Fire Queen Pokie Machine
Featuring the unusual Double Money Burst payline format, the Fire Queen pokie from WMS Gaming has a layout that takes a bit of getting used to. Although there’s 100 paylines running across the 5 reels, they are spilt into a top layer and bottomlayer, while from the left, reels 1 and 2 contain just 2 symbols each and 3, 4 and 5 are 3 symbols high. Anyone not confused yet will find that this uniquepokieis an action-packed game with expanding wilds, a couple of free spins games and an interesting, if somewhat confusing, design.
Quite what the theme is all about is anyone’s guess, but along with the playing card symbols, there’s mythical creatures, bottles of potion, and the Fire Queen herself, who we guess is a sorceress of some kind, but whatever’s going on, it all looks very dramatic.
Behind the reels is an atmospheric view of a full moon from out of a castle window which doesn’t do much to clear up the theme, while the control buttons are shoved into a corner and this is where players need to decide how much they want to stake per spin. Because all 100paylines are fixed, the low limit bet level is set at 0.50, which may be a little high for some budgets, and the max bet is 100.00 per spin. Fire Queen comes in desktop as well asmobile-optimised versions and can be played with no download needed.
Playing Fire Queen
Reels 1 and 2 actually have each symbol spinning independently, and once all reels are taken into account, there’s 11 of them, which can confuse the issue even further. A look at the pay table explains much of it, and reveals what each symbol is worth in relation to others when 3, 4 or 5 of the same type appear on sequential reels running from the left side.
The usual playing card symbols 10 through to A will turn up quite frequently to make the smaller winning combinations, and there’s a candle, the potion and a magical ring filling the middle ranks of the table. A gold pendant, white flower, flaming horse, phoenix and the Fire Queen take up the top part of the pay table and any symbols that make up a winning line will become surrounded by flame in a nice little animation.
Fire Queen
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Bonus Features
This mysterious Queen, dressed in stylish armour and shooting fire from her hands, is also a wild, so when matching symbols land across a line, but there’s a gap in the row, if the wild is in the right place it will act as any standard symbol to complete the combination.
The wild symbolswon’t be able to substitute for the crystal ball that only appears on the bigger set of reels. This helps to trigger the free spins bonus games, although these won’t start until a couple of things happen at once. If any of the blocks of 4 symbols on the left side become filled with the same type at the same time, players are awarded 5 free games, and the same number will also begin if the crystal ball appears on each of the right-side reels at once.
A second potential way to trigger 20 free spins is by combining 4 matching symbols on the left side and 3 crystal balls on the right reels, and anyone lucky enough to land this combination will not only have the spins, but also a top initial multiplier of 100x the wins. However many spins are awarded, and however they are triggered, there’s some extra features in play throughout, with any symbols that triggered the free games remaining locked in place. Expanding wilds will also help to cover any of the right-side reels that they land on, making it easier to complete high-value lines.
The Verdict
It’s possible to play free Fire Queen video pokie rounds at many online casinos and this could be a good way to get to grips with the complicated reel arrangement and the ways that winning lines are formed. Once players have worked this out, (and it’s not really that difficult), they can start to enjoy some unique bonus features, particularly the free spins where locked symbols and expanding wilds should make this a pretty rewarding round, especially as it can be retriggered from within.
The theme remains a bit of an enigma, and the role of the Fire Queen isn’t really clear. Players probably won’t be too concerned about this however, as it looks good and like all WMS Gaming online pokies, it’s certified for fair play, with decent real cashreturns to players.