Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Cassiopeia by Konami

Slot machine name:  Cassiopeia

Manufacturer: Konami

Slot Type: Video

Lines: 40 lines

Reel dimensions: 5 reels in a 4-5-4-5-4 configuration (22 symbols total)

Bonuses: Free spin bonus with mirror reels feature.

Rebranded: Part of Konami's Konxion mirror reels series

Progressive:  No progressive

Author's Rating: 8 / 10.




Konami's Cassiopeia is part of of the Konxion series, which introduces a reel configuration of 4-5-4-5-4. A nice feature of this configuration for the player is that the lines are not confusing. A line is any two symbols which connect left-to-right. Lines don't scatter top to bottom or in any other configuration. If the symbols touch then it is a playable line.  As a result of this, there is no choice to the player for number of lines to play - only bet per line.


Cassiopeia features stacked symbols, including stacked wilds, both during the bonus rounds and during normal play. The fact that all symbols are stacked, not just wilds, as well as the game's relatively low number of symbols contributes to Cassiopia's low to medium volatility.

The bonus is triggered by getting three or more scattered column symbols.
  • 3 symbols: 10 free spins
  • 4 symbols: 15 free spins
  • 5 symbols: 25 free spins
During the free spins, Cassiopeia's mirror reels feature kicks in.  This feature causes the 1st and 5th reel, and the 2nd and 4th reels to be duplicates.  Therefore, if you line up symbols on the first three reels, you will automatically have the final two symbols to complete a 5-of-a-kind. When combined with the stacked symbols that are fairly common, it's not unusual to see larger pays during the game's bonus round.

The video below features a re-triggered bonus round with a single pay involving stacked symbols.





Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Valiant Knight by WMS

Slot machine name:  Valiant Knight

Manufacturer: WMS Gaming

Slot Type: Video (4 games)

Lines: 20 lines per game

Reel dimensions: 5 reels, 3 symbols per reel, 4 games per play.

Bonuses: Free spins with wilds and multiplier when one or more games has three scattered king symbols.

Rebranded: Part of the super multi pay series, including St. Petersburg, Nautilus, GEMS GEMS GEMS , Rose of Cairo, Silver Sword, and Samurai Master.

Progressive:  No progressive

Author's Rating: 7 / 10.


Note, this is not the same as the version with the major / minor jackpots with the same name.




Valiant Knight is part of WMS's Super Multi Pay line of slots. All the machines in this line are 4 game machines. Bets are offered in denominations of 20, 40, 60, and 80 credits. For each twenty credits the player bets, one of the four games is opened up. Each game has twenty lines. It is highly to the player's advantage to play all four games - 80 credits.


Knight is similar to it's counterpart GEMS GEMS GEMS in that the primary reel spins first, and any bonus or wild symbols the player gets are then transferred to all three of the side games. Valiant Knight's variance in the base game is a bit lower than Gems due to the fact that Gems' wild symbols are stacked, whereas Knight wilds are not.


The bonus round in Knight is initiated when the player obtains three scattered king symbols on any of the four games.  The number of kings determines the number of free spins:

  • 3 king symbols = 5 free spins
  • 4 king symbols = 10 free spins
  • 5 king symbols = 10 free spins + 100x total bet
If the player obtains 3 or more king symbols on multiple games, then the free spins and winnings will be added together. For example, if a player got three kings on the primary game (transferring all three to the three sub-games), then obtained a forth king on one of the sub games, the player would get 5+5+5+10 = 25 free spins.

The bonus round has only one set of reels as opposed to four.  During the bonus round, wilds on the 5th reel are replaced with "5x" and "10x" knights. Whenever a multiplier knight appears on the 5th reel, he transforms all other wild symbols on other reels into the same multiplier as he is, even if the 5th reel wild is not part of the paying line.  This amounts to a high variance bonus round when compared to the base game.

Credit to casinomannj on Youtube for the below video.