Wicked Circus Slot
Wicked Circus is a 5-reel, fixed 10-pay line slot from Yggdrasil Gaming that was released in April 2016. For a while now, a dodgy-looking joker has been something of a mascot for Yggsdrasil Gaming, appearing in games such as the Jokerizer and the Dark Joker Rizes. He seemed quite a friendly chap at first, but has since proven that he has something of a dark side too. Here he is given full reign to terrorize online gamblers, as he tempts you to enter his Wicked Circus.
The not-so-jolly Jester is joined here on the reels by some very traditional slot machine symbols – cherries, lemons, grapes, bells, lucky sevens and stars. There are only five possible pay lines, but as they run both left-to-right and right-to-left, that doubles the total number of ways to win.
The ten pay lines are fixed and so are in play at all times. You can choose your coin size from 0.01 to 1.00. Your final wager is your coin size multiplied by the number of lines that you have in play. When you're ready to say 'roll up, roll up' and enter the big top, hit that spin button!
Payout & bonus rounds
Payouts commence at 20x your line bet for three cherries, and rise to 300x your line-bet for five stars.
Any line win in this slot activates 'Jokerizer Mode'. Your winnings are pooled into your Jokerizer balance, which you can collect or spend twenty coins for Jokerizer spins – for example if you win sixty coins, then you can either collect or try three Jokerizer spins. Note that during autoplay Jokerizer Mode is selected by default.
Your chances to win are increased in Jokerizer Mode. If you land a 'Mystery Win' of five hundred coins or more, then you'll be returned to Regular mode.
If you land two jokers anywhere in Jokerizer Mode, or three anywhere in Regular Mode, then you are awarded a 'Mystery Win' – the more jokers you land, the more your win is likely to be, up to a maximum of 6,000 coins.
Two or more jokers anywhere in Jokerizer Mode will trigger the 'Hold' function. You do not have to activate this function – you can take the win instead. The hold function locks the reels containing the jokers in place, but spins the remaining reels. You can keep on using hold mode until you have landed the maximum of five jokers or when your Jokerizer balance runs dry, or you can quit at any time.
Kudos for Yggsdrasil Gaming for attempting something a little different here, but we're not sure that they've pulled it off. We're don't really understand the benefits of 'Jokerizer Mode' – in our experience it just seems that when selected this mode makes your cash disappear more quickly, as you simply spend your winnings on 'Jokerizer Spins' in the quest to be awarded a mystery win. The graphics are very nice, but we're not satisfied with the gameplay. In short, this is one circus we're not really in any hurry to buy another ticket for.