Turn Your Fortune Introduction

After watching NetEnt’s official promo video for Turn Your Fortune, we can’t say we were blown away, but there was still something oddly intriguing about it. Not enough to keep us up all night, of course, yet that large golden cylindrical barrel definitely stood out. Visually, it feels noticeably dated, which makes us wonder if NetEnt dusted off an older concept that didn’t quite meet the bar back in the day. Pure speculation, but it’s hard not to think of Mythic Maiden, another old-school NetEnt slot, when you first see this one.

Turn Your Fortune is a 5-reel, 4-row slot with 40 paylines and a betting range of 0.20 and 200. The core mechanic is the Fortune Spins feature, which can appear in both the base game and the free spins round. The oversized barrel on the left side of the reels is also central to how things work. Volatility seems fairly high, with a large share of the RTP tied to the base game re-spin mechanic.

From a visual standpoint, it’s unfortunately a big miss. The presentation looks worn and old, which is surprising given the clearly skilled artists at NetEnt. The background is basically generic wallpaper (and yes, it could use more jpg), and overall it gives off the vibe of walking into a Chinese 1-dollar store—gold and bling everywhere. As unlikely as it sounds, it could have been intentionally retro as a tribute, but it doesn’t really land.

That said, dated graphics aren’t automatically a deal-breaker in slots, as anyone who enjoys playing Nvomatics or WMS can attest. And in the end, even Dreamworks couldn’t rescue a slot with weak maths. So let’s dig into Turn Your Fortune a bit further.

Turn Your Fortune Symbols & Paytable

The game features 4 low-win symbols and 5 medium-win symbols. The low-value set is the J to A royals, while the higher-paying icons are emerald-coated shells, fish, turtles, owls, and a lion—where the lion is the top symbol, paying 10 times the stake for 5 of a kind. Every symbol can appear fully stacked on the reels, meaning it’s theoretically possible to hit a full screen of lions and claim the base game jackpot of 400 times the stake.

Turn Your Fortune also has a Key symbol and a +10 symbol, and both are exclusive to the free spins feature, which we’ll cover in the appropriate section below. The wild can land anywhere on the reels in both the base game and the bonus. It substitutes for all symbols except the scatter, key symbols, and +10 symbols.

Turn Your Fortune Fortune Re-spins & Free Spins

Turn Your Fortune largely revolves around the free spin feature, which is essentially the only place where you can realistically land solid wins, since the base game feels extremely underpowered. Before getting into the bonus, though, we’ll go through the Re-spin feature, which works like a smaller version of the free spins.

In the base game, landing 2 scatter symbols anywhere on reels 1, 3 or 5 triggers the Fortune Re-spins. This is where the golden barrel becomes important. It shows 5 tiers of coin prizes, and to climb those tiers you need to fill the Fortune Wins meter by landing the collectable symbol that’s determined by the winning symbol that triggered the feature. Collecting 5 of them advances you one tier, up to a maximum of 5 levels. Keep an eye out for the Key symbol—when it lands on reel 5, the coin values on the barrel increase.

The feature finishes when no collectable symbols land, or once the maximum of 20 (full screen) symbols have been collected. The coin prize (200x max win) is then paid out along with any winnings from the standard spins.

The Free spin feature might look similar to the Re-spin feature at first glance, but it’s actually a different mode. Hitting 3 scatter symbols sends you to a 3-tier free spins wheel, which randomly determines the number of free spins, the collectable symbol, and the starting Fortune Wins level. You can win between 7 to 13 free spins and, with some luck, get boosted straight to level 4 .

During free spins, you must fill the meter by 20 spaces to advance the Fortune Wins level, but to balance the tougher requirement, a +10 collectable symbol on reel 2 is available. Landing it adds 10 to the meter. While in the free spins round, every scatter that lands awards one extra free spin, which can keep the feature running for a long stretch. Reach the top level and the payout can go as high as 2000 times the stake.

Turn Your Fortune Conclusion

One thing NetEnt may have missed here is making it immediately clear where the game’s potential sits and how you’re meant to unlock it. In our view, that’s especially damaging in a volatile slot with weak base game returns, because players may lose interest before the mechanics click. As you’ve probably noticed from the review, it’s a little convoluted—though it’s worth noting it becomes easier to follow once you’re actually playing.

Even though the bonus can deliver a hit, it still doesn’t measure up to what we typically expect from strong modern slots. On top of that, the limited paylines on a 4-row setup lead to plenty of dead spins and small wins, which makes the base game feel slow and repetitive with little momentum. The Re-spin feature does trigger often, but it can start to feel samey over time, particularly given the modest upside.