Which Wowpot progressive jackpot slot game is the best to play?

Over the last couple of weeks, the number of Wowpot jackpot slot games has trebled in number. Now we no longer can play for Microgaming's largest seeded jackpot prize of 2 million on just one slot. Instead, players now have a choice of three different games on which to try and land a jackpot prize which at time of writing stands at 6.5 million.

The original slot you could play for the Wowpot progressive jackpot prize was the Wheel of Wishes slot and now there is also the Book of Atem Wowpot and Sisters of Oz Wowpot slots added to that network meaning more choice than ever before for players.

So the question that people are asking themselves is which is the best game of the three to play? Now what the 'best' means to players will be different. Some will want an enjoyable game, some will want a more generous base game to extend the chances their cash will last longer, others may want a more volatile base game with higher value wins to chase.

With that in mind, we have decided to take a comparative view of all three of the Wowpot slot games and give you our impressions of how they shape up against each other. First though, let's give you a quick recap of the exciting Wowpot progressive jackpot and how each of these three games first came into being.

The three Wowpot slots: A brief history

The original Wowpot slot was a very small progressive jackpot game that offered a top progressive prize that ran into single thousand figures (usually between 1,000 and 10,000 in value). However, during 2019, the Wowpot progressive game was suddenly made unavailable on the Microgaming progressive network and speculation rose, especially with the news that Microgaming were making extensive changes to the Mega Moolah progressive network, that something could be being done with Wowpot too.

The answer came in early 2020 with the release of a new game Wheel of Wishes, which featured the now revamped Wowpot progressive jackpot, or rather it featured a total of four progressive jackpots, one of which was the new Wowpot progressive prize.

The prizes are the Mini jackpot (seeded at 10.00), Minor (seeded at 100.00), Major (seeded at 50,000) and lastly the Wowpot (seeded at 2,000,000). This last jackpot set tongues wagging in the progressive jackpot gaming industry as it is the largest prize Microgaming have ever seeded on their progressive network (which has paid out over 1.2 billion in prize money to date).

Since then the Wowpot progressive jackpot has continued to rise and while a number of Major jackpot prizes have been won (at the last count just over 20), the Wowpot has yet to be landed and has climbed above the 6 million mark. See the stats on WheelofWishes.net.

Then in September 2020, the second game in the network was released in the shape of a reworked version of All41 Studios standard slot game Book of Atem, which was tinkered with to feature the Wowpot progressive jackpot prize. Barely a week after the release of that game, the third Wowpot progressive hit casinos with the general release of the eagerly-awaited Sisters of Oz slot from Triple Edge Studios.

The arrival of these new games has already seen an increase in the rate at which the Wowpot is increasing in value and so with three very different but equally exciting games to pick from when playing for the Wowpot progressive jackpot, which one offers players the best option?

To decide that we need to look at how each game is different to the other, but before we do that, let's first point out that there are some similarities between the games and notably in the form of the chances of triggering and landing a shot at the progressive jackpot prizes on offer in the games.

Is there anything that is the same on the three jackpot slots?

While on the face of it the Wheel of Wishes, Book of Atem Wowpot and Sisters of Oz Wowpot slots are all very different games, there are a couple of things about the three games that are the same regardless of which one you play.

The first thing that is equal across all slots is the chance you have of triggering a shot at the Jackpot Bonus Game and to win one of the four Wowpot progressive jackpots on offer. Each of the three games will offer you the same comparative chance for your bet size of triggering a shot at the Jackpot Game as the other.

What that means is if you placed a bet of, say £1, on each of the three games, your chances of landing the Jackpot Bonus Wheel and of course, the progressive jackpot prizes, would be exactly the same.

There's a very good reason for that of course and that is that if one game offered a better chance of success than the others in the series, then players would of course flock to play that game rather than playing the other games in the network. Generally, you will find in any series of slot games that shares a common progressive prize pool, your chances of winning a progressive jackpot prize on each game is the same.

