Mystic Charm

GAMING1 has produced games with a lot of different themes, and many of those you don't see all that often in the online slots industry. This can be a very good thing if time and care is taken to make sure that sufficient effort is put into the slot to make sure that it has strong gameplay and visual elements as well. The Mystic Charm slot is a good example of what happens when an atypical theme meets mediocre graphics and lackluster gameplay, and it's unfortunate because there was definitely a lot of potential to make something special out of this particular theme.

Slot Layout

This game uses five reels with three rows, which is the standard layout for online video slots, but it also uses 10 paylines, which is one of the least common numbers. For this game, it actually helps out a bit for the player since all wins are based on multiples of the total wager. This means if you want to know what the payout would have been if you were using regular line bet wins, then you can do so by simply multiplying the payout by ten.

In terms of actual bet sizes, you can wager from $0.20 to $25 per spin. There are no options to play with fewer paylines or to manipulate individual coin values or the number of coins per payline. We actually prefer the way GAMING1 has handled things with the betting because it's simpler and provides a better understanding of exactly what kind of payouts you're getting for different wins.

The Game's Biggest Payouts

The largest payout in this game is for five of the white horse symbol that looks a lot like a unicorn without the actual horn. It'll get you a 500x win, and keep in mind that this is a multiple of your whole wager. It's the same as a 5,000x line bet payout, which means it's a pretty substantial jackpot. Players can also score 200x for five of the potion or five of the wild woman symbol, which we'll go into more detail on below. Five of the features tied to the dreamcatcher will get you 75x, and the same 75 win is available for five of the purple medallion.

All of these high-paying symbols except for the wild pay for two of a kind or more. This does admittedly help the gameplay by increasing the hit-rate and giving players a lot of smaller wins they wouldn't have received otherwise. While this might not seem like a big deal, they really add up during the course of a session, and that means they could be the difference between having a winning or losing session at the end of the day.

Low-End Symbols and Prizes

One of the worst parts of the graphics for Mystic Charm is the card rank symbols. They are about as ugly as you can get without actually putting active effort into things to make them uglier. They have neon colors that could quite possibly hurt some players' eyes. The A and K symbols pay 15x (like a 150x line bet win), and the Q, J and 10 symbols all pay 10x for five of a kind (like a 100x line bet win). The payouts are bad at all, but there was a real lack of effort put into the visuals here by GAMING1, and this is where it shows the most.

Wild Symbols and Free Spins

An interesting part of the gameplay, and perhaps the most interesting part of the gameplay as a whole, is that the wilds double as a bonus symbol. The wild is the woman with the white hair that you see on the left-hand side of the game under the Mystic Charm title, and she appears on all reels. Three or more will give you a set of 10 free spins. There aren't any extras to make the free spins feature any more exciting than normal spins, and it's clear that a lack of effort went into making the bonus feature something special as well.

Our Thoughts

We really wanted Mystic Charm to be a good game because we thought it had a lot of potential with the atypical theme. Unfortunately, not a lot was done with it, and it's basically another bargain-bin slot that doesn't stand out for anything good that it does, which isn't much. There are some games that we think are kind of average because they don't stand out for anything, but this particular title stands out for a few things that are really bad, like the card rank graphics, the color choices and the lackluster bonus feature. It's rare that you find a game that misses the mark so much in both the gameplay and visual appeal categories, but GAMING1 managed to pull it off in this game, and we recommend that players avoid this title.

Screenshots

players also played

10,001 Nights MegaWays

Rated 4 /5

Software Name Red Tiger Gaming

Theme Arabian, Fairy Tale

Reel 6

Type Video

Review

Play

Cygnus 2

Rated 4 /5

Software Name ELK Studios

Theme Space

Reel 6

Type Video

Review

Play