Megaways from the 90s. Wow. The name alone caused palpitations of excitement. Blueprint Gaming has done some daring things, but basing a slot around a decade is brave. A great decade too. The 1990s. The 60s had civil rights and counterculture, the 70s rockers and disco-heads, and the 80s yuppies, but the 90s had digital revolutionaries leading the internet rise. A decade of analog to digital. Mobile phones and the Internet weren’t around in the early 1990s. In the end, the world shrank several sizes as people went online, obtained mobile devices, and linked globally like never before. The decade saw some fabulously horrible clothing and a whole lifestyle change.
Thus, we fired up 90’s Mania Megaways with enthusiasm. Total disappointment came after 3.7 seconds. 90’s Mania Megaways didn’t appear or feel 90s enough. There are hints of the decade, but 90’s Mania Megaways was like the 1980s. Naturally, everyone recall the past differently, but 90’s Mania Megaways failed to convey the decade’s exuberant, inventive, colorful, crazily over-the-top energy.
Now for the numerical parts of the game. 90’s Mania Megaways’ volatile math model pays 96.43% for single spins and 96.7% for free spins. The Megaways-powered grid has 6 reels and a 4-position top tracker reel that goes side to side. Bets range from 20 p/c to £/€10. Main reel symbols vary from spin to spin, creating 324 to 117,649 chances to win.
The 1990s and 1980s succeed on the paytable, making it look like the game is unsure of its purpose. The lowest paying symbols are blocky 9 to A card royals, while the best paying symbols are a Rubik’s cube, Tamagotchi, Gameboy-style console, and boombox. A 6-of-a-kind win on 90’s Mania Megaways pays 0.8 to 1.75 times the wager for low pays or 2x to 50x for high pays. The game’s wild, a cassette tape (a CD would have been better), replaces any pay sign on the tracker reel.
90s Mania Megaways: Slot Features
This introduces us to 90’s Mania Megaways’ cascades, mystery symbols, free spins with a pre-round gamble feature, and Mania Bet.
Cascading wins
Win symbols erupt off the reels. In the spaces they produce, symbols drop down (or from the side on the tracker reel), and the cascade mechanic triggers again if a fresh win is made.
Symbols of Mystery
The same sign appears when mystery symbols appear on the reels, as normal. Scatter symbols are not revealed by mystery symbols.
Free Spins
Free spins begin with 4 or more scatter symbols in the base game. Players can wager on a green and red wheel before it starts for extra free spins. The free spins round gets a win multiplier. The multiplier starts at x1 and increases by +1 in cascades with no maximum limit. Scatters occur only on the tracker reel in free spins, but only on the 6 main reels in basic game. Three scatters on the tracker provide 5 free spins, while four scatters award 10.
Mania Bet
Players may buy 8 free spins for 50 times the amount in the Mania amount. Players may risk on the wheel to gain free spins after buying it.
90s Mania Megaways Slot Review
Life was crazy in the 1990s. The decade of Friends, flannel shirts, peak Grunge, Pogs, Spice Girls, Cold War, Beanie Babies, Dookie, Smells Like Teen Spirit, The PlayStation, social media, online gambling, Britpop, Seinfeld, hip-hop, extreme sports, Pearl Jam, dial-up noise, Captain Planet, neon clothing, Ænima, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, frosted tips, Weezer, Alanis Morissette, Ren & Stimpy, Bill & Monica, Beverly Hill, and more. Blueprint Gaming might have packed an online slot with amazing features.
Instead, we get 80s-sized boomboxes and Rubik’s cubes. To emphasize, Blueprint Gaming has done absolutely nothing with features. Nothing special about the concept or gameplay, simply mystery symbols, cascades, and free spins with a growing multiplier. The sole exception is the 50x bet free spins offer. End of story. As usual with Blueprint, the paytable lists the eyebrow-raising max win amount of 50,000 times the stake or £250,000, ‘whichever comes first’, which is confusing and unpleasant.
If you’ve seen Instagram vs. reality footage, you know how different expectations and reality can be. Example: 90s Mania Megaways. Blueprint Gaming could go crazy with the 90s since the premise was great. The company can’t fit a lot of copyrighted content into a game, but the outcome is so thin it’s a mere scrape of the 1990s rather than a frenzied celebration of everything that made the decade great.
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