The main feature of this new release is the grid structure. Each reel can contain 1 to 5 rows in the base game, creating up to 729,000,000 ways to win.
How the Base Game Actually Works
Three elements come together in a pretty random way to create a unique experience each time you play:
- Dynamic Heights means each reel randomly changes size with every spin – and as a result the possible win combinations change as well. See, if you get more rows on a reel you get more ways to line up the symbols in adjacent columns, and that’s really good for your chances of winning;
- The Glass House Mechanic is pretty cool. It picks a random symbol and then breaks it into two or three bits wherever it shows up on the grid on that one special spin. And that means each of the broken bits adds to the total count of that symbol on the reel, which in turn means you have a few more ways to win for that one spin, and it all goes back to normal after the spin is done;
- The Highrise booster can give one to six reels a bit of an extra boost after the spin has stopped, adding an extra row or two up to the five row max. Which is a bit weird compared to how standard reel resizers work. They normally just set the height right at the start of the spin rather than adding to it after the fact.
Wilds can stand in for any high or low symbol – but they only appear on reels 2 through 6 – and not on reel number one.
Skyline Spins Bonus – Yay
You need three or more Scatters to trigger Skyline Spins. Three Scatters gets you 10 free spins, four gets you 15, and five gets you 20. If some more Scatters land on that first spin, you get extra spins. Four Scatters gives you two more, and six Scatters gives you four more.
In Skyline Spins, all the base game mechanics are still going strong, but the game is a bit different. The grid now uses Reflecta Reels, which is a fancy way of saying that each reel can go up to 10 rows instead of the standard 5, and the bottom half of each reel is like a mirror image of the top half. And if you land a symbol on the bottom half, it counts just the same as one on the top half.
Bonus Buy Option
The game lets you choose to either play it normally, or try out a couple of bonus options to get the game going a bit faster:
- The bonus hunt mode is pretty straightforward, its 3 times the base bet per spin, and it makes the free spin round pop up way more often than it would normally. The RTP (that’s the percentage of bets that get paid out over time) for this mode is 96.34%, and the volatility is pretty high;
- The Glass House option is like the bonus hunt mode, but it costs a bit more, 20x the base bet, and you get to use the Glass House Mechanic on every single spin. The RTP is 96.40%, and the volatility is still high;
- And finally you can just pay 60 times the base bet and skip right to the Skyline Spins free spin round, but that drops the RTP a bit to 96.29%, and the volatility is upped to the max.
Production and Positioning
Pineapple Play were behind this, they’re one of the smaller game makers out there, and Midnight Mirage certainly looks like one of the most ambitious games they’ve put out to date. There’s a pretty cool cityscape background with neon lights and glass and chrome accents, and a pink and blue and purple color scheme to match the vibe. And the electronic soundtrack is pretty great too, as it really adds to the whole feel of the game.
