Cash of Kingdoms Introduction

It’s hard to say why it took this long. On the third day of the ICE Totally Gaming conference in early 2018, Microgaming revealed Cash of Kingdoms, with David Reynolds, Game Publisher at Microgaming, calling it ‘being built on a strong game engine that will give players an action-packed escapade with fantastic payouts’.

Because ICE is such a major iGaming showcase, studios use it to promote their newest and biggest releases. Looking back, it’s difficult not to wonder what Microgaming was thinking by putting Cash of Kingdoms forward as a highlighted slot—especially while rivals like NetEnt were making noise with heavyweight branded games such as Narcos and Vikings.

Even if the brand has slipped a bit recently, plenty of players still rate Microgaming highly, and any new release from the Isle of Man provider naturally grabs attention. Still, the moment we first saw Cash of Kingdom, any expectation of a standout Microgaming hit pretty much vanished. But is it fair to judge a slot purely on first impressions? Let’s take a closer look.

Cash of Kingdoms is a medieval fantasy-themed five by three reel, 15 payline online slot that pays both ways. In reality, it’s a Slingshot Studios title, meaning this is one of those Microgaming partnership releases. If Slingshot Studios is new to you (it was to us as well), it’s a small independent developer founded in 2016 and appears to be making its debute with this game.

Cash of Kingdom Symbols & Paytable

The reels feature five low-value symbols shown as loot, powder kegs, bow & arrows, spell books, and sword & shields. For the premium lineup, the game brings in a band of heroic companions: Crafty Rogue, Bearded Bombardier, Feisty Archer, Magical Mage, and the Dashing Knight. The Knight is the top-paying symbol and returns a 10 times the stake win for 5 across a payline. Symbols land in stacks of two, so you can’t hit a full-screen combination of any icon.

The paytable is clean and easy to read, showing winnings in cash based on your current stake and adjusting automatically as you raise or lower your bet. There are no awkward coin conversions to work out. Nice touch. As for staking, the game allows bets from €0.15 all the way up to €480, which is pretty wild. It’s a low variance slot though, so some players may feel comfortable pushing the higher end.

Invading Wilds

Wilds are a key mechanic here and only appear on the middle three reels. If a full stack of wilds lands on reels 2 or 4, the Invading Wilds feature activates. Those stacked wilds then copy over to transform a neighboring reel into wilds. This also applies during the free spins round, but with extra advantages. Notably, Microgaming (or Slingshot Studios) have trademark protected the feature name, which honestly feels a little over the top considering the idea isn’t exactly new.

Cash of Kingdoms Free Spins

Landing three Scatter symbols on reels 2, 3 and 4 triggers the free spins feature, awarding 10 free spins initially. While free spins are running, every Scatter adds +1 free spin. The paytable doesn’t mention any maximum number of free spins available, so we can only assume there’s a cap somewhere.

During the free spins round, players get super stacked wild reels, which means stacked wilds show up more often. On top of that, if you hit full stacks of wilds on reels 2 and 4, reel 3 is invaded by wilds too, and a 2x multiplier is applied to the total win.

Cash of Kingdom Conclusion

This is a bleak slot that never should have been released under Microgaming’s banner, and certainly shouldn’t have been positioned as a showcase of the company’s recent work. It’s genuinely hard to see why Microgaming chose to headline this game at ICE. The quality is surprisingly poor, and Cash of Kingdoms ends up reinforcing the impression that Microgaming has lost its way.

The payouts are awful—among the weakest we’ve come across in quite some time. The base game feels like a non-starter with virtually no potential. The free spins round doesn’t improve things much either, with a max win potential of around 250x per single spin. There’s nothing notably creative or fresh here, leaving the overall experience feeling generic, flat, and bland at best.