The other thing to note in addition to all the information about the progressive jackpot shown above is the fact that unlike some of Microgaming's earlier progressive jackpot games, you can also play demo versions of the Wowpot slot games. However, one thing to note is that the demo versions of the game do appear to have been tweaked a little to highlight the main features of the slot. As such, you should only view these as an opportunity to learn more about the game and see how it works when you play, rather than as a representation of how the game-play on the slot will play out when you play for real money.

Now that we know how these games are similar, let's take a look at the main differences between the slots to help decide which one best suits your preferred type of game-play.

The main differences between the Wowpot slots

• Game Setup, Variance and Themes

Let's summarise how the slots are set up in a simple table form so we can easily cross compare them.

As you can see in this table, there are a number of similarities, but also a number of key differences between the three slots in the Wowpot Progressive Network. Both the Book of Atem and Wheel of Wishes slot use 5x3 reels, while Sisters of Oz offers a 5x4 reel set up. The latter also has double the number of pay lines as the previous two games.

In terms of higher rollers, the Sisters of Oz Wowpot slot is more appealing with its maximum bet amount of 300,000 allowing players to wager 12x more than they are able to do on the Book of Atem Wowpot and Wheel of Wishes slots. For lower stakes players, Wheel of Wishes and Book of Atem are the more appealing choices with spins starting at 0.10 per bet.

However, it should be noted here that on the Wheel of Wishes slot you can elect to play with Power Mode enabled. This increases the size of your bet 10x but means that every spin is a Power Spin. This means that the maximum bet on the Wheel of Wishes slot in Power Mode (not standard game mode) is 250, which is certainly going to be appealing to higher stakes players.

In some respects, the slots are very similar in many ways. They have a similar number of standard symbols in the game, all have a Wild symbol in play (or in the case of Book of Atem Wowpot and Sisters of Oz Wowpot, a Wild Scatter) and all have relatively similar hit frequency and RTP amounts.

The Sisters of Oz slot is rated to be a more medium volatility game compared to the other two slots which are rated a more volatile.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the slots is in terms of the bonus features with Wheel of Wishes not having a Free Spins bonus game (it has the Power Mode option we mentioned before which can be triggered from the base game too), but the other two slots do have their own Free Spins bonus rounds to trigger from the base game.

The question of which set up will appeal to you most depends very much on which type of game you like to play. If you prefer games with a more standard set up, then the Book of Atem Wowpot slot is likely to be the best choice. If you prefer more unusual games, or a game that allows you to play a different way, then either of the other two games are likely to appeal.

Let's now take a look at the cash prizes that are on offer in each of the games to help players decide which is the Wowpot game best suited to them.

• Wowpot games prize values

For the prize values we are going to look at the maximum and minimum prizes you can win on a single pay line, across each of the games in the Wowpot series for a standard 1.00 spin of the reels, together with what the highest possible win is on the game across multiple pay lines, based on the size of your bet.

• Wheel of Wishes - Low Win - 0.5x, High Win - 50x, Max Win - 500x.
• Book of Atem Wowpot - Low Win - 0.5x, High Win - 500x, Max Win - 5,000x.
• Sisters of Oz Wowpot - Low Win - 0.2x, High Win - 100x, Max Win - 720x.

What is immediately notable here is that there is a somewhat large discrepancy between the games when it comes to the highest value non-progressive jackpot prizes available on each slot. On Wheel of Wishes, you can win 500x your bet maximum, on Sisters of Oz, it is 720x but on Book of Atem it is a much larger 5,000x your bet.

Book of Atem also comes out on top in terms of the largest standard base game or Free Spins single line win with up to 500x your bet available to be won across a single line, which is 10 times more than on Wheel of Wishes and five times more than on Sisters of Oz.

This does make it seem like Book of Atem Wowpot is the slot to play here, but there is a caveat with that. It is the most volatile of the three slot games and as such, hitting those big money prizes is by no means guaranteed and it is the slot most likely to take a chunk out of your bankroll if you do hit it when it is playing cold towards players and not triggering any decent value wins.

