Merlin’s Magic Mirror Megaways: Slot Overview

Merlin the magician is one of online gambling’s long-standing characters, and the well-known wizard has shown up in countless slots. Play’n GO has leaned on him heavily, for instance, in titles like Merlin: Journey of Flame and Rise of Merlin, but plenty of other providers are keen to use him too. iSoftBet is one studio that clearly likes the legendary sorcerer, having already launched Power of Merlin Megaways, along with the title in focus today, Merlin’s Magic Mirror Megaways – a revamped version of the 2019 game, Merlin’s Magic Mirror.

With Merlin involved, it’s fair to expect Merlin’s Magic Mirror Megaways to lean hard into spellbinding fantasy, and that’s exactly the vibe once you load it up. It even echoes the feel of other whimsical Megaways releases, like BTG’s White Rabbit and Iron Dog Studio’s Megaways Jack. The base game takes place outdoors among mountains and trees, with a touch of human presence in the form of a sweeping stone bridge. Reach the free spins portion, and Merlin’s Magic Mirror Megaways relocates to a crystal-studded cavern. Perhaps this is where Merlin practises his more secretive arcane arts, away from curious onlookers.

Rated highly volatile, Merlin’s Magic Mirror Megaways runs on 6 reels with a horizontally spinning 4 position tracker reel above them. With the tracker included, up to 7 symbols may land on each reel, resulting in a top potential of 117,649 ways to win. In typical iSoftBet fashion, stakes range from 20 c to $/€20 per spin, and there’s also an optional Magic Bet. If you enable the Magic Bet, your wager is increased by 25%, which is said to ‘triggers the feature more frequently’. On standard play, the default RTP is 95.98%, nudging up slightly to 96% when Magic Bet is used.

A cascade system removes winning symbols from the reels once they’ve formed a payout. The empty spaces are then filled by symbols dropping down on the main reels or sliding in from the side on the top reel. Cascades keep going until no additional win appears. Wins are paid when matching symbols connect from left to right, beginning on the leftmost reel. Card ranks 9 to A act as the lower-value symbols, paying 0.5x-1x the bet for a 6-of-a-kind result, while the premium icons are a potion bottle, a book, an owl, and Merlin, awarding 1.5 to 5 times the bet for 6 OAK. Wild symbols substitute for any regular paying symbol, making them handy for extending winning chains. They can land on reels 2 to 5, on both the top reel and the main game reels.

Merlin’s Magic Mirror Megaways: Slot Features

Merlin’s toolkit in this game includes Merlins Magic Modifiers, free spins and an unlimited multiplier, plus bonus buys.

Merlins Magic Modifiers

At the beginning of any base game spin, Merlins Magic Modifiers can activate. A magic mirror appears and unveils one of the following modifiers:

• Mystery Magic – a number of spaces are transformed into the same mystery symbol. Mystery symbols can reveal anything except wilds or scatters.
• Wizard Wilds – a random amount of wilds are added to reels 2 to 5.
• Super Spin – all positions on reel 1 and on the top tracker reel into the same symbol.
• Bonus – 3 or more scatter symbols will land on the reels.
• Max Megaways – all 117,649 ways to win spin in.

Another mechanic to keep an eye on is Merlins lose to win, which can trigger randomly on any losing base game spin.

Free Spins

During the base game, hitting 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatters anywhere on screen grants 8, 10, 12, or 14 free spins, respectively. In the free spins feature, the scatters that triggered it convert to sticky mystery symbols and the number of Megaways is locked for the entire round. More mystery symbols may be revealed at the start of any spin by Merlin. On top of that, an unlimited multiplier runs throughout the feature. It begins at x1 and increases by +1 after every cascading win. Free spins cannot be retrigged.

Bonus Buy

The bonus buy includes two choices. The first is a free spins trigger for 75 times the bet where the RTP is 96.29%, while the second is free spins with a minimum of 5,000 Megaways for 150x the bet where the RTP is 96.42%.

Merlin’s Magic Mirror Megaways: Slot Verdict

If Merlin’s Magic Mirror Megaways were a Wizard in Dungeons & Dragons, it wouldn’t be some top-tier, reality-warping powerhouse with a game-breaking proficiency bonus, but it definitely wouldn’t be a fresh level-one either. Somewhere mid-range feels about right—so while it’s not dropping a 9th-level Meteor Storm, it’s also moved well beyond basic cantrips. Metaphors aside, Merlin’s Magic Mirror Megaways comes together nicely, helped by the fact that iSoftBet has built up plenty of Megaways experience and has added several engaging touches to flesh out the gameplay. A lot of those ideas show up in Merlin’s Magic Mirror Megaways and will be familiar to anyone who’s kept up with the studio’s releases.

Because of that, many (if not all) of the additions here have already proven themselves in earlier games, making Merlin’s Magic Mirror Megaways feel more like a curated highlight reel than a true leap forward. As a sequel to Merlin’s Magic Mirror, some overlap is expected, such as turning losing spins into winning wins. The respins are gone, but the scatter-to-sticky-mystery-symbol conversion for free spins remains. This time around, though, an unlimited climbing multiplier—a signature Megaways ingredient—joins the mix, and paired with a potentially large minimum number of ways (if fortune favours you) and sticky mystery symbols, it’s a pretty nice combination.

It’s not wildly mind-blowing, and much of Merlin’s Magic Mirror Megaways follows familiar iSoftBet patterns. Still, everything is neatly bundled with a magic-themed finish, resulting in a solid Megaways upgrade that brings a sticky mystery symbol twist that’s fairly uncommon in this type of slot.