Beetlejuice Megaways: Overview

Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice… Say it out loud at your own risk, because there’s always the possibility that Michael Keaton might appear looking like a winter-pale European, topped off with an aggressive amount of eyeshadow. Naturally, we’re talking about the 1988 cult film Beetlejuice, now turned into an online slot by developer Barcrest. Beetlejuice has appeared in slot form before, but this is the first time it’s been released as a non-physical game.

If you love the movie, you might be thinking, “Seriously, Barcrest got the license?” Luckily, the game leans on the Megaways license to add depth to the mechanics. And, surprisingly, the adjustments Barcrest has made to the engine aren’t a total disaster. The Maitlands learned the hard way about inviting Beetlejuice into their world—so how does the slot adaptation hold up?

Beetlejuice is hardly new, so if you’ve missed it, here’s the quick version. It follows a recently deceased couple (the Maitlands) who hire Beetlejuice to get rid of some unwanted new residents in their home. The result is a string of chaotic laughs in a film that’s more campy comedy than horror, with plenty of oddball charm thrown in. It’s worth a watch if you’re in the mood for humour with a weird edge. Here’s the trailer if you want a refresher:

As a Megaways title, Beetlejuice Megaways takes a slightly unusual route with 5 reels instead of the more typical 6-reel layout. The main mechanic is an expanding reel system that opens up extra paylines. At the start, you’ll notice the upper half of the reels is covered and inactive. When you hit a win, the cover lifts and the full grid becomes available. Initially, each reel shows 2-6 symbols, and once uncovered that increases to 4-12 symbols. This also ramps up the Megaways count, and with the full grid in play there can be up to 248,832 win ways. Winning combinations also activate cascades, where winning symbols disappear and new ones fall into place, potentially creating multiple wins from a single spin.

You can chant Beetlejuice’s name three times or simply choose your stake and start spinning. Bets begin at 0.10 c/p or can be moved up as high as 500 €/$ per spin – a much higher ceiling than most Megaways slots offer. In terms of math, volatility sits in the medium-to-high range, although the game delivered wins fairly regularly during testing. RTP is also comfortably average rather than frighteningly low, coming in at 96%.

Open the Beetlejuice Megaways paytable and you’ll find 10-A royals alongside 5 character symbols from the movie. Not everyone makes the cut: the two leads played by Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin are notably missing. Maybe their price tag would have sent the budget off the rails? Winona Rider does appear, though—and she was strikingly young in that film, long before the 90s alternative pin-up era and her brief shoplifting detour.

In any case, Winona is one of the higher-paying symbols, joined by the head shrinker, Miss Argentina, Serpent Beetlejuice, and Beetlejuice himself as the top-value icon. “Top-value” is relative here, since payouts are generally on the low side. For instance, 5 Beetlejuice symbols pay a restrained 5 times the stake. Beetlejuice is also the only symbol that can pay with 2 of a kind, while all other symbols require at least 3 to award a win. Helping out is a wild symbol, which substitutes for any regular paying symbol.

Beetlejuice Megaways: Features

The Beetlejuice film may be weirdly inventive, but the slot sticks to a familiar set of Megaways-style features. First is the Mystery Ghost Symbol, which can appear anywhere in the base game or during free spins. When it lands, all Ghost symbols turn into the same symbol type, which can be anything except the wild or the scatter.

The scatter looks like a movie ticket stub with Beetlejuice printed twice. Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters triggers 8, 12, or 16 Free Spins respectively. A couple of changes kick in during the bonus. For starters, the background artwork switches. More importantly, a win multiplier is added. It begins at x1 and increases by +1 after every cascade, with no cap on how high it can climb. Scatters can also land during the feature, and hitting 3, 4, or 5 awards an extra 4, 6, or 8 free spins respectively.

Beetlejuice Megaways: Verdict

As with many branded slots, Beetlejuice Megaways lives and dies by how much you care about the theme. The gameplay is decent, but mystery symbols and free spins with an increasing multiplier are standard Megaways territory. The standout twist is the 5-reel setup with expandable rows. It comes with pros and cons, but it’s refreshing to see Barcrest take a different angle on the Megaways template. One benefit is that long cascade chains weren’t rare, and the expanding rows helped those sequences feel more rewarding. There’s no official hit rate published, but in testing the game seemed to land wins quite often. That may partly be luck, but it did feel like there were fewer dead spins than expected.

That said, there are a couple of compromises worth noting. First, win potential doesn’t feel huge when you’re capped at 5 rather than 6 of a kind. It was common to get a string of cascades that built real excitement, only for the final payout to fall short of what the momentum suggested. Second, triggering 3 scatters can demand a lot of time and patience. There’s a moment in the film where Beetlejuice sits in a waiting room currently serving customer number 4, checks his ticket, and sees he’s number 9,998,383,750,000 in line. The frustration on his face feels pretty accurate.

Still, that’s more like minor criticism than the sense of personal betrayal that can sometimes follow a Barcrest session. Beetlejuice Megaways makes much more sense if you know the movie, and while it’s not an elite Megaways release, it’s also far from terrible.