The Race Megaways (Big Time Gaming) Slot Review

The Race Megaways: Slot Overview

When was the last time you felt your heart racing? And why was it racing? Because of Adrenaline? Excitement? Thrill? That’s a lot of questions, we know. But no matter when or why your heart was racing the last time, Big Time Gaming is promising to do it again. That’s why they introduce us to The Race Megaways.

Despite the name, The Race Megaways does nothing have to do with fast cars or racing in particular. It refers more to a rising heartbeat, hence our opening text. The Race Megaways is played on 6 reels with an extra row and, as the name suggests, uses the Megaways technology. This means that every reel can have a random amount of 2 to 7 symbols, allowing for up to 117,649 Ways to win. Additionally, the game uses Tumbling Wins, meaning that symbols in winning combinations are destroyed and new ones drop onto the screen. Bet sizes range from 0.20€ to 40€ (or equivalent), but may vary depending on where you play.

The Race Megaways features 10 different winning symbols, all of them in a very Big Time Gaming-like style. There are 6 winning symbols on the lower end and 4 on the higher end. Let’s take a look at the lower winning symbols first. These are the classic winning symbols from 9 to A in their usual Big Time Gaming colours. First up are the 9’s and 10’s, netting you 0.5-times your bet size per full way. Next are J’s and Q’s, clocking in at 0.7-times your bet size. And then we already have the K’s and A’s for 0.9-times your bet size. Pretty basic payouts for Big Time Gaming standards.

As for the high tier symbols, these are pretty much the same like in every other Big Time Gaming game. First is the Green Emerald for 1-time your bet size for a full way. Next is the Blue Sapphire, clocking in at 2-times your bet size. Second to last is the Red Ruby, coming in at 5 times your bet size. And last but not least, the top symbol is the Purple Diamond for 12.5-times your bet size per full way. Again, pretty standard payouts for Big Time Gaming.

The Race Megaways: Special Symbols and Stats

Of course there are also Special symbols in The Race Megaways. Although there aren’t too many, they all play an important roll, one way or another.

First we’ll take a look at the Scatter symbol. This symbol is portrayed just the same as the logo of the game in the upper right. A virtual blue heart with a heartbeat tracing. If you manage to land 3 or more of those in a single spin you will be granted access to the Heart Bonus.

There is also a Special symbol which is exclusive to the Heart Bonus, called the Terminator Symbol. We will describe its look and function as soon as we get to it in our Feature Overview section of this online slot review.

The next Special symbol is the Wild symbol, simply displayed by flashy colours and a „WILD“ label in rainbow colours in the middle. The Wild symbol will substitute for any winning symbol except Scatter or Terminator symbols. Wilds will play a massive roll in winning big, we will explain why in a bit. Wild symbols can only appear on the extra row.

Usually we would now feed you with stats about the game we’re reviewing. Unfortunately, Big Time Gaming does not publish a lot of information about their games. There are only few things we can tell you. First up, The Race Megaways comes with a base RTP of 96.27%, which is alright and slightly above the average. And the only other thing we can tell you is that the estimated max win potential of The Race Megaways is at 24,070-times your bet size. The reason why it is estimated is that Big Time Gaming games are not capped in their winning potential. So this value is just a rough estimation based on millions of simulated spins. The true max win potential could indeed be much higher.

The Race Megaways: Feature Overview

Alright, now it is time to see what The Race Megaways actually does. As usual in the Feature Overview section, we will be taking a look at all of the features the game has to offer and describe them to you as good as we can.

• Wild Duplication

As we mentioned before, Wild symbols play a vital role in The Race Megaways. That is because of the Wild Duplication feature. You see, at the beginning of every spin, when the reels stopped spinning, every Wild symbol that is in view has the chance to duplicate. Although duplicate is the wrong word here. What it actually means is that it will occupy every position on its reel, turning every symbol on this reel into a Wild symbol. This feature has special properties in the Heart Bonus, which we will cover next.

• Heart Bonus

3 or more Scatter symbols in the same spin will allow you to enter the Heart Bonus. First of all, you will be taken to a 4×5 grid. There you will play 3 Respins. Your 3 or more Scatter symbols are already placed on the grid. What happens now is that you want to land as many Scatter symbols as you can. Every Scatter symbol will grant you +