Reflex Gaming, a UK-based developer, has joined Yggdrasil’s Master’s Program to accelerate their expansion into the e-gaming market. Since its founding in 2004, Reflex Gaming has been actively delivering gaming machines to land-based casinos worldwide. Moley Moolah joins the current push into the iGaming market from countries like the UK and the Netherlands, where it is already fairly popular. Hopefully, the studio’s partnership with Yggdrasil will help them get exposure to a wider audience of online gamers.
The English town of Molesworth serves as the backdrop for the suburban garden in which Moley Moolah takes place. There, a kind fellow calls the subterranean home to a grid of slot machines with five reels and ten paylines. The mole, a lowly species whose tunnels ruin lawns, calls this area home. Only in ‘whack a mole’ games do moles appear in popular culture, and usually only to be smacked over the head. You shouldn’t anticipate cutting-edge images from this. Slot machine Moley Moolah was created with the concept of’retro’ in mind. It’s enough to make you long for the days when you got a CD with your morning cereal that had a 50/50 chance of working on your computer.
Now that Reflex has entered the digital realm, Moley Moolah may be played on any gadget, from a desktop computer to a mobile phone. There is a wide range of betting options, from 20 p/c up to $100/€100 each spin. The return to player (RTP) is little lower than most would prefer at 95.74%, though not substantially so, and the volatility is moderate.
Around one in four spins will result in a win over the game’s 10 fixed, both-ways paylines. Since wins for combinations of three or more matching symbols apply both left to right and right to left, the number of possible outcomes increases dramatically. There are a total of 9 pay symbols, with some respectable payouts available at the top of the pay table. The logo has a J-A royal family, followed by pickaxes, helmets, sunflowers, gnomes, and a logo. When five of a type of a non-royal symbol appear, the payout is 10x to 50x the wager.
It sounds extreme to blow up moles to prevent them from destroying your garden. However, a box of dynamite serves as the game’s wild, standing in for any other pay symbol.
Money, Money, Money: Specs
Players have access to two bonuses as they attempt to swat this mole. There are two types of bonus features in this game: Wild Reels, which can come at any moment, and free spins, which must be activated.
The logo above the reels may split apart at the conclusion of a spin, revealing the friendly mole holding a sign containing the wild symbol. The Wild Reels function has been announced. The reels tremble, making random icons wild. Keep in mind that he is also a teaser. On occasion, he’ll appear, but then quickly retreat, shaking his head and giving you the cold shoulder.
The bonus symbol is adorned by our Moley friend, and it only appears on reels 1, 3, and 5. This is how you unlock free spins. The bonus sign can act as a substitute for any other symbol in the game, much like the wild can. When 3 bonus symbols appear in view, the player is awarded 12 free games.
The game really changes when you get free spins. A new objective, gathering golden acorns, has been added. There’s an acorn tally bar at the top of the screen where you can keep track of how many you’ve gathered so far. Extra slots, or a bonus award at the end of the meter’s journey, become available at various stages along the way.
Reels 2, 3, and 4 are unlocked when the acorn counter hits 5, 10, or 15 respectively. The game offers a 250x bonus on top of any earnings if you manage to gather 20 acorns. In theory, the bonus round will trigger about once every 159 spins.
Conclusion: Holy Crap!
After playing for a while, similarities between Moley Moolah and the slot machine The Dog House by Pragmatic Play become apparent. The animal motif and the upbeat music and colorful royal insignia also play a role in this. Since the remainder of the game is so different from the Pragmatic classic, it’s likely just a coincidence. The visuals, for one, are reminiscent of a game from the turn of the millennium or before. Numerous players must be spinning this style, as it appears in many of Reflex’s earlier games.
Whatever it is, there is a ravenous audience devouring this throwback material, and Moley Moolah is completely at home among them. It has an irreverent wackiness that puts it in the same category as Reel King, another game that makes you scratch your head in bewilderment. Those that find Moley Moolah’s colors to be lively rather than garish may have a great time playing the game and helping the little guy gather acorns.
Moley Moolah has an unusual free spins feature based on acorns. Not the collecting mechanism per se, but rather the availability of four spaces at once. Perhaps gimmicky, yet entertaining when many players are cruising to victory together. However, the free spins feature reels might be somewhat small on mobile devices. You can still do it, but you might have to squint a little to see well.
While Moley Moolah’s attributes and numbers are rather respectable, it is his or her appearance that may win over or turn off potential followers. There are enjoyable sequences in Moley Moolah, but they may not be enough to make up for the film’s overall rudimentary, straight-from-the-cereal-box kiddish atmosphere.