Excalibur VS Gigablox: Overview

Yggdrasil Gaming partner Hot Rise Games keeps chipping away at its VS Gigablox series with a culturally wide-ranging entry called Excalibur VS Gigablox. It’s “multicultural” in the sense that, while Excalibur nods to the Arthurian Legends (a familiar slot theme), this game also brings in heroes from other corners of the world. Rather than a harmonious coming-together of traditions, the lineup is here to clash. The fights don’t actually alter what happens on the reels, but they do deliver some hefty, dramatic visuals. Here’s the setup.

If champions are going to throw down, they need a stage. In Excalibur VS Gigablox, that stage is a devastated battleground filled with fire, torn banners, and swords embedded in the earth. It feels like the war already happened and the outcome is decided—yet when the bonus round arrives, two heroes still face off. Apparently, some warriors are never done with the conflict.

Excalibur VS Gigablox runs on a 6×6 gaming grid with 50 paylines determining payouts. Being a Gigablox title, oversized symbols can drop in at any point during the base game. These large icons can cover anywhere from 2×2 to 6×6 positions. Any symbol except scatters or wilds can appear as Gigablox symbols. Looking at the stats, Excalibur VS Gigablox is a medium-high volatile slot with a default RTP of 96%, or 96.3% if the bonus round is purchased. Betting options are fairly narrow and not especially friendly for low stakes play, running from 50 c per spin up to $/€20 max.

Standard wins land when matching symbols connect on adjacent reels along a payline, beginning from reel one. The paytable starts with J to A card ranks as low symbols, followed by Cú Chulainn from Irish belief, the Chinese legend Mulan, Sigurd the Germanic hero, the Japanese warrior Musashi, Achilles of Trojan War fame, and British King Arthur at the top end. A 6-of-a-kind royal combination pays 1.5 times their bet, while a 6 premium symbol hit returns 2 to 10 times their bet. Wilds can appear on every reel, substitute for regular pay symbols, and are worth the same as the King Arthur symbol.

Excalibur VS Gigablox: Features

In the base game, the main add-ons come from Gigablox symbols and wilds, while the bonus round shifts into a hold ‘n win-style feature once activated.

Excalibur Wild

On any non-winning base game spin that hasn’t triggered Highrise Respins, the Excalibur Wild feature can activate, transforming every Gigablox symbol currently on the reels into wilds.

Highrise Respins

Hitting 5 or more gem scatter symbols starts the Highrise Respins feature. As the bonus begins, each triggering gem symbol locks to the lowest possible position on its reel and shows a bet multiplier value. The feature then awards 3 respins, during which blanks, gems, or Highrise multiplier symbols may appear. Gems can land on the bottom 5 rows, drop to the lowest available reel position, and lock when they hit, while Highrise multipliers only appear on the top row and also lock in place when they land.

When Highrise symbols land, they reveal a multiplier of x7, x6, x5, x4, x3, or x2 on reels 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, respectively. These multipliers apply to the gem symbols positioned beneath them. If 2 or more Highrise multipliers land on consecutive reels, their values are added together before being applied to the gems below. Whenever Highrise or gem symbols land, they reset the spin count to 3.

Buy Bonus

Players can purchase Highrise Respins directly from the base game for 60x the bet. When the feature is bought, between 5 and 12 scatter symbols will land to trigger it.

Excalibur VS Gigablox: Verdict

Up to now, most VS Gigablox releases have shared a clear trait: huge, aggressive characters who seem to live for squaring up during the bonus. Excalibur VS Gigablox follows that pattern, pairing it with the series’ usual striking art style and a strong roster of fighters. What may catch some players off guard is that Excalibur VS Gigablox isn’t purely Arthurian—it pulls in heroes from much further afield too. A few of them aren’t seen in slots all that often, which helps the theme feel a bit fresher.

Leaving the setting aside, the gameplay is where Excalibur VS Gigablox has to deliver. The base game gets a boost from the Excalibur Wild mechanic that can turn Gigablox symbols into wilds, which should help keep things from feeling too samey when it appears. Still, much of the work is done by Gigablox oversized symbols, with mixed results depending on how they land. The spotlight is really on Highrise Respins, as this is the first VS Gigablox slot to use a hold ‘n win bonus format. In the bigger picture, Highrise Respins isn’t the most thrilling hold ‘n win concept out there—it’s fairly straightforward. You’re aiming to collect money symbols, which didn’t seem to start with especially high values, and if fortune smiles, you’ll add Highrise multiplier symbols along the top. Things can look better when multipliers land next to each other and combine, potentially pushing players closer to the 4,050 times the bet max win.

With Excalibur VS Gigablox added to the mix, the VS lineup so far has featured gods, monsters, nightmares, and heroes. It raises the question of what direction the studio might take next if it continues expanding the series. There’s no obvious reason for High Rise Games to stop now that it’s four games into the range. And even if Excalibur VS Gigablox’s bonus round isn’t exactly revolutionary, players who enjoyed earlier VS titles (and newcomers too) may still find plenty to like here.