Machina Megaways (Kalamba Games): Introduction

If you felt like Megaways slots were already everywhere last year, 2019 is set to turn that up another notch. With SG Interactive, Blueprint, Red Tiger and Relax Gaming all expected to launch plenty of versions, the genre could easily become overcrowded unless someone refreshes the Megaways formula and pushes it further. Simply churning out more Bonanza-style copies won’t be enough anymore.

This is Kalamba Games first Megaways title (powered by Relax Gaming), released quietly with almost no marketing behind it. It carries a futuristic vibe reminiscent of I, Robot, the 2004 Sci-Fi blockbuster starring Will Smith, and on first look there isn’t much that feels truly new. Aside from the jackpot element, it comes across as a fairly stripped-back Megaways entry. Still, as with any Megaways slot, there’s plenty of upside baked into the RNG, which is often reason enough for players to give it a spin.

Feature-wise there aren’t any huge shocks, though there are a few notable points. You get 3 bonus jackpot tiers – Silver, Gold and Platinum, with Platinum beginning at 1000 times your stake. With every wager, each bonus jackpot amount rises in proportion to the bet placed. The jackpots activate when 10, 12 or 16+ CYBORG symbols land in a single spin, both in the base game and during free spins. The key mechanic is the Hyper bonus, where almost all of the game’s real potential sits. If you don’t want to wait for it to arrive naturally, a bonus buy option is available.

Machina Megaways is a 6 reel slot varying from between 2 and 6 rows per column that can combine to a maximum of 46,656 win ways. With a relatively high minimum stake of 0.60 Eur per spin, it’s not ideal for very small-stake play. If you’ve got a bigger bankroll, Machina allows bets up to 36 Eur per spin.

On the visual side, it’s solid, even if the Asian sci-fi style has been used a lot lately – most recently seen in slots like Big Bot Crew by Quickspin and Kaiju by ELK Studios, to name a couple. The gameplay runs smoothly, and there’s little to fault in the interface or the overall presentation.

Machina Megaways (Kalamba Games): Symbols, Paytable & Features

The reel set features 9, 10, J, Q, K and A royals, along with the 5 main characters from the story – the mysterious boy, the female operator, bearded guy, black-haired girl and the Cyborg. The Cyborg is the top-paying symbol, awarding 3.33 times your stake for 6 of a kind. The golden circuit board acts as the wild, substituting for all symbols except the bonus scatter and bonus accumulation symbols.

Machina Megaways (Kalamba Games): Free Spins

You can enter the free spins in two different ways. The usual route is to wait for it to trigger naturally. Landing 3, 4, 5 or 6 scatters anywhere awards 10, 12, 15 or 18 free spins respectively. Alternatively, you can purchase the bonus – 10, 12, 15 or 18 free spins cost roughly 52, 89, 185 or 337 times your stake respectively. While the 18 spins option is expensive and arguably among the priciest bonus buys we’ve seen so far, the 10 free spins purchase is actually fairly reasonable.

During the bonus, your goal is to gather the yellow accumulative circuit symbols to fill the meter to the right of the reels. For every 4 or 5 accumulative symbols collected (depending on your current progress), 2 extra spins are added to your total and, crucially, one premium symbol (starting with the highest value) is converted into the Cyborg symbol for the rest of the free spins round.

If you manage to convert every high-value symbol so that only the Cyborg remains, you’ll not only greatly boost your chances of hitting huge mega wins, but you’ll also improve your odds of setting off the jackpots!

Machina Megaways (Kalamba Games): Conclusion

If it sounds complex, don’t worry. It’s actually quite simple. Machina Megaways is a basic, easy-to-follow slot without any major twists or overly complicated mechanics. The core idea is landing accumulative symbols in the bonus to advance and turn premium symbols into the Cyborg symbol. Buying the 18 free spins is costly, but in exchange you’re accessing a very powerful bonus that can deliver wins worth several thousand times your stake.

Sadly, the maximum win potential isn’t listed anywhere, but it’s reasonable to expect at least a minimum 10,000 times the stake. It’s a high variance slot though, so play cautiously and don’t get carried away with the bonus buy option.