In terms of the maximum cash win, the differences between the games though is generally small and perhaps not as great as you would assume. The 5,000x jackpot on Book of Atem is great but with a maximum bet of 25.00, that equates to a maximum cash win of 125,000.

However on Wheel of Wishes you can bet up to 250 (in Power Mode) and a 500x250 also equals a potential maximum non-progressive jackpot cash prize of 125,000.

The Sisters of Oz Wowpot slot tough can beat both of those amounts as its top bet size is 300.00 and multiply that by a maximum possible win of 720x your bet and that equates to a biggest possible cash win of 216,000.

Of course, these are hypothetical win amounts and these are not as appealing as the Jackpot Bonus Feature and the chance to win the Major and in particular the Wowpot progressive jackpot prize. This brings us neatly onto another key difference between the games and that is how they trigger the Jackpot Bonus Game from within each game.

• Bonus features including progressive jackpot mechanism

We have already made it clear your chances of triggering the jackpot bonus game on each of the three Wowpot slots is the same, but what is not the same is the mechanisms at play in each of the games that will bring about just such a trigger.

Progressive jackpot triggers

• Wheel of Wishes - Power Spin.
• Book of Atem Wowpot - Collect Scatter Wilds.
• Sisters of Oz Wowpot - Collect Scatter Wilds.

In the Wheel of Wishes slot, you can only trigger a shot at the progressive jackpot prizes on offer by landing a Power Spin, either by landing two Scatter symbols on the reels in the base game, or by paying 10x the standard bet amount and playing in Power Spin mode. To land a Jackpot Bonus Wheel spin, you need to land the super-sized 3x3 giant Scatter bang in the middle of the middle three reels on a Power Spin to trigger the bonus.

However, in Book of Atem Wowpot and Sisters of Oz Wowpot, a different mechanism is used. In both these games, players 'collect' specific Jackpot Bonus symbols. Basically, what this means is that each time you land one or more of these symbols then you have a chance at triggering the Jackpot Bonus game. The more of these symbols you 'collect', the more chances you have of triggering a shot at the Jackpot Bonus Game.

In the Book of Atem Wowpot slot, these symbols are collected on the Wild Scatter symbol, but in the Sisters of Oz Wowpot slot, the symbols are overlaid on top of a random selection of lower value potion symbols in the base game.

In each of the three games, once you trigger the Jackpot Bonus Game, you are then taken to a separate section of the game where you will spin the wheel to win one of the four progressive jackpot prizes guaranteed.

• The Fun Factor?

Enjoyment is always an absolute fundamental when it comes to any form of slot gaming and the fact is that if you don't enjoy a slot, whatever it has to offer as a prize, you are not as likely to play it as a game you do enjoy.

The problem with that is what certain slot players enjoy differs depending on the types of game they like but this is why a progressive slot network like the Wowpot one can offer something for every type of player.

If you are a higher roller and want to bet large sums on spins then the Wheel of Wishes and Sisters of Oz slots with their much higher bet sizes are likely to be more appealing. Both of these slots also appeal to players that may prefer a slot that differs from your typical 5x3 reel game.

In terms of lower stakes players, I think you have a choice of any of the three games and it is very much a choice of which one you enjoy the most based on the factors we have outlined above. If you like your slot games to be somewhat standard format then the Book of Atem slot may be the best choice for you, if you prefer a slot with more options on how to play, then Wheel of Wishes may be a good choice. Sisters of Oz fits very nicely anywhere in between those two options too.

In truth, having played all three games extensively and for a variety of bet amounts, I have found each game to be enjoyable in its own way and I don't have a particular favourite myself, although my impressions are if you want to prolong the life of your bankroll, then the Sisters of Oz slot just about shades it in my view over the other two games, thanks to that slightly less intimidating level of volatility.

To conclude, Microgaming have given us three exciting ways to play for the Wowpot progressive jackpot prize now with these three games. Each game is different to the next but each offers you a chance to win a massive progressive jackpot prize, as well as some very decent base game prizes (especially if you are a maximum bet size player). In truth, whatever game you pick as your favourite, you will certainly enjoy all the great features and bonuses it has to offer.