WowPot slot: The underappreciated Microgaming progressive

Way back in 2004, Microgaming were just starting to focus on their progressive jackpot games in a bit more detail. The mighty Mega Moolah was still in production, but the company had already worked out that to appeal to players in this sector, a number of games, offering different jackpot prizes and different betting sizes was needed.

Another thing that seemingly appealed to players was the ability to play a different version of the same slot, which was of course linked to the same progressive jackpot prize. With the 3-reel version of WowPot already released and proving to be a success with punters (and a similar path followed on games like Major Millions, Cash Splash, Fruit Slots and Lotsaloot), Microgaming took the decision to release the 5-reel version.

This is the version of the game that we are going to focus on for this retrospective look at what was one of Microgaming's more under-appreciated progressive jackpot games in my view.

WowPot details

• Reels - 5 (sequel to the original 3-reel WowPot slot)
• Paylines - 15 (selectable)
• Min Bet - 0.10
• Max Bet - 1.50
• Free Spins - No
• Progressive - Yes
• Progressive Seed Amount - 1,000.00
• Base Game Jackpot - 5,000 coins
• Volatility - Low

Presentation and theme

Nowadays, the WowPot progressive would have been regarded as a retro-styled game, but back in 2004, those kinds of games weren't so readily identified. Instead, what you had here was traditional slot gaming, with the addition of a progressive jackpot to keep things interesting.

The slot was very simply created, as were most games back in those days. The reels were superimposed over a purple backdrop, with each of the 15 lines available to play shown by numbered boxes and lines that wound their way across the reels to highlight the symbols part of that line.

The sound and presentation may look a little basic to us 15 years or more later, but back then, this was a pretty standard and advanced slot game that used generic sound, which was usually crowd chatter and digitised music, to give the player the impression they were playing in a casino or similar.

Nowadays, we would describe this as a simple, retro styled progressive, but back then, many of the features on the 5-reel version of the WowPot slot were cutting edge.

WowPot symbols

The WowPot slot used a number of retro-styled symbols on the reels which each offered a range of wins depending on how many you landed across a pay line on a typical spin.

The wins are expressed in number of coins and it is worth remembering that if you wanted to try and win the WowPot progressive jackpot, you would have to wager coins on all 15 pay lines (so you would have to play the maximum bet, which in WowPot, is 1.50).

Cherry

• 3 Cherries - 2 Coins
• 4 Cherries - 5 Coins
• 5 Cherries - 40 Coins

Plum

• 3 Plums - 2 Coins
• 4 Plums - 6 Coins
• 5 Plums - 60 Coins

Lemon

• 3 Lemons - 3 Coins
• 4 Lemons - 8 Coins
• 5 Lemons - 80 Coins

Orange

• 3 Oranges - 4 Coins
• 4 Oranges - 10 Coins
• 5 Oranges - 100 Coins

Melon

• 3 Melons - 5 Coins
• 4 Melons - 12 Coins
• 5 Melons - 120 Coins

Bell

• 3 Bells - 6 Coins
• 4 Bells - 15 Coins
• 5 Bells - 180 Coins

Bar

• 3 Bars - 8 Coins
• 4 Bars - 15 Coins
• 5 Bars - 200 Coins

Striped 7

• 3 Stripes 7s - 8 Coins
• 4 Striped 7s - 20 Coins
• 5 Striped 7s - 300 Coins

Lucky 7

• 3 Lucky 7s - 10 Coins
• 4 Lucky 7s - 30 Coins
• 5 Lucky 7s - 400 Coins

These nine symbols were the standard symbols in the game and as you can see, if you were playing maximum bet, you needed to land a win of four bar symbols or better, in order to stand a chance of landing a profit in the game. Lower value wins were common however, although many of them did not result in a profit on the spin.

Alongside these symbols there were two other symbols on the reels which linked to the two main bonus features of the slot.

WowPot Scatter symbol

• 3 Scatters - 3x your total bet
• 4 Scatters - 30x your total bet
• 5 Scatters - 300x your total bet

With no Free Spins bonus, there were simple multiplier wins for landing three or more Scatters on the reels, with a tenfold leap in the value of each, for each additional scatter above three you could land.

WowPot Wild symbol

• 2 Wilds - 4 Coins
• 3 Wilds - 20 Coins
• 4 Wilds - 800 Coins
• 5 Wilds - 5,000 Coins

The Wild symbol was the key to almost every big win on the WowPot slot as it served a number of purposes. First of all, if you could land Wilds successively across the reels, you could win the prizes outlined above, including the base game jackpot of 5,000 coins. Wilds were also the only symbol to award wins for just 2 symbols.

Wilds could also substitute for any of the standard symbols on the reels and when they did and created a win, they also applied a 2x multiplier to that win, doubling its value and it was through this that you could land some of the more regular lower value wins, that improved the value of the standard win in the base game and this did make the game eminently more playable.

Winning the WowPot progressive jackpot

The Wild symbol was also a key element of winning the progressive jackpot in WowPot. In order to do this, you had to play all 15 pay lines available on the game and then if you managed to hit five Wilds on any of the first 14 pay lines, you would win the 5,000 jackpot prize outlined above.

However, if you managed to land the five Wilds on the 15^th and final pay line on the slot, that would then trigger the WowPot progressive jackpot prize and you would win whatever amount the jackpot had reached at that time.

What are the typical WowPot progressive prizes?

A quick look back at some of the typical wins on the WowPot progressive reveals that wins tended to range from anything from a couple of thousand, up to tens of thousands and on rare occasions, the jackpot could climb up to over 20,000, but this tended to be the exception rather than the norm. However, in later years, with a greater number of players playing progressive jackpot games in general, the jackpot would reach this figure more often. In 2019 for example, there were 3 jackpots paid out of over 20,000 and there were none that reached that figure in the years from 2016-2018 (the closest being a jackpot of around 19.9k back in December 2015.

Where to play the WowPot progressive slot?

You can play WowPot at any of the Mega Moolah casinos. You can find even more options on our Rewards page. Don't forget that early 2020 there will be a new jackpot slot called Wheel of Wishes, which will feature a mega-sized jackpot game called WowPot!

Conclusion

For me, WowPot fits into a nice little niche market when it comes to progressive jackpot slots from Microgaming. It isn't as expensive to play as the likes of Treasure Nile or Major Millions and as such, it was more affordable for many players. Sure the jackpot wasn't as high, but it was a lower variance game and as such, it felt more accessible to players than some of the higher variance slots and, crucially, did not take such a bite out of a players bankroll. With two versions of the game to pick from, I felt the later 5-reel version of the game reviewed here just about shaded it as the best option, although that is not to say the 3-reel version was poor. WowPot still stands up today and is well worth a few spins!