The legends of King Arthur and his knights of the round table are brought to the 5 reels of Net Ents’ Excalibur video pokie, which features elaborately decorated images of shields, witches, wizards and the sword after which this game is named.
How much of the story is true is anyone’s guess, but it certainly makes for an intriguing game, where some rich bonus rounds and high-paying wilds are waiting to be uncovered on a quest for riches. It’s a colourful game, although perhaps not in the same detailed style that Net Ent have become famous for, but once the symbols start to land across the 20 paylines, and especially once the valuable multipliers are found, few players will be left disappointed.
Up to 120,000 coins can be won at maximum bet, although anyone who doesn’t want to play for real money can just test it out, and then once happy with how it works, place a minimum stake of just 0.01. This activates a single line, so to get all in play, the low limit is 0.20 per spin, while the high limit is set at 400.00, which is quite generous and should make this a suitable game for casual gamblers and high rollers alike. Symbols are arranged in 3 rows and to get a standard win, players will need to see the same type land across an active line in an unbroken sequence from the left side.
The days of old were probably never as nice as the reels of the Excalibur video pokie, which are surrounded by an ornate framework complete with a couple of candles to light up proceedings. The sword Excalibur was pulled from a stone by Arthur and accompanied him on his many adventures, including the hunt for the Holy Grail, and when he died it was thrown into a lake where the Lady of the Lake dragged it down to the depths. All of these are events are featured on the various symbols of this online casino pokie, but for anyone not into the story, it still looks good.
The playing card symbols are all presented on shields with crests above and at the bottom end of the pay scale, the 10 is valued at 2x the line bet when it stops on an active payline on reels 1 and 2, while this rises to a win of 100x when it runs right across the reels. J, Q, K and A symbols are worth progressively more and then the various characters will pay out the top wins.
A black knight, Morgana the witch, the Lady of the Lake, Sir Galahad and Guinevere, and Merlin the Magician all make appearances, but biggest wins in standard play are found when King Arthur fills a line, with 3, 25, 100, or 750x the line bet awarded for 2, 3, 4 or 5 of this guy across a line.
Gamblers will find that by far the biggest wins of all come from the Excalibur wild symbol which is worth from 5x to a huge 10,000x when it runs across an active line. It will also substitute for others to help complete winning combinations and even doubles the base value when it does so.
A second golden wild, which is basically the same image of Excalibur in the stone, but coloured gold, will also act as all other symbols apart from the scatter, and quadruple any winlines that it helps to complete, but doesn’t have any value of its own.
The Holy Grail is another valuable symbol, paying out 2, 5, 25 or 500x the total stake per spin when it lands anywhere in 2, 3, 4 or 5 places at once. Any 3 will also trigger 10 free spins, while 4 of them awards 20 bonus games and 30 spins will begin if 5 scatters appear at once. Any wins in this round will be multiplied by 3x, and the bonus games can be retriggered by 3 Grails landing again, with the new games beginning as soon as any left in the current round have finished.
There are a number of pokies online that cover a similar topic, and while Excalibur is a good example, perhaps it isn’t as visually appealing as many games from the same developer. That aside, it’s a fair and reliable pokie that has a good return to player percentage and some fun bonuses.
It’s also got the potential to pay out some massive prizes, with a 10,000x reward for a full line of wild symbols being particularly worthy of note, so anyone happy with the overall design should certainly test it out at an online casino that carries the Net Ent range.