Features
Blues and purples dominate the frames around the reels, with some nice green highlights and a cartoon style which suits the subject matter perfectly. Players should note that the number of lines is fixed at 25, so there’s no option to make a tiny bet just to see how it works, and a look at the control buttons underneath the reels shows the minimum stake to be 0.25.
By adding more coins and making each coin worth more, the amount staked on a spin can be adjusted up to a maximum of 100.00, and a look at the paytable shows how many times the per line stake is won whenever 3 or more matching symbols stop on a line running from left to right.
So Many Monsters
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This paytable also reveals each of the monsters in all their glory, plus there’s information on how the bonus features are triggered and what to do when the free spins begin.
Although the usual 10, J, Q, K and A icons make up the lower part of the payout table, at least they have been given a cartoon look and some bright colours. The higher value symbols are of course the various monsters, who come in all sorts of weird and wonderful forms including a blue furry creature, some kind of bat, a bright green snake-thing, a multi-eyed yellow terror and a horned, red frog-like beast.
The payouts for the monsters is a bit complicated, with multiple values under each and there’s a good reason why. When they make up a winning line, the Split Symbol feature can kick in, resulting in anything from 2 to5 little monsters filling each symbol. A full line of 5 matching monsters across the reels can potentially split into 25 individuals and the paytable reflects this by listing how much will be won for each possible combination.
It may be a little confusing to start with, but it’s a great idea that’s sure to be adopted across more Microgaming titles over time.
Other bonus features are also detailed on the paytable, with the So Many Monsters logo being a wild that will act as all others, apart from the scatter to help complete winning combinations and it’s also a high value symbol when making up a line on its own.
A big eyeball is the scatter for this game, paying out 1x the total stake when 2 pop up on the reels at once, while landing 5 is worth 75x the stake. Any 3 or more will also start a free spins game, with players able to decide if they want fewer spins with a higher potential win, or more spins with smaller maximum payouts.
It kind of evens itself out over time, but all they need to do is pick a monster to have between 8 and 16 spins play out. The monster that they picked will be the only one that appears during the free spins, increasing the odds of getting winning lines and there’s a maximum of 320,000 coins to win if the red frog is picked, but only 8 spins in which to do it, while at the other end, the furry blue guy pays 160,000 at most, but has 16 opportunities to make it happen.
The Verdict
So Many Monsters is a rare thing, an online pokie that manages to do something unique. Having the main symbols split into many more monsters is a fun bonus and as it happens after the reels have stopped spinning, players don’t know how many monsters are actually going to turn up until they stop dividing.
Even without this, it’s a good game, where the free spins round can bring in some impressive wins. Some players will be put off by having the number of lines fixed at 25, but most should enjoy just about everything this pokiehas to offer.