Rumble Rhino Megaways: Slot Overview

Rumble Rhino Megaways marks the first time Big Time Gaming’s widely used engine has appeared in a Wizard Games online slot. Wizard Games is Pariplay’s in-house studio, launched in 2021. Rather than leaning on a famous brand and going big, the Megaways mechanic has been bolted onto one of Pariplay’s earlier titles, Rhino Rumble, released in early 2019. Oddly, aside from the expanded reel set-up and ways count, Rumble Rhino Megaways brings fewer fresh ideas than the original, which included Mega Symbols, Mystery Symbols, and what has to be among the most uninspired free spins you’ll find in a Megaways game.

When a slot has “Rhino” in its name, it’s usually a safe assumption you’re heading to the African countryside, surrounded by wildlife. That’s exactly the case in Rumble Rhino Megaways, where a 6-reel game grid basks in a grassy landscape with acacia trees, rocky formations, and a lightly speckled, cloudy sky. Wizard Games does have a capable graphics team, credit where it’s due. With more original material, it would be interesting to see what they could produce. The reel animals look realistic, and anyone with a zoology interest should be content. Even so, Rumble Rhino Megaways has a very familiar look, and the acceptable theme work is later undermined once the features come into play.

As shown, the grid in Rumble Rhino Megaways doesn’t align evenly. That’s because the two outer reels can land up to 6 symbols, while the four middle reels can land up to 7. When every reel is filled to its maximum, 86,436 ways are in play, alongside a hit rate of 14.24%. That may feel a touch low for a non-fruit slot, but the upside is the default RTP sits above the average at 96.16%, while volatility is rated medium-high.

With stakes available from 50 p/c to $/€100 per spin, the paytable is dominated by animals: meerkats, birds, antelopes, zebras, cheetahs, and gorillas serve as the premium symbols. Hitting a 6 of a kind line-up of animal tiles pays 0.4 to 2.5 times the stake. That’s quite modest for Megaways, and the 4 low-value royals are lower still. Three jacks, for instance, return just 0.01x the bet, which is 1c on one Euro spins. There is also a wild symbol—the rhino—substituting for all symbols except the bonus symbol.

Rumble Rhino Megaways: Slot Features

If Rumble Rhino Megaways hasn’t won you over yet, the feature set probably won’t change your mind. The paytable highlights Mega Symbols, Mystery Mask Symbols, and free spins.

Mega Symbols land on the middle 4 reels and can drop partly on-screen or cover the reels completely. When one appears, the number of positions it occupies is the number of symbols counted when working out the Megaways total. Any symbol except wilds or scatters can show up as a Mega Symbol.

When Mystery Mask symbols land, they all transform into the same matching pay symbol. Mystery Mask Symbols may also appear in a Mega 4×7 size.

Hitting a diamond scatter symbol on reels 1 and 6 simultaneously awards 12 free spins. Curiously, the bonus round doesn’t really add anything new, since the same rules apply as in the base game. Free spins can, however, be retriggered during the feature.

Rumble Rhino Megaways: Slot Verdict

Yes, there’s something to be said for playing it safe on a first Megaways release, but Rumble Rhino Megaways is among the least inventive Megaways introductions we’ve seen in some time. There’s nothing here that really earns it a spot on a must-try list. Unless someone is desperate for an African setting but refuses to leave the house, there’s little reason to sample the narrow set of pleasures Rumble Rhino Megaways provides. On the plus side, it’s not ugly—actually, it’s fairly attractive—though it begs the question of how often players need to be marched back across Africa’s sun-baked savannah to watch wildlife again. Even the Lion King-style font for the royals feels tired.

It might not feel quite so underwhelming if Rumble Rhino Megaways delivered a few standout features to lift it out of the middling groove Wizard Games has placed it in. Yet even on that front, it disappoints. The problem isn’t really the two special symbol types, which at least try to add some sparkle. Mega Symbols, especially, can have a strong impact when they land. Mystery symbols are less impressive because you often only see a single one, which doesn’t achieve much. To be fair, there are also moments when clusters of mystery symbols arrive, making them noticeably more helpful.

The bigger letdown is the free spins round. The key issue is that it plays like a run of normal spins, only without paying for them. It’s easy to criticise Megaways slots that rely on a standard progressive win multiplier as being unoriginal, but after a few Rumble Rhino Megaways free spins, you start wishing it had one—or anything at all. Combine the weak bonus with the large number of dead spins and the clearly low symbol values, and it’s enough to wipe out any motivation to continue.

To end on a bleak note, picture a future where poaching, plagues, pollution, human encroachment, deforestation, or disease has erased Africa’s land mammals. The only way future generations would learn they existed outside biodomes would be through books, movies, tv, or online slots. These magnificent animals deserve more than that.