Will the Highlander slot take the prize to live forever?

I can remember the buzz back in the 1980s when the Highlander film was set to be released. There was the excitement (as a fan) to know that Queen had composed the soundtrack to the film (as they had done for Flash Gordon a few years beforehand) and the fact we had time-travelling warriors, who were immortal, unless their head was separated from their shoulders, sounded fantastic.

Although to modern eyes the film does look a little dated, back in the 80s it proved to be a smash hit success and it spawned a couple of sequels as well as a long-running TV show which starred Adrian Paul as Connor MacLeod, the Highlander to which the title of the film refers.

Clancy Brown as the villainous Kurgan was the star of the show for me with his malevolent presence and deep voice and add to that Sean Connery playing a Spanish immortal called Ramirez and it sounds crazy to have a Frenchman playing a Scot, a Scot playing a Spaniard and an American playing a Russian, but somehow it all worked, if you could ignore the accents.

However, the slot for Highlander would need to do its own time travelling and it came along many years after the film as part of a deal Microgaming struck with Studiocanal. So was it worth the wait? We decided to take a closer look to find out.

Overview

• Game: Highlander
• Developer: Microgaming
• Reels: 5x3
• Pay Lines: 243 Ways to Win
• Minimum Bet: 0.40
• Maximum Bet: 30.00
• Jackpot: 102,500
• Free Spins Bonus: Yes
• Other Bonuses: Yes
• Progressive: No
• Volatility: Medium

Presentation

It's time for my main gripe about the Highlander slot game and that is there is something lacking that was fundamental to the film and that is the roaring Queen soundtrack that was a key element of it. Sure, Highlander does have its own Soundtrack that attempts to imitate that Queen effort but it is a pale imitation truth be told and this lack of musical balance does really impact from the slot in my view. The graphics and setting of the slot are both very nicely done, eye catching and clean and they do represent the key locations of the film very nicely indeed, but their effect is diminished by not having that famous soundtrack as part of the game.

What is on the reels?

The game features a number of symbols on the reels and the first are the standard low value symbols which are the playing card symbols. These range from the 10 through to the Ace and the size of the wins looks relatively small with even five aces paying just 2.2 times your total bet. This is because this is a 243-ways to win slot though and it is much easier to land five across the reels on this type of slot than on standard pay line games.

The other five standard symbols are all characters from the film and they are Heather MacLeod, Brenda Wyatt, the Kurgan, Connor MacLeod as he Highlander and lastly, modern day Connor MacLeod. The wins on these symbols are considerably higher than you get for the playing card symbols as you would expect.

The only other symbols on the reels in the base game are the Wild and Scatter symbols which are used in the main bonus features of the slot as we will explore below.

Wild features

There are actually two Wild bonuses on the slot. The first is the Standard Wild symbol, which is the sword symbol and this can appear across the reels and acts as a substitute, allowing you to land more wins and to increase the value of wins too.

However, there is a way to land extra Wilds on the reels and that is by landing two Scatters on the reels. When this occurs, the Scatters will transform into additional Wilds and of course, with more Wilds on the reels, you have a better chance of landing longer and more valuable pay lines, especially if you land some additional standard Wilds on the same spin.

Free Spins features

If you land three or more Scatters across the reels then you will trigger the Free Spins bonus round which has the Quickening Wilds feature in play on each spin. The action switches from ancient Scotland to more modern day New York and on each spin, the Quickening Wilds will strike, turning symbols Wild on the reels to help you land bigger value wins. Unfortunately, you can't re-trigger your Free Spins bonus from within your Free Spins, which is the only down side of the bonus. This bonus can pay some sizeable wins, but the payouts are rather mixed at times.

Best feature of the Highlander slot

The base game of the Highlander slot is livened up by the fact that if you land just two Scatter symbols, you will see those symbols turn into Wilds. This can trigger some bigger value base game wins and it is a nice touch. However, it is the Free Spins bonus round which is the real prize in the game as it features Quickening Wilds which can turn random positions on the reels and lead to some very impressive wins during the Free Spins bonus.

Conclusion

Although it hasn't perhaps aged as well as some of its contemporaries, the Highlander film was a smash hit success in the 1980s and spawned a number of sequels. The slot version of the game took a long time to come along afterwards but it was worth the wait. Microgaming produced a slot that was faithful to the original film, with all the key characters included, and introduced bonuses that fitted the theme perfectly. It is a fun slot to play, with the Quickening Bonus and the Free Spins being the best ways to land some better value wins, but it would have been so much better had it included the famous Queen soundtrack that was a key part of the film. It can play a little tight at times, as most mid-variance slots can do, but by the same token, you can end a session well ahead of what you spent too.

You can play the Highlander slot at any of our Mega Moolah casinos.