Winning Wheels Pokie Machine
Themed around motor sports, Winning Wheels sees symbols of drivers, spanners, chequered flags and champagne bottles whizzing around its 3 reels to score payouts of up to 500x the triggering bet, while a series of car wheels will take players through to a bonus game that can bring them loads of extra rewards.
Released by Microgaming, Winning Wheels is a classic example of their 3 reel range and is yet another example of why this developer is at the forefront of the online casino games business.
Racing Reels
A dazzling collection of features, symbols, images and payouts are all thrown onto the main screen of Winning Wheels, which certainly makes it eye-catching, but also a little overwhelming for a few moments. Once players have got an idea of what the game is all about however, it’s all fairly straightforward and sees a range of symbols spinning round 3 reels, with payouts coming from landing 3 of a kind across a single win line.
Bets can range from as little as 0.10 to as much as 10.00 and the symbols below the reels indicate how many times the stake can be won, with 2 matching symbols of any kind being worth 1x and the spanners across the line being worth 2x.
Next up in value is the chequered flag that pays out 4x the stake, with racing helmets having a value of 5x and the red 7’s paying out 8x. A gold Bar symbol rewards 10x, while the double Bar returns 20x to players, with the champagne bottles having a payout of 40x.
The most valuable symbols are the dark-haired driver, looking much like Dick Dastardly for those of us old enough to remember the Wacky Races cartoon and he’s worth 80x the stake, but players who get the good-guy driver across the line on all 3 reels will win the jackpot of 500x.
Winning Wheels
Unable to connect to MySQL: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] No such file or directory
Bonus Board Game
Some symbols are accompanied by bronze, silver or gold wheels and these are the key to unlocking a bonus game. A grid of wheels can be seen to the left of the main reels and once a line of 3 of a kind has been completed, players are taken to a second screen where they will see a board game and an image of the drivers, pit lane girls and the race track.
The aim of this is simple, get around the board by spinning the racing wheel in the middle and collect rewards along the way. Each win can either be collected, or players can opt for another spin to head further along and hopefully land on bigger prizes, but there are several ‘Engine Failure’ spots that end the round, so it can be risky.
Each spot on the board has been given a fun name to go with the racing theme, so players could find themselves landing on the Super Charger, Hot Rod, Speed Demon, Burning Rubber or Tear It Up sections.
Other rewards come at random, with Nudges and Holds being popular features across much of the Microgaming range. In the Nudge game, players can move a reel up or down if they think it can complete a winning line, while Holds are exactly what they sound like, with 1 or 2 reels held in place as any remaining ones spin again.
The Verdict
Winning Wheels may be a little over-complicated to look at, but the gameplay is potentially quite rewarding and the bonus round is a fun diversion. This is an older game, and in some of the animations, or lack of them, it shows, however, hopefully this shouldn’t put players off what is an all-round quality pokie from a respected developer.