Divine Fortune Megaways is yet another slot remake from NetEnt, brought to life once again with the Big Time Gaming’s Megaways engine. Staying true to the first, NetEnt kept the DNA of the original Divine Fortune in terms of design and features, though, those who have ever tried the originalDivine Fortuneknow that it’s the progressive jackpot which made it that appealing. The devs omitted it this time, thereby making players ask themselves, will it be worth playing? Follow up with the review and we’ll help you find out whether the Megaways version will be able to follow the success of its predecessor.
The original Divine Fortune is still relevant though and remains one of the most popular developer’s jackpot slots, so ’giving a rebirth’ won’t be too appropriate. It’s rather re-releasing their banger with a ’new’ mechanic, though not avoiding any significant blows, like the omission of the progressive JP to keep it balanced.
Anyway, NetEnt sticks to its strategy of upgrading its oldies after acquiring the Megaways license. To say that they are a bit late would be an understatement since the interest in Megaways slots slowly fades. It doesn’t necessarily mean that Divine Fortune Megaways is doomed to failure. A lot of gamblers still enjoy Big Time Gaming’s engine-powered games, so it would just go to a very different niche now, even though a lot of things remained almost untouched.
Speaking of that, Divine Fortune Megaways boasts the same design as its older sibling, taking players to Ancient Greece with the reels set amidst two female marble statues. The first thing that catches the eye is the widened game area, now providing 6 reels with 2-7 symbols in each row instead of a 5×3 layout with 20 ways to play. True to the Megaways’ style, the number of paylines reaches 117,649 once the grid is fully unlocked.
When it comes to the math model, the payback percentage suffered a blow, whereas the betting range as well as the volatility remained on the same level. The Megaways version is powered by a medium volatile math model with the RTP of 96.09%, half percent lower than the one found in original Divine Fortune. The betting range is way wider than other Megaways slots have, offering players to place wagers from 0.1$ to 100$ per spin.
Heading over to the paytable reveals a bunch of recognizable symbols. Those include a set of A-10 royals, making up the low pays, followed by 4 premiums, involving birds, bulls, lions, and mythical Medusa. Scoring a win will require matching at least 3 symbols on a line starting from the leftmost reel, while there are only 2 needed for Medusa. The payouts have also been cut for obvious reasons, and now symbols award no more than 5x of the bet for a 6-of-a-kind combo. The mighty Pegasus is Wild here, acting as a substitute for any other regular symbols, plus being the key to triggering features.
The Megaways upgrade doesn’t deliver any changes to the feature set as well. Here players will benefit from familiar extras, including Falling Wild Respins, Wild on Wild, and Free Spins.
Alongside the jackpot omission, there’s another major downside, if so to speak. NetEnt decided to exclude the Avalanching Wins feature, which is commonly found in most of the Megaways-powered slots. However, players will get Respins instead, so it’s not a big concern indeed. Any time a Wild symbols lands anywhere on the grid, the Falling Wild Respin feature kicks in. Those Wilds will nudge one position down, awarding respins until they eventually leave the reel set. Players will also have a final respin after Falling Wilds fade.
Whenever a Wild symbols land on top of a Falling Wild, it’s called Wild on Wild feature. They will expand to cover the entire reel, leaving a stack of Wild symbols, which will also nudge down on each spin and continue to award respins.
Should at least 4 Scatter symbols appear in view, the Free Spins feature will be triggered. 4, 5, and 6 Scatters award 10, 15, and 20 spins respectively, with each extra triggering Scatter awarding +5 additional spins to the total tally. Pegasus Wilds get a significant upgrade during the Free Spins for all Wilds landing on the grid always trigger the Wild on Wild bonus.
Once in the free games round, 3 Bonus Win Symbols come into play. Any time they land, they are collected to fill the respective meter above the reels. Filling the Bronze, Silver, and Gold meter with 5 corresponding Bonus Win symbols will award 10x, 25x, or 500x of the bet respectively. It’s also possible to claim more than one jackpot at a time. Once the meter is filled, it resets, allowing players to fill it again and win another tasty payout.
All said and done, the question remains, is Divine Fortune Megaways able to surpass or at least be the same fun and rewarding as the original title? Not sure actually. It was the progressive jackpot that kept punters hooked onto their screen playing Divine Fortunes, hunting the jackpot like hounds that catches a scent. Will players chase a 500x payout now? Probably not.
Oddly enough, with a larger format, Divine Fortune Megaways boasts smaller potential. The features are nice and fun, no questions at these, but boy, 500x jackpot is nonsense. According to it, it will surely fail to repeat the success of its older barnburner brother, bound to become yet another Megaways slot, not being able to somehow stick out from the niche.
Well, it’s not that bad. In case you’re OK with the relatively low potential, you may love its shift to the Megaways engine. All the features work pretty well on the largened grid, and the Respins instead of a common Avalanching Wins mechanic seem to be a nice solution. All up, Divine Fortune Megaways will appeal to those who appreciate the developer’s effort of switching their games to Big Time Gaming’s engine, though, it will surely struggle to make old players feel drawn to spin the reels on it.
Divine Fortune Megaways
