The Wish Master

The Wish Master: Slot Overview

If you've heard of the genie in the lamp story, you've no doubt pondered which three wishes you would ask him to grant. Wealth is high on most peoples' list and is one thing that may be granted when playing The Wish Master from NetEnt - provided luck is on your side, of course. Inspired by classics such as One Thousand and One Nights, The Wish Master is full of genies, lamps, treasure, and a dash of magic.

A veritable Aladdin's cave greets players when The Wish Master loads. The game uses a transparent 5x3 grid along with 20 paylines located inside a dark cavern full of gold and gems twinkling tantalisingly in the background. Despite getting on in years, The Wish Master has aged well and is still an attractive-looking game to play. NetEnt has backed up the darkly edged graphics with a neat fantasy-infused soundtrack, which furthers the exotic feel. A final touch is a message repeatedly flashing above the play button saying, 'May your dreams come true', putting a positive spin on the proceedings.

Due to an HTML upgrade, The Wish Master is playable on any device where players can alter coin values from 0.01 to 0.50 and bet level from 1-10. This provides a range of stakes from 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin. Genies were known for being temperamental, which is reflected in The Wish Master's highly volatile math model. RTP is quite high, too, at 96.64%, as is a hit frequency of 38.17%, meaning wins every 2.5 spins or so.

The Wish Master comes with 8 regular pay symbols to form winning combinations. Half are lower value J to A card symbols, while the rest are various coloured pendant designs depicting birds, scorpions, lions, and snakes. When the bet level is set to 1, 5 of a kind premium symbol wins are worth a payout of 15 to 37.5 times the stake. Wilds play a critical role in producing The Wish Master's most thrilling moments. However, there is also a standard fiery wild, landing in any position to replace any pay symbol.

The Wish Master: Slot Features

Just as rubbing lamps is the first step in wish fulfilment in stories, the lamp scatter is the gateway to The Wish Masters extras. Just 1 lamp scatter in view is enough to trigger 10 spins with one of the following modifiers active throughout:

• Extra wilds – the lion and the snake symbols become wild symbols.
• Wild reel – the reel that the triggering scatter landed on becomes fully wild.
• Expanding wilds – whenever the fiery wild symbol lands in the feature, it expands to cover the entire reel.
• Multiplier – all bet line wins are multiplied by x2 or x3, or even both giving an x6 multiplier.
• Random wild – after each spin, two random wilds are added to the reels overlaying other symbols.

A scatter symbol appearing on the reels during the bonus round extends the feature by activating another Wish Master modifier from the above list and adds +5 more spins to the counter. It is possible to have up to 3 Wish Master modifiers active at the same time. If a scatter lands, and there are already 3 modifiers active, the first one is dropped, then a new modifier is triggered.

The Wish Master: Slot Verdict

It might be getting on in years, but The Wish Master is as fun to play now as it ever was. Visually, it might not be mind-blowing, but it's still a good-looking game that puts many modern efforts to shame. The genie comes sparkling to life when triggered, dramatically slamming his modifier onto the reels, and the soundtrack deepens the mystery. The Wish Master reminds you of how cutting-edge NetEnt was when they released it back in 2014.

As to the gaming side of things, The Wish Master remains a highly playable slot. There are quite a few features, but the rules are simple, meaning the game has a great flow to it. Lamp symbols land often to break up the regular base game pattern, leading at times to some excellent results. Potential equates to 900,000 coins, with a win cap in the feature of €450,000, so there is plenty to play for.

To be crystal clear, when lamp scatters land, free spins are not awarded. It's just that Wish Master modifiers are applied over the next 10 paid spins - or more if retriggers occur. To stop players getting cute and changing their bet once the Wish Master modifiers are triggered, NetEnt has added a pretty strict rule. What's important to know is that if you change the bet, the awarded modifiers completely vanish. In many other games, rewards are stored for when you return to the triggering bet level. Not so with The Wish Master, so if you score some modifiers, be sure to use them at whatever stake you win them at.

All in all, The Wish Master is a great slot with unpretentious gameplay that makes it an enjoyable break from massive modern extravaganzas. However, The Wish Master is no lightweight either, packing hefty rewards if you manage to rub the lamp the right way and get the genie-slinging features into the game.