What spilled out of Lewis Carroll’s pen in the 1860s when he wrote the first Alice in Wonderland must have astounded him as much as it did his readers. Nonetheless, it’s likely Carroll would have freaked out even more if he’d known how famous his surreal universe would be on online slot machines more than a century after his death. SpinPlay Games, a Microgaming partner, has been hard at work on this new game in the year or so since we first worked together on Roman Power. Alice in WildLand is the featured slot, and it’s a combination of Wonderland and slots, with features centered on wild symbols.
Taking inspiration from Alice in Wonderland allows developers like Play’n GO to go all out with bizarre and fantastic visuals in their game. Alice in WildLand’s backdrop depicts a generic woodland, the kind you wouldn’t expect to find much of Lewis Carroll’s madness in, so it seems SpinPlay didn’t get the memo. The reels are a little more out there, with two sets of 5×3 reels stacked on top of each other. The reel symbols are colorful as well, but they don’t seem to go in with the rest of the scene. This might be because they were superimposed from another game.
Getting into the figures helps to some degree. The return to player percentage varies between 96.33% and 96.27%; the volatility ranges from moderate to high. When matching symbols appear next to one another, left to right, across the 40 fixed paylines, the hit rate is also fairly high, at 38.55%, meaning a win occurs more frequently than once every three spins. Bets may range from 20 pence to £/€30 each spin in this Wonderland experience, which is playable on any device.
It appears like Alice has been banging the caterpillar’s pipe a bit too hard in the game. Her face seems composed, but her glazed eyes reveal that a deep well of paranoia is churning inside her. Regardless, Alice is the highest paying regular symbol, accompanied by the bunny and the caterpillar. The four card suits are the lowest, followed by a heart potion, a cupcake, and a mushroom. If you get a line of five high payouts, you’ll win two to two and a half times your wager. The Cheshire Cat wilds contribute twice as much to Alice in WildLand’s characteristics.
Wild Features in Alice in Wonderland Slots
To catch as many Cheshire Cat wilds as possible is the primary objective of Alice in WildLand. This occurs because a stack of wild symbols that covers a complete reel in one set will be duplicated on the corresponding reel in the other set. If a Copycat Wild appears over a bonus symbol on the opposite reel set, both symbols will be treated as wilds. Finally, a line of five wilds pays out at 5x the wager. They can substitute for any ordinary pay symbol.
In addition, a Cheshire Multiplier is granted if a full reel of wilds appears on the same reel in both sets of reels. On the other hand, one Cheshire Multiplier may be given at random after any spin. When calculating line prizes, any Cheshire Multipliers are added to the total. The highest potential multiplier value is x60, and it may be achieved by accumulating multipliers of x2, x3, x5, x7, and x10.
The golden pocket watches are the scatter symbols, and 10, 15, 25, or 50 free games are awarded for landing 3, 4, 5, or 6 of them. When wild symbols appear during free plays, they expand to cover a whole reel, activating the Copycat Wild feature. A Cheshire Multiplier is rewarded when wilds nudge into the same reel on both sets of reels. Free games can be re-played if more Scatters land on the reels during the bonus round.
Conclusion of Alice in Wonderland Slot Game
Alice in WildLand doesn’t look horrible until you read about it. Full reel wilds appear, wild stacks can change reels, and there are multipliers on top of all that. There were a few exciting outcomes during free spin rounds, and the game has a lot of promise. However, Alice in WildLand sometimes comes out as being too juvenile to be taken seriously. It’s almost cartoonish in tone, thanks to the concept and especially to SpinPlay’s interpretation of Wonderland. There isn’t even a fraction of the intrigue, peril, or just plain strangeness seen in games like Rabbit Hole Riches or the granddaddy of them all, White Rabbit Megaways.
The gameplay is a little more mature than the theme treatment, but it still has some problems. The fixed paths are a major concern, as the low symbol values often don’t add up to much even after the application of random Cheshire Multipliers. However, casual gamblers may be satisfied with the relatively high hit rate as compensation. The enormous number of free spins that may be won, as well as the maximum win potential of 12,000x the stake, may also appeal to casual gamblers. This can be done in theory when a grid full of Cheshire Cats generates a complete x60 multiplier.
When it comes to creating evocative environments, Wonderland is a great area to let your imagination run wild. SpinPlay either didn’t realize the potential for Alice in WildLand or they just weren’t capable of making it the best Alice game out there. Although the Copycat Wild/Multiplier combination has the potential to be incredibly powerful, its juvenile design and cheap feel make it a less than appealing offer.