Splendour Forest (Max Win Gaming): Overview

Max Win Gaming is one of those smaller independent studios that has been brought in by a larger company so more games can be released at a faster pace—a strategy that has become more and more widespread and has flooded the market with a huge number of average titles. Max Win Gaming’s debut release, Fruit Strike, was so unremarkable that we chose to pass on it entirely. The studio’s second title, Splendour Forest, appears a bit more encouraging. If the game feels familiar when you first load it up, that’s because Relax Gaming has been able to use the old Red Tiger interface. The slot itself, though, is its own thing—or as much as it can be, given that it’s yet another spin on the classic ‘Book’ formula.

Running on Relax Gaming’s Silver Bullet platform, Splendour Forest is a 5-reel, 10-payline fantasy slot with a calm, laid-back atmosphere. As a ‘Book’ game variant, it includes the familiar scatter wilds and a free spins round featuring special expanding symbols, but it also adds a small twist that we’ll cover later in the review. With high volatility and a fixed RTP setting of 95.04%, Splendour Forest is available on all devices with stakes from 0.20 to $/€100 per spin.

From a visual standpoint, this psychedelic slot doesn’t reinvent the wheel, though the presentation is still polished. The action takes place in an enchanted forest, accompanied by a soothing, spa-like soundtrack layered with birdsong. Reel symbols include A, J, Q, K and A royals, along with oak acorns, mushrooms, and lanterns. The top-paying symbol is the lady in the blue hat, awarding 500 times your stake for five of a kind. As in most ‘Book’ slots, the scatter also functions as a wild, but here it only shows up on reels 1, 3 and 5.

Splendour Forest (Max Win Gaming): Features

Splendour Forest doesn’t come packed with lots of extras, and although the base game can deliver up to 500 times your stake, the real focus is the Free Spins feature. It triggers when the golden oak tree scatter lands on reels 1, 3 and 5, awarding 10 free spins. Before the free spins begin, you’re taken to a pick screen where your special expanding symbols is revealed.

This is also where Splendour Forest separates itself from many other ‘Book’ games, since the symbol you receive can also include a +1 symbol above it. When that appears, you simply get to choose an additional symbol, meaning you can enter the bonus round with multiple expanding symbols active. Although the feature can be retriggered, you can’t add more expanding symbols (as in Book of Ra Magic or Rise of Merlin, for instance) once the free spins game has already started.

Splendour Forest (Max Win Gaming): Verdict

If you’re happy to take a break from Book of Ra or Book of Dead, you’ll probably find that Splendour Forest is a respectable slot with enough competence to hold your attention for a while. That said, there’s one notable downside you should keep in mind. While plenty of players are clearly fine with an RTP under 96% for the original Book of Ra, it’s questionable whether they’ll be as tolerant with the imitators. One thing Play’n GO nailed with Book of Dead was delivering the same kind of action as Book of Ra, but with a much better RTP. In our view, the lower RTP alone is a good reason to skip this one unless you don’t have stronger alternatives available.

Aside from that, Splendour Forest is a title where Max Win Gaming shows real potential. The production quality is dependable, the play experience is fluid, and the math model seems nicely balanced. Add 6427 times your stake win potential on top, and it’s hard to deny that the game has plenty of appeal.