Pandora’s Box Pokies
In Greek mythology Pandora was the first woman and she was given a jar containing all the evils of the world, which she opened and everything went pear-shaped after that. Hopefully players spinning the reels of the Pandora’s Box video pokie from Net Ent will have a much better experience when they land symbols inspired by the story and trigger bonuses such as wild symbols that multiply any wins that they help to create and a free spins round which also has tripled winnings.
The Greek Gods are a popular choice of topic for online casino games developers and Net Ent have done this one to their usual high quality, decorating the reels with columns covered in grapevines, while statues of the Gods top them off and the game title is carved into a typically Greek relief.
Players can try out free Pandora’s Box video pokies, or enjoy real cash awards by staking just 0.20 on a spin, activating all 20 paylines and winning multiples of the amount staked on each when 3 or more of the same symbol stop on adjacent reels across a line from the left side. The high limit per spin is 80.00 which should be plenty for most people.
Playing Pandora’s Box
The high card symbols are in a stone effect and the lowest value 10 only has to be on the first 2 reels of a line to be worth a small prize of 2x, while landing it right across the game will pay out 100x. J, Q, K and A symbols are each worth more but gamblers will need at least 3 of a kind to win anything, while the higher value symbols are all unique images taken from the story.
Black olives are worth 10, 50 or 200x the line bet when stopping on 3, 4 or 5 reels, then we have grapes, a Greek urn, a lyre and a golden shield all paying out higher and higher rewards. The top standard symbol is a soldier’s helmet which is another that only has to be on reels 1 and 2, returning 3 coins to players for this combination and a maximum of 750 when it fills a line.
There’s 2 wild symbols in this game, each of which works slightly differently. Both feature an unhappy looking Zeus and the blue-tinted wild will be worth up to 10000x when it fills a payline, while it’s also able to substitute for any others, apart from the other wild and scatter, if it can then complete a winning combination, doubling the base value when it does so. The second wild is the same picture but in a golden shade and it’s not worth anything on its own but will quadruple any winlines that it completes when it stops on the middle reel.
Pandora’s Box
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Free Spins Bonus
Although the original myth referred to a jar, Net Ent have gone with a picture of Pandora opening a small box which clearly contains some bad stuff because she’s looking a bit shocked by the contents. Actually, it looks like a laptop, so maybe someone hadn’t deleted their search history, but never mind, what’s important to us is that it’s a valuable scatter symbol which pays out 2x the total stake when landing in any 2 places on the reels.
If she’s on 3 reel positions, players get a win of 5x the stake, followed by 10 free spins, while 4 of the scatters is worth 25x and then 20 spins will play out. If Pandora turns up in 5 places at once, the top prize of 500x the triggering bet is awarded, and then there’s 30 bonus games to follow. Although a standard mix of symbols is used and the chances of getting a win are the same as in the base game, any time a winline is formed, the value is tripled, including any made by wild substitutions which will now become very valuable.
The free spins can be retriggered from within the round, so it’s possible that players will get lots more bonus games added on, although by no means guaranteed.
The Verdict
This is an attractive pokie that has some decent winning potential, especially with those valuable wilds and free spins games. It’s not exactly ground-breaking but nor does it need to be, as punters will be at the reels of a high-quality machine that’s reliable and has a good return to player ratio.
We particularly like the wild multipliers although having two wilds seems a bit over the top, but as they each pay out some great prizes, it’s really not an issue. The fact that the Pandora’s Box video pokie isn’t mobile optimised could be an issue to some people, but this is about all we could find wrong with it.