Pokie Megaways: Slot Overview

Take a trip to the land down under with iSoftBet’s Australian-themed slot Pokie Megaways. Note that “pokies” here means slot machines in local slang, not any NSFW, cold-weather-related situation. Australia is pretty mind-blowing by the numbers: it’s more than twice the size of India yet has roughly 2% of the population. Slithering, crawling, and generally lurking across that vast landscape are plenty of creatures ready to sting, bite, or at least startle the unprepared. There are also plenty of adorable animals too, and both varieties show up in Pokie Megaways.

While iSoftBet was busy packing the reels with wildlife, they seemingly didn’t spend much time adding fresh ideas. Instead, they’ve opted to reskin an older title called Western Gold Megaways, which itself was basically a rework of Aztec Gold Megaways—and round it goes again. As for the new look, a 6-reel setup sits out in the Outback, with Ayers Rock to one side, clouds racing across the sky, and dust sweeping along the ground. It’s rugged territory, though not quite as bright and sun-drenched as you might expect from Australia’s interior.

Press play and up to 7 symbols can drop onto each reel, delivering up to 117,649 ways to win. Spins are priced from 20 p/c to $/€20 a pop, and players can also jump straight into the Hold & Win respins bonus round via a buy option if they want—the choice is available. In terms of volatility, this is a medium-high slot, with a standard-play RTP is 95.98%, increasing to 97% when the bonus game is purchased.

It follows the usual Megaways format, meaning wins are formed by matching symbols from left to right starting on the leftmost reel. The symbol set begins with 9-A, styled like classic pokie icons, then moves on to koala bears, crocs, an Outback hat-wearing bloke, and the Roo Casino logo as the top symbol. Hitting six low-value symbols across the reels pays 0.5-1.5x the bet, while six premium symbols return 2-25x the bet. The wild symbol shows up only on reels 2, 3, 4, or 5, and it substitutes for every symbol except the scatter.

Pokie Megaways: Slot Features

During the base game, players have features to look out for including cascades, Max Megaways, and a Bonus Add. Scatters are present too, acting as the entry point to Pokie Win Cash Respins.

Cascades

Each win in the base game triggers the cascade feature, which removes the winning symbols from the reels and replaces the empty spaces with new symbols dropping in from above. This can create multiple wins from a single spin, stopping only once no further win appears.

Max Megaways

This feature can activate on any paid spin. When it hits, each reel is filled with symbols, giving players the full number of Megaways.

Bonus Add

On any paid spin, there’s a possibility that Bonus Add will trigger, giving players the chance to win Pokie Cash Respins – and it’s worth noting this is not a guaranteed outcome.

Pokie Win Cash Respins

This is the main event, triggered when at least 5 scatter symbols land in the base game. The triggering scatters are held on the reels as all other symbols disappear. The bonus then runs on a reel set that drops only scatters symbols (which carry bet multipliers) along with jackpot type scatters. These may be the Mini, Major, or Mega scatters, paying 10x, 25x, or 50x the bet, respectively. You start with 3 respins, and the counter is reset whenever a new symbol lands and locks to the reels. In addition, if a reel is filled with symbols, the values on that reel are multiplied by the number of positions on the relevant reel.

Bonus Buy

If you’d rather not wait around in the virtual heat for scatters to land naturally, you may be able to purchase Pokie Win Cash Respins for 50x the total stake.

Pokie Megaways: Slot Verdict

After enjoying Aztec Gold Megaways and then feeling less enthusiastic about its successor Western Gold Megaways, the response to Pokie Megaways ended up being fairly lukewarm. At least iSoftBet didn’t cut the payouts like they did between the first two Gold Megaways titles. This time they’ve gone all-in on a direct reskin, putting more emphasis on the Australian sights and sounds. To be fair, the presentation is solid, and it offers a down-under vibe that’s arguably underused in slots considering how popular betting is in Australia.

Hopefully the full Crocodile Dundee-style visuals are enough to hook you, because the gameplay doesn’t bring anything new. The base game rolls along until the bonus arrives, where a reasonably frequent respin round takes over. The Gold series’ standout twist is the use of multipliers when reels become fully stacked, which is a nice touch when it happens. But after seeing the same idea repeated multiple times, the excitement has inevitably faded a bit. Even so, there’s still plenty of potential here, with wins reaching up to 12,000x the bet. If you’re after bigger excitement, you may be better served by Aztec Gold Megaways or the enhanced Aztec Gold Extra Gold Megaways – iSoftBet clearly has a soft spot for gold.

If smearing the dark magic of Vegemite on toast sounds like the perfect breakfast, then Pokie Megaways is a must-try. If not—and Vegemite is famously divisive—then since Pokie Megaways doesn’t really do anything its predecessor couldn’t, it’s not especially compelling purely on gameplay. Still, Pokie Megawys could be a fun pick for armchair travellers wanting a quick Outback detour without the risk of being stung or eaten by the local wildlife.