Wheel of Wishes slot: Game mechanics and game-play explained?

The imminent release of Microgaming's new Wheel of Wishes progressive jackpot slot, complete with its 2 million seeded top progressive jackpot prize, has certainly got the slot world excited.

It is genuinely rare that a provider will release a slot that breaks the mould for what is possible for slot games, but that is precisely what Alchemy Gaming, who developed the game exclusively for Microgaming, have done.

Of course, the big focus on this new slot, which is scheduled to be released in early 2020, is that massive progressive jackpot prize fund, which is seeded at double the amount you can find on the Mega Moolah slot or the Mega Vault Millionaire slot. Many experts believe that dependent on a number of factors, there is going to be significant potential for the Wheel of Wishes slot to see jackpot prizes at least matching and if not bettering the big wins that have occurred over the years on the Mega Moolah slot.

And one of those was confirmed by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest ever online slot win!

However, what is less well understood is how the Wheel of Wishes slot is going to be set up to facilitate this and how the game play will echo that structure to ensure that some massive jackpot prizes will be won.

So in this article, we are going to look in a little more detail about these hidden yet crucial elements of the slot, namely how the game mechanics have been set up and how the game play plays out for players trying their hand on the Wheel of Wishes slot.

However, before we do, we should add a small caveat here in that as with any new game, it hasn't been possible for us to put in the hours and hours of game play and research required in order to make a clearer judgement on how the slot will play out. What we have done is used a number of sources to corroborate what we have found when trialling the game, including official release information from the game by Microgaming and Alchemy Gaming.

Wheel of Wishes Game Mechanics

It makes sense to start with the mechanics of the Wheel of Wishes slot as these are effectively the engine that drives the game. You may not be aware of them, but it is how the slot is set up and the processes it goes through that create the slot experience that you get when you hit the spin button and in that respect, you can see why having strong mechanics are key for the game.

What is interesting here is that although on appearance, the Wheel of Wishes slot shares a number of similarities with games like Major Millions or Mega Moolah (it's a 5x3 reel progressive slot and in the case of Mega Moolah, it has four progressive jackpot prizes), the actual mechanics that drive the game are very different to the two older progressive games.

Alchemy Gaming, in their bio on their website, do make a statement about being very interested in the mathematics behind a slot game and it is clear that they have used this to help create the Wheel of Wishes slot. So while on the face of it, you simply have another 5x3 reel progressive, Wheel of Wishes is actually very different to the other games, chiefly due to how the game has been put together.

First off, Wheel of Wishes is not the highest variance progressive slot you will play. Traditionally, progressive jackpot games have been generally high variance, but Wheel of Wishes tends to see a lot more mid to lower value wins. That doesn't mean it is a low variance progressive by any means, but it does mean that you do get more lower value wins when you play.

That is important because this slot seems to have been set up for players to enjoy over the longer term and those small wins will help keep your bankroll topped up so that you can come back another day and try for that elusive jackpot prize once again.

Another thing to note is the progressive jackpot prize. On Mega Moolah, the progressive jackpot game can be triggered at random on any spin. On the Wheel of Wishes slot, you have to play through the slot in order to unlock the progressive jackpot bonus. Chiefly by earning a Power Spin and then landing the large Power Spin Scatter symbol on the big middle reel.

Therefore, triggering the Power Spin bonus is key and one nice aspect of the slot is that you can trigger this on every spin, by using the Power Mode button. This does see your total bet increase in size by 10x the standard amount though, so it is a feature which you need to be able to afford to use, especially if you are looking at a longer session.

However, the benefit of using it is that every spin in Power Mode means that you could trigger the progressive jackpot game. For me though, this is a feature which is set up more for higher stakes players to use as it can be prohibitive for mid to lower stakes players.

Using the Power Mode does make the game much more volatile, whereas the base game mode as standard is much less and costs less to play. So it is finding the balance between the two, based on how you enjoy playing progressives, that is the key to enjoying all that Wheel of Wishes has to offer.

What has been mentioned is that the Wheel of Wishes slot has been set up so that it is easier to trigger the main bonus features of the slot. Now, make of that what you will but that doesn't mean that it is going to be easier to win the top progressive jackpot prize than on other progressive slots.

In truth, we will only get a good idea of how the mechanics really work on the Wheel of Wishes slot once lots of players have played the game for a good while and we can see how often those big money winners are being triggered.

Wheel of Wishes Game Play

The way that the Wheel of Wishes slot is set up means that essentially you have a choice of two options to play the game. Firstly, the cheaper option is the standard base game, which is less volatile, cheaper to play but means not every spin is a Power Spin and so your chances of landing a shot at a progressive jackpot on each spin are going to be less.

The other is the much more volatile Power Mode, which is the most expensive way but which sees every spin a Power Mode spin and this means you can trigger the jackpot bonus game on every spin, however it does come at a cost of 10x the standard bet.

I think this is clear that Alchemy Gaming and Microgaming have worked hard to ensure that there are options for players that enjoy lower variance slots, as well as higher variance games as well as to suit the different bankroll levels. Wheel of Wishes is set up so that depending on which mode you can play, you should find the game suits your needs.

The best way though to experience the game mechanics and the game play on the Wheel of Wishes slot is to head on over to your favourite casino and load up the game, deposit some cash and enjoy a few spins yourself to see what the fuss is about.

Who knows, maybe if you do, you could be the first winner of that enticing 2 million seeded progressive jackpot prize!

Where to play the Wheel of Wishes slot?

You can play the Wheel of Wishes slot at any of the MegaMoolah.com casinos!