Wheel of Wishes Progressive
The Wheel of Wishes slot, complete with its massively revamped and huge Wowpot progressive prize has jackpot players excited.
Although Microgaming had released a relatively new progressive jackpot slot, Mega Vault Millionaire, in the months leading up to the release of Wheel of Wishes, that slot was a Casino Rewards Exclusive and it was linked to the existing Mega Moolah progressive network.
Wheel of Wishes was different as Microgaming and the game producers, Alchemy Gaming, utilised the former Wowpot Jackpot prize from the slot of the same name, but increased its value greatly, now seeding the jackpot at a staggering 2 million. Double the amount of the Mega Moolah slot. Learn more about the Wheel of Wishes slot.
Of course, when any new slot is released it is always interesting to see the reaction but it has been almost 15 years since a slot that could be compared to Mega Moolah in size and scope has been released by Microgaming, so of course there is immense interest in what the Wheel of Wishes slot has to offer.
| Amount Won | Time | Date |
|---|---|---|
| 69,811.25 | 06:31 UTC | 14/09/2024 |
| 908,125.32 | 18:01 UTC | 12/07/2024 |
| 9,512,721.63 | 19:01 UTC | 29/05/2024 |
| 10,490,658.20 (Total) | ||
So, with that in mind, we are going to take a closer look at the game in this review, how the base game works and how players can give themselves a shot of winning one of the four progressive jackpot prizes available in the game, including that massive Wowpot jackpot prize.
Recent Jackpots won on the Wheel of Wishes Progressive
The table below outlines each of the Wowpot Jackpot wins on the Wheel of Wishes slot displaying the amount won, time and date of the jackpot.
(Jackpot table coming soon)
The default currency for the Wheel of Wishes slot is, as is customary on all Microgaming progressive jackpot games, the British Pound. There is a good reason for that and that is that historically the British Pound has tended to be the strongest currency, in terms of value when compared across other currencies you can play Microgaming slots in.
By that we mean that £1 is worth more in comparative terms than a US dollar or a Canadian, or a New Zealand dollar or a Euro. That means that regardless of what currency a jackpot is won in, the British Pound balance can be converted to cover that full amount, often with a significant amount remaining in the prize fund to go towards the next big jackpot prize.
We know that the Wheel of Wishes slot has a Wowpot jackpot that is seeded at 2 million, but there are also three other progressive jackpot prizes available in the game. These are the Mini jackpot (which is seeded at 10.00), the Minor (which is seeded at 100.00) and the Major (which is seeded at a sizeable 50,000).
So the question is, how can you stand a chance of winning these jackpot prizes and this is where the Wheel of Wishes slot differs from games like the Mega Moolah slot or the Mega Vault Millionaire slot in that chances to land this jackpot are randomly awarded on any spin, regardless of the outcome of that spin on the reels. As in Wheel of Wishes, you trigger a shot at the jackpot prizes by working your way through the base game and the main bonus feature of the slot as we will explain below.
The main game for Wheel of Wishes is based on an Arabian theme, particularly on the notion of the genie and the magic lamp from the Arabian Nights stories. Set against the backdrop of a desert, the slot has 5 reels in play and 10 pay lines. Spins start at just 0.10 per spin, which also makes it one of the cheapest of Microgaming progressive jackpot games to play.
The base game is pretty much your standard slot game, with a range of wins available in the base game. The game mechanics are such that this is a likely to be a little less volatile than some other progressive jackpot slot games. Win sizes are small and the fact that you have Wilds across the reels, means that you are likely to win smaller amounts more often, and this fact is corroborated in the Free Play version of the Wheel of Wishes slot.
This is something of a change in dynamic for progressive jackpot games which, traditionally, have been higher variance games offering fewer wins.
While base game wins in Wheel of Wishes are relatively common, they are not the largest and it is in triggering the main bonus feature of the slot, the Power Spins feature, that things start to get a bit more exciting.
You can elect to trigger the Power Spin bonus on every spin by selecting Power Mode before you spin. This will increase the value of your spin to 10x the standard amount (so if your standard bet was 0.10, then in Power Spin mode, your bet would be 1.00) but it does mean every spin you play on the slot is a Power Spin.
If you elect to play the standard base game on the Wheel of Wishes slot, then you launch a Power Mode spin by landing two of the Power Mode Scatters on the reels on a single spin.
When you do, the reels used change. The middle three reels become one large reel comprising of large symbols each measuring 3x3 symbols wide and high. On your Power Spin, the symbols on the first and fifth reels will all change to display the same single symbol and if the large middle reel can match those symbols, you will win a large cash prize as you will match those symbols across several winning lines.
However, if you manage to land the large Power Spin Scatter on that middle reel in full (that is, all 3x3 of the symbol is visible on screen), then you will trigger the Jackpot Bonus Game and a chance to win one of the four progressive jackpot prizes.
This will be achieved by spinning the eponymous Wheel of Wishes bonus wheel, the outcome of which will decide which of the four progressive jackpot prizes you will take home, the Mini, Minor, Major or that huge Wowpot jackpot bonus.
Change in Game Mechanics from other progressives
There's no doubting that with four progressive jackpot prizes and five reels, many people will feel that Wheel of Wishes is going to be a clone of Mega Moolah, but that is indubitably not the case. The reason for that is that the game mechanics of the Wheel of Wishes slot are very different to that which power Mega Moolah.
On Wheel of Wishes, there is a better chance of landing a shot at the Bonus Spins, with on average one spin in 30 triggering the bonus. That is a far higher trigger rate than on Mega Moolah.
Of course, that doesn't mean that you can spin for 300 spins and expect 10 progressive jackpot wins. On your Power Spins, you can hit non-winning spins, as well as standard bigger value wins and it is this combination of incremental wins, tied in with that massive minimum £2 million top prize, that will have slot players eager to play the game.
It is going to be very interesting to see how the new Wheel of Wishes slot performs over its first few months of release and it is going to be equally interesting to see when the first Wowpot jackpot triggers to make one lucky player a guaranteed double millionaire!
