A review of the Wheel of Wishes slot with Power Mode and Wowpot Jackpot

There is no doubt about it, Microgaming have turned their attention to giving their progressive selection of games a real revamp over the last few months.

We have seen the release of the Mega Moolah powered Mega Vault Millionaire slot for Casino Rewards Network casinos, then we have had the release of another Mega Moolah-linked slot in Atlantean Treasures, and now there's a new kid on the block in the form of the Wheel of Wishes slot.

This slot was developed by Alchemy Gaming for Microgaming and it boasts an entirely new progressive jackpot, of sorts. What they have done is use the Wowpot! progressive from an older game, and give it a radical revamp and massively increase its value. In Wheel of Wishes we have four progressive jackpots, two small, Mini and Minor, while the two large progressives are the Major which is seeded at an amazing 50,000 and the Wowpot! which is now seeded at 2,000,000!

Add to that an ability to play in two different modes, base game and Power Mode, it seems like they have really pushed out the boat in regards to this new slot. So how does it look and play? We decided to take a closer look to find out.

Overview

• Game: Wheel of Wishes
• Developer: Alchemy Gaming (for Microgaming)
• Reels: 5x3
• Pay Lines: 10 (non-selectable)
• Minimum Bet: 0.10 (base game) 1.00 (Power Mode)
• Maximum Bet: 25.00 (base game), 250.00 (Power Mode)
• Jackpot: 500x (base game), 5,000x (Power Mode)
• Free Spins Bonus: No
• Other Bonuses: Yes
• Progressive: Yes
• Volatility: High

Presentation

It's fair to say that the Wheel of Wishes slot has been neatly presented, although the backdrop of an Asian desert is not the most exciting to look at in the base game to be truthful. In Power Mode, the game switches into a nighttime mode and this looks better and the sound also gets a little more exciting which does enhance the game a little.

Overall, the animations in the slot are nicely done and the sound is decent enough and the bonus features are well presented. It is a nice looking slot, but perhaps not as spectacular as some others released in recent times.

What is on the reels?

There are just 12 symbols on the reels in the base game of the Wheel of Wishes slot. The lower value symbols are all based on shapes, the circle and then four playing card shapes, the club, diamond, spade and heart.

Higher value symbols are all linked in with the Arabian theme and include a necklace, some vials of potion, a spell book, a treasure chest and finally a magic lamp. Alongside these symbols are the Wild symbol and the Scatter symbol, which looks like the Jackpot Bonus Wheel that is the feature which awards one of the four progressive jackpots available.

Wild features

The Wild does not feature on any Power Spin, or in Power Mode or indeed on the Jackpot Bonus Wheel, but it is a feature of the base game. The Wild symbol is easy to recognise as it has 'Wild' written large across it.

The symbol is also stacked up to three symbols high on the reels, which means you can land multiple wilds on a single reel and with it being present on all five reels, you can land multiple wilds across all five reels to land some big wins. The Wild is the highest paying of the symbols in the base game offering 50x your total bet if you can land five across a single pay line. Of course, it also acts as a substitute in the base game allowing you to pick up useful wins with other symbols.

Free Spins features

There is no free spins bonus game you can land in the base game (or Power Mode for that matter), but you can land a free Power Spin in the base game. This is achieved by landing two or more of the Scatter symbols on the reels on any one spin (plus you can win a cash prize of up to 500x your total bet if you land between 3 and 5 of these Scatters on the reels on any spin. Land five Scatters and you win the base game jackpot of 500x your bet).

This is essentially one free Power Mode spin which sees the reels change from the standard 5x3 set up into the Power Mode set up of the two outer reels plus one large middle reel (which covers where the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th reels would be). This large middle reel is populated by 3x3 super-sized higher value base game symbols, plus a large Scatter symbol. The Wild and five Lower Value symbols are not included on the reel.

On a Power Spin, the middle reel will spin and the first and fifth reels will all display the same symbol three times on each reel. If you can match that symbol with part or all of the larger symbol on the middle reels, you can land a 5-symbol win across at least one pay line. The more of the 3x3 symbol you land on the reels, the more pay lines you can win across.

However, if you land the Scatter symbol in full on that large middle reel, you will land a shot at playing the Jackpot Bonus Game. This is where the game will load up the Jackpot Bonus Wheel. On this wheel, there are many sectors, each given one of four different colours, that each correspond to one of the four progressive jackpots.

There are obviously more Mini and Minor jackpot sectors than Major and Wowpot! sectors on the reel, and of course to win one of the jackpots you simply spin the wheel and see which colour sector the pointer lands on.

If you are playing in the base game mode, once you have played your Power Spin and either won, lost or triggered the Jackpot Bonus Wheel game, the game will then revert back to base game mode.

If you elect to play in Power Mode, then every spin you play will be a Power Spin, but you will need to pay 10x the standard bet you had selected for the base game in order to play this mode. So if your base game bet was 1.00 for example, then in Power Mode a spin would cost you 10.00. However, you can reduce the coin size in Power Mode to decrease (or increase) the value of the bet.

Best feature of the Wheel of Wishes slot

There's absolutely no doubt that the two big progressive jackpot prizes, the 2 million seeded Wowpot! jackpot and the 50,000 seeded Major jackpot are what is going to draw in a great many players to this slot, but the truth is there is a lot more to it than that and I feel that the ability to play the slot in two game modes, will add huge amounts of appeal to the game as players can decide to play it how they like. The base game mode suits lower stakes gamers far more, Power Mode is more for the medium to high stakes player. Few slots cater so well for players of different types and this flexibility is a real feature of the slot.

Conclusion

If you want a look at what the future of progressive jackpot slot games online looks like, then the Wheel of Wishes slot is precisely that. This is an incredible achievement from Alchemy Gaming and Microgaming, which you can now try for free before you play for real. The slot plays very nicely as a less volatile base game, but you can ramp the action up a great deal to play in Power Mode. Standard game wins are not that huge but there is always the chance of a shot at that massive progressive jackpot prize and this is what will keep people coming back to play. This is a remarkable slot that should, in time, be equally well regarded and as popular as another Microgaming giant, Mega Moolah. You cannot give a new progressive any higher praise than that.

You can play Wheel of Wishes at any of the Mega Moolah casinos.