Fairytale Legends: Red Riding Hood Slot
FairyTale Legends: Red Riding Hood is a 5-reel, fixed 20 pay-line online slot from NetEnt. You won't gain any prizes for guessing what this NetEnt release is based upon. 'Little Red Riding Hood' is a famous European folk tale that begs the question – was what 'Little Red Riding Hood' known as before she started wearing a little red riding hood? Anyhow, in the story Little Red is taking some grub to her sickly grandmother when she encounters a talking wolf. She tells him her destination, so wolfie races ahead, eats granny and awaits Little Red's arrival, disguised as an old woman. When Little Red arrives on the scene she seems quite nonchalant that her granny is much more hirsute than she previously recalled.
In the original tale Little Red is devoured and the story ends – a parable about not talking to strangers and doing as one is requested. Later, less frightful versions introduced a heroic woodcutter who conveniently stumbles by, chops open Mr Wolf and saves both the grandmother and Little Red.
Little Red is the main character in this NetEnt slot of course, and upon every spin she takes a few steps towards her destination. There's also a fairy in the game, although we've really no idea why as there's never one mentioned in any version of the classic story. There's also a distinct lack of wolves, either big, bad or otherwise, except for a brief glimpse in the bonus game. Other symbols include a key, a rose and a book.
This slot has twenty pay lines and that's a fixed number. You can select your coin size from 0.01 to 1.00, and your bet level from one to ten. You final line bet wager is your coin size multiplied by your bet level multiplied by twenty. When you're ready to see what big teeth you have, hit the spin button.
Payout & bonus rounds
It's no fairy tale – the lowest payout in this slot is for three identical playing card symbols – ten through to ace. You will win two coins with this combination. The top prize is secured by landing five 'Fairytale Legends: Red Riding Hood' symbols, which wins four hundred coins.
Little Red is wild in this game and she substitutes for all other symbols. She only appears on the central three reels though, but if you land two or more wilds upon any one spin you are awarded a free re-spin in which all wilds hold in position.
There are three features in this game that are activated randomly:
- Fairy Magic Spin: A random cluster of five to nine winning symbols (not including the logo symbol) appear as a held overlay on the reels for a single spin.
- Fairy Surprise: If the reels do not land in a winning combination, then there's a chance of this feature being activated. One symbol is selecting randomly and the other symbols on the reels turn into this symbol – one by one – until a win is achieved.
- Fairly Wild Spins: Three or four wild symbols appear randomly on the central three reels. After wins are paid, a sticky re-spin is awarded.
If you land a bonus symbol on reels one, three and five at the same time then you are awarded one of three bonus features. You select a treasure chest in order to see which bonus feature you will receive:
- Beware the Wolf Bonus: This is a board-game type bonus in which Little Red moves along a track. You spin a 'whirligig' in order to see how many steps along the path you are permitted to take. You will uncover a coin win, double, arrow, jackpot coin win symbol or collect symbol. You can keep going along the path until you find a 'collect' symbol.
- Free Spins Bonus: You are awarded ten free spins
- Coin Win Bonus: You are awarded your current bet multiplied by fifteen.
While this slot certainly has an impressive number of features, we can't help but feel the lack of a big bad wolf or a grandmother is an oversight, and the addition of a fairy seems a tad peculiar. It's an impressive-looking game though well up to NetEnt's usual standards. Just make sure you keep to the path and don't talk to strangers, hairy or otherwise!