Wheel of Wishes vs Mega Moolah vs Mega Vault Millionaire: Comparison

For a very long time now, Mega Moolah has been the king of the progressive jackpot games in the Microgaming Progressive Network.

The famous slot, is well into its second decade of operation and it shows no sign of slowing down in popularity, with 79,485,955.61 in Mega Jackpots paid out to 12 winners just in 2019 - and that's excluding Major, Minor and Mini jackpots, which all together would easily surpass the 100 million mark. No other jackpot slot comes even close to these figures!

Seeing the popularity of the Mega Moolah slot grow over the years (thanks to the meticulous work from us at MegaMoolah.com) Microgaming may have decided to develop more jackpot games. And that's exactly what has happened; these games are the Casino Rewards-exclusive Mega Vault Millionaire slot, which was released to great acclaim in the autumn of 2019, and the brand new forthcoming progressive jackpot slot, Wheel of Wishes, which is set to be released at some time in early 2020.

So the question is, which will come on top of the progressive jackpot slot market for Microgaming? What better way to answer that than by taking a look at how each of these three games compare across a number of crucial categories that are fundamental to the success of a progressive jackpot slot.

With that in mind we are going to take a look at how the slots compare in terms of:

• Theme & Presentation
• Cost to Play
• Base Game
• Wild Symbols
• Bonus Features
• Progressive Jackpots
• Overall Game-Play Experience

We will also rank each of the three slots first, second or third and then tally up the points to give you our impression over which of the trio of big Microgaming slots is the one that we think will start to rule the roost over the coming year and beyond.

Let's begin with a look at our first category, the theme and how it is presented on each of the slots.

Theme and presentation

• Mega Moolah - African Safari Theme (5x3 reels, 25 pay lines)
• Mega Vault Millionaire - Bank Vault Theme (5x3 reels, 25 pay lines)
• Wheel of Wishes - Arabian Nights Theme (5x3 reels 10 pay lines)

In truth, there's little difference between Mega Vault Millionaire and Wheel of Wishes in terms of presentation. Both have a similar backdrop, similar quality of animations and symbols and display the key information about the slot in an easily accessible way.

Where Wheel of Wishes may just edge ahead of the other two is that you can elect to play the slot in a different mode (Power Mode), which is much more expensive (10x the standard bet), but which gives you easy access to the bonus features and for me, this just about puts this ahead when it comes to the presentation.

In terms of sound, all three slots are very similar in quality. I do feel the sound on both Mega Vault Millionaire and Wheel of Wishes is very good however and it is hard to separate the two on this fact alone.

So in terms of presenting itself and the theme, I feel Wheel of Wishes just about edges out Mega Vault Millionaire, and Mega Moolah.

1. Wheel of Wishes - 3 points
2. Mega Vault Millionaire - 2 points
3. Mega Moolah - 1 point

Cost to play

• Mega Moolah - 0.25 - 6.25 per spin
• Mega Vault Millionaire - 0.25 - 6.25 per spin
• Wheel of Wishes - 0.10 to 25.00 per spin (base game) 1.00 to 250.00 per spin (Power Mode)

Both Mega Moolah and Mega Vault Millionaire are easily accessible to play and offer great value spins from just 0.25 a spin up to 6.25 a spin, which makes these two slots ideal for lower to medium stakes players.

However, the new Wheel of Wishes slot sees bets start at just 0.10 per spin, which will be of real interest to micro stakes players, and you can increase the size of your bet much further up to 25.00 per spin in the base game. Those figures increase by tenfold if you decide to play the game in Power Mode.

This leaves us with the somewhat unusual situation in that the Wheel of Wishes slot can be the cheapest but also the most expensive to play, depending on how much you bet and what mode you play, while Mega Moolah and Mega Vault Millionaire share the same price range. For me, the wide range of Wheel of Wishes though means that this slot is more likely to appeal to a wider range of players, including higher rollers.

1. Wheel of Wishes - 3 Points
2. Mega Moolah & Mega Vault Millionaire - 2 points each

Base game

• Mega Moolah - 3000x base game jackpot
• Mega Vault Millionaire - 3000x base game jackpot
• Wheel of Wishes - 500x base game jackpot

When it comes to the base game, it is fair to say that all three games play very similarly. You can tell the Mega Moolah slot is an older game as the graphics and animations on the slot are not quite on par with the other games, but it is still an eminently enjoyable and playable slot.

What is notable here though is that both Mega Moolah and Mega Vault Millionaire both offer considerably higher potential cash prizes than the newer Wheel of Wishes base game. That is a purposely made choice however with Alchemy Gaming deciding to make Wheel of Wishes base game a little less volatile than other progressives.

The net result is a base game jackpot of just 500x your bet, whereas on both Mega Moolah and Mega Vault Millionaire, you can rack up a base game jackpot worth 3,000 times your bet (or 75,000 coins if you prefer).

You may win more frequently in the Wheel of Wishes base game but the lower value of these wins means that this slot doesn't quite capture the imagination like the other two.

1. Mega Moolah & Mega Vault Millionaire - 3 points each
2. Wheel of Wishes - 2 points

Wild symbols

• Mega Moolah - Wilds across all 5 reels (600x your total bet in winnings)
• Mega Vault Millionaire - Wilds across all 5 reels (50x your total bet in winnings)
• Wheel of Wishes - Wilds across all 5 reels (50x your total bet in winnings)

All three games have a Wild symbol on the reels, but when it comes to the relative value of each, it is clear that the Mega Moolah slot has the edge. The famous Lion Wild has been the saviour for many players over the years and the fact you can win up to 600x your stake from landing five of these symbols across the reels makes it a great value option in the base game.

Both Mega Vault Millionaire and Wheel of Wishes also have Wild symbols across all five reels, although their value is somewhat less as they pay out just 50x your total bet in maximum winnings and with just 10 pay lines in Wheel of Wishes, the Wild's value is diminished still further. As such, Mega Vault Millionaire takes second spot, with the new slot on the block finishing third.

1. Mega Moolah - 3 points
2. Mega Vault Millionaire - 2 points
3. Wheel of Wishes - 1 point

Bonus features

• Mega Moolah - Up to 15 Retriggerable Free Spins (9000x jackpot -225,000 coins)
• Mega Vault Millionaire - Up to 15 Retriggerable Free Spins (9000x jackpot)
• Wheel of Wishes - Power Spins (1 Free Spin if triggered in base game, 1000x jackpot), 10x the standard bet if played in Power Mode (1000x jackpot)

We are now getting into the key aspects of all three games and we begin with the main bonus features of each slot. On Mega Moolah and Mega Vault Millionaire, this is a retriggerable Free Spins bonus round, with up to 15 Free Spins available to be won and a jackpot of 9,000x your total bet (or 225,000 coins) available to be won on each game. That is a sizeable prize alone, especially if you are playing more than the minimum bet on either game.

On Wheel of Wishes, the main bonus is the Power Spins option and if triggered in the base game you can earn one free power spin, which could see you land a jackpot of 1,000x your bet. If you elect to play in Power Mode then the cost per spin is 10x your standard bet on each spin, but in this mode the value of any wins you land will be greater (as every win will be at least one full line of five symbols and in some wins you can trigger these maximum wins across multiple lines).

While the Power Spins are a good move, they are a little expensive to play for some players and there is no doubting that Free Spins remains one of the most popular, if not THE most popular bonus you can have on any slot. As such, that is what tips the balance in the favour of the first two slots on the list.

1. Mega Moolah & Mega Vault Millionaire - 3 points
2. Wheel of Wishes - 2 points

Progressive jackpots

• Mega Moolah - Mini, Minor, Major and Mega Jackpots (Seed amounts - 10, 100, 10,000 and 1,000,000)
• Mega Vault Millionaire - Mini, Minor, Major and Mega Jackpots (Seed amounts - 10, 100, 10,000 and 1,000,000)
• Wheel of Wishes - Mini, Minor, Major and Wowpot Jackpots (Seed amounts - 10, 100, 50,000 and 2,000,000)

There's no beating about the bush when it comes to the progressive jackpots here. Mega Vault Millionaire and Mega Moolah both have four jackpot prizes with the top two being 10,000 and 1,000,000 in value.

However, in addition to sharing the same value lower progressive prizes, the new Wheel of Wishes slot has a Major jackpot that is seeded at five times more than the comparable jackpot on the other slots, and a Wowpot jackpot that is seeded at double the amount of the Mega Moolah prize fund, which the Mega Vault Millionaire slot shares.

In short, if you want the big money prizes, then Wheel of Wishes is the slot to play and it wins this section by a comfortable distance. Having said that, the Wheel of Wishes is still untested in this arena and we do not know how it will start to pay out. Therefore we must give all three games equal points on this one.

1. Wheel of Wishes, Mega Moolah & Mega Vault Millionaire - 3 points

Overall game-play experience

Of course, it is one thing rating slots by how their different components rank against each other, but it is also very important how these different facts of the game all click together to give you an overall feeling for the slot.

For me, while there is no doubt that the two newer games Mega Vault Millionaire and Wheel of Wishes are very polished, I feel that the original Mega Moolah is still the slickest of the two. That may well be down to it being more familiar and over time, I may find myself preferring one or both of the other two games, but for now, I think Mega Moolah is the more satisfying experience of the three slots, although in truth, it is very close between the three games.

1. Mega Moolah - 3 points
2. Wheel of Wishes - 2 points
3. Mega Vault Millionaire - 1 point

Player accessibility

It is worth noting that the Mega Moolah-powered Mega Vault Millionaire is almost equal of those two massive slots, although it is worth noting also that this game is only available at Casino Rewards casinos. This means Mega Vault Millionaire can only be played at a handful of casinos. Mega Moolah and Wheel is Wishes are not restricted in this way and both are available at all Microgaming casinos.

1. Wheel of Wishes, Mega Moolah - 3 points
2. Mega Vault Millionaire - 2 points

Final rankings

1. Mega Moolah - 21 points
2. Wheel of Wishes - 19 points
3. Mega Vault Millionaire - 17 points

The final results shows that Mega Moolah, due to it's proven track record of jackpot wins, has to be the winner here. Certainly Wheel of Wishes, with those expanded higher value progressive prizes, has the potential to be an amazing game, but Mega Moolah has proven to be exactly that over the years.

In truth, whatever of these three brilliant progressives you play you are sure to have a fantastic time, you could win some money and if the luck is really with you, you could also land a life-changing win! Sign up to a top Microgaming casino today!