Midas Treasure (Kalamba Games): Overview

Kalamba Games wasn’t really a studio we paid much attention to until it released its first — and still only — Megaways slot, Machina Megaways. While Machina brought a few fresh ideas, the maths felt somewhat questionable, especially the bonus buy that caused a stir by charging 337 times your stake for an 18 spins bonus round. The titles that came afterwards haven’t been compelling enough to feature here, although we did make an exception for Hong Bao, a fairly chaotic slot that ended up with a meagre 49% score.

As we continue waiting for Kalamba to put out a second Megaways game, we figured we’d give the studio another shot. This time it’s Midas Treasure, a 5 reel, 4 row slot offering 40 fixed paylines (yes… you probably already know how little we enjoy that format). If you’ve played Kalamba titles before, you’ll immediately spot familiar, reused mechanics. The Hyper Bet selector returns, and so does the Hyperbonus selector. If those terms don’t ring a bell, hang tight — we’ll explain them shortly.

Inspired by the greek myth of King Midas, the setting places you in a mountainous landscape with the reels framed inside an ancient temple. It’s a theme that’s as old in slot design as King Midas himself and has been done countless times, most recently in Thunderkick’s Midas Golden Touch. Still, the visuals are clearly polished and very well made. On the reels you’ll see fairly standard low-value royals from 9 to A, alongside higher-paying oak twigs, apples, harps and cups. The last of these is the top regular symbol, paying 6.25 times your stake for 5 of a kind. You’ll also get two types of wilds — a standard wild and a multiplier wild that only shows up on reels 2 and 4 — with more details on that below.

Midas Treasure (Kalamba Games): Features

The first thing worth pointing out is the Hyperbet Selector positioned to the left of the reels. It includes 4 different choices, letting you tailor how the game plays. Here are the available settings:

• Bet Level 1: MULTIPLIER WILD value is 1X, and each FREE SPINS BONUS begins with 6 initial spins (93.62%-94.09% RTP).
• Bet Level 2: MULTIPLIER WILD value is 2X, and each FREE SPINS BONUS begins with 8 initial spins (94.50%-94.97% RTP).
• Bet Level 3: MULTIPLIER WILD value is 3X, and each FREE SPINS BONUS begins with 9 initial spins (96.37%-96.84% RTP).
• Bet Level 4: MULTIPLIER WILD value is at 5X, and each FREE SPINS BONUS begins with 10 initial spins (96.48%-96.95% RTP).

So, as the bet level increases, the Multiplier Wild value rises, the free spins allocation improves, and the RTP also goes up.

Keep an eye out for the King Midas throne scatter. Landing 3 of them triggers the Free Spins bonus. Your starting number of free spins is determined by the Hyperbet option you selected earlier. Once you’re in the free spins round, the goal is to gather accumulation symbols to convert regular symbols into wilds and to earn extra free spins, as outlined below:

• After 3 FREE SPINS ACCUMULATION symbols have been collected, 2 extra spins are awarded and CUP is an EXTRA WILD beginning from the next spin and for all remaining FREE SPINS.
• After 6 FREE SPINS ACCUMULATION symbols have been collected, 2 extra spins are awarded and HARP is an EXTRA WILD beginning from the next spin and for all remaining FREE SPINS.
• After 9 FREE SPINS ACCUMULATION symbols have been collected, 2 extra spins are awarded and APPLE is an EXTRA WILD beginning from the next spin and for all remaining FREE SPINS.
• After 12 FREE SPINS ACCUMULATION symbols have been collected, 2 extra spins are awarded and OAK TWIG is an EXTRA WILD beginning from the next spin and for all remaining FREE SPINS.
• For every 3 FREE SPINS ACCUMULATION symbols collected thereafter, 2 extra spins are awarded.

In other words, if you manage to turn every symbol into a wild, you could realistically hit a full screen of wilds during free spins. With the lowest bet level selected, that would mean a maximum win of 1000 times your stake per spin.

Using Kalamba’s notorious Hyperbonus Selector, you’re also able to purchase immediate entry into the free spins feature. If you go this way, you’ll be presented with 4 choices that mirror the Hyperbet Selector structure. The bonus price depends on which option you pick (not available at the time of testing). Your choices are:

• 6 free spins with 1x wild multiplier (96.69% RTP).
• 8 free spins with 2x wild multiplier (96.93% RTP).
• 9 free spins with 3x wild multiplier (96.96% RTP).
• 10 free spins with 5x wild multiplier (97.25% RTP).

To round things off, Midas Treasure also includes a Bonus Spins feature, which activates once you collect enough bonus collection symbols. Bonus Spins can be played at bronze, silver, gold or platinum level once the required number of symbols has been gathered in the base game:

• Bronze level: 50 symbols.
• Silver level: 75 symbols.
• Gold level: 125 symbols.
• Platinum level: 175 symbols.

When you hit the bronze, silver, or gold thresholds, you can either start the bonus at that level or keep playing in an attempt to reach the next tier. Once you reach the platinum threshold, the Bonus Spins feature starts automatically. You receive 3 initial Bonus spins. After the feature ends, you’re paid a prize based on how many Bonus Spins collection symbols you accumulated during the round, as shown here:

• 20 symbols – Bronze Level pays 12x, Silver Level pays 15x, Gold Level pays 40x, Platinum Level pays 60x
• 30 symbols – Bronze Level pays 25x, Silver Level pays 40x, Gold Level pays 60x, Platinum Level pays 80x
• 40 symbols – Bronze Level pays 40x, Silver Level pays 60x, Gold Level pays 75x, Platinum Level pays 100x
• 55 symbols – Bronze Level pays 50x, Silver Level pays 70x, Gold Level pays 140x, Platinum Level pays 200x
• 70 symbols – Bronze Level pays 80x, Silver Level pays 150x, Gold Level pays 250x, Platinum Level pays 300x
• 85 symbols – Bronze Level pays 100x, Silver Level pays 250x, Gold Level pays 500x, Platinum Level pays 1000x

Midas Treasure (Kalamba Games): Verdict

Even though it looks good and runs smoothly, Midas Treasure isn’t exactly the kind of slot that will have players rushing to fire it up after work. With all the mechanics and settings involved, it ended up being a bit more enjoyable to play than it was to explain. That said, a few elements are hard to ignore. For starters, we’re not keen on Kalamba’s feature buy approach — it feels a little odd and not as well thought out as what you typically see in Blueprint or Big Time Gaming releases.

More concerning is how strongly Kalamba nudges you into increasing your stake by making the default level feel effectively pointless. Realistically, an RTP ranging from 93.62% – 94.09% is laughable for an online slot, and it’s only once you step up to level 3 that the terms start to look reasonable. For us, that alone is enough to give this one a miss.