Spooky House slot

Spooky House slot has been revamped by High Flyer Games for Novomatic and is being made available to most countries licensed to provide their slots. This is good news as the game isn't half bad and it seems Halloween is being celebrated increasingly in Europe as the years go by so the theme feels quite normal. Play'n Go gave us Happy Halloween, Playtech gifted us Halloween Fortune and Microgaming released Halloweenies slot but I'd say this better than them all! Now this game certainly won't win prizes for graphics as very few Novo's would; we get cream reels over a background of a night time haunted forest and actually hear some themed sounds as opposed to the usual wheedle-and-trot noises from this developer. They missed a trick (no pun) as the spectacle would have been enhanced by transparent reels here, so is it safe to enter this Spooky House with your money?

On the reels...

Now this is a usual set-up of 5 reels and 3 rows but there is a rather odd staking system here. You can play 1, 5, 15 coins etc. to have that quantity of paying lines in play but the real intent is for you to pay 30 for the privilege of a 243-way game so that is what the review will be based on. There aren't stacked symbols with the exception of the Witch Wild appearing on the centre 3 reels and this brings us a 'Starburst' type of re-spin feature. If appearing fully covering a column, you get paid and then a re-spin, and should another land fully in view another re-spin.

So what about the pays? The Spooky House is best at 500 coins for a full way of 5 symbols (about 17x bet) with the Gold Pot 400, Black Cat 300, Rose 200 and six card values awarding 150 down to 60 coins. Naturally those stacked Wilds can result in numerous ways simultaneously so these awards aren't too bad for the format. Conspicuous by its absence so far on a Halloween-themed game is our old orange friend, the Pumpkin, but fear not is does appear and has a very important role!

Spooky spins

Similar to slots like Eastern Dragon, Spooky House requires the scatter to appear on reels 1 and 5 to trigger the free games bonus. So if you see the candlelit Pumpkins appear on those end reels, 15 free games are yours. You can retrigger them and they have the enhancement of a 3x multiplier too and you still have the chance of the Wild re-spin feature within them. If this round goes well then that 3x multiple really does count with the top icon paying 50x for one way and up to 27 are possible at once if you see those 3 full Wilds!

Our View...

Spooky House slot is a decent looking game without juvenile symbology and comfortable sounds but perhaps most importantly for many players, you don't have the sometimes painful high volatility that often comes with Novomatic slots. You have some big win potential and a decent 95.01% RTP and your balance should last long enough to sample those interesting free spins. The stacked Witch Wild re-spins are a nice touch and can yield those all-importance 'balance maintenance wins' necessary for a productive session. Spooky House may indeed provide a few treats come Halloween...