Medusa (Blueprint Gaming): Review

Medusa-inspired slots are usually gloomy, eerie affairs that take their mythological subject matter very seriously. Blueprint Gaming’s take on the deadly gorgon, though, is a bit odd and feels like it could have been lifted from a Cartoon Network show. If you’re hoping for something in the vein of NextGen Gaming’s iconic Medusa II, you’ll be sorely let down. As part of Blueprint’s Colossal Payout Series, Medusa is a 5-reel, 3-row slot with 10 fixed paylines, playable from 10 cents to 20€ per spin on all devices. As you’ll notice, it’s a fairly basic title in both presentation and mechanics, leaning almost entirely on a straightforward wild transformation feature that’s responsible for any meaningful wins.

With a distinctly outdated look, Medusa feels like a lower-tier Blueprint release, sporting unremarkable artwork reminiscent of the CD-ROM games that used to come free in cereal boxes back in 2004. The action takes place in an ancient Hellenistic temple, where the backdrop shows the fate of unlucky mortals—apparently turned into stone after failing to resist Medusa’s hypnotic stare. Despite Medusa herself being rendered in a rather childish, cartoonish style, the audio is grand and slightly unsettling: a dramatic call-to-arms that echoes the tone of other Medusa slots and easily stands out as the strongest part of the package.

On the reels you’ll find A to 10 royal values, alongside temples, pottery, crossed swords, and spartan helmets. The helmets are the top regular symbol, paying 100 times your stake for 5 of a kind. The wild is shown as three snakeheads and awards 200 times your stake for landing 5 across a full payline. It also substitutes for all other symbols.

Medusa (Blueprint Gaming): Features

Medusa includes just one feature, and it isn’t a standard free spins round. While playing, if the large Medusa symbol lands on the middle reel, the Medusa Wild Transformation feature is triggered. Once active, it will randomly select up to 2 symbols and convert them into wilds.

The trick is to set it off when there are already plenty of wilds and matching symbols on the reels—something that’s rare, but could, in theory, result in every reel turning wild. That scenario would also produce the maximum single-spin win of 2000 times your stake.

Medusa (Blueprint Gaming): Verdict

Being part of Blueprint’s Colossal Payout Series, you might expect a high-volatility monster, but that’s not the case here. In reality, the main similarity to other entries in the series seems to be the 5-reel format. So if you’re chasing truly colossal payouts, this isn’t the right pick.

Medusa is, honestly, one of the more underwhelming Blueprint slots we’ve tried in quite some time. It comes off as hurried, the visuals are lacking, and certain moments suffer from clunky, awkward gameplay. And although the lone feature activates often, it rarely leads to anything particularly thrilling, which makes the experience feel repetitive before long. With medium variance you should at least get some play time, but if you prefer Blueprint’s more feature-packed slots and want something with more punch, Medusa probably won’t hold your attention for very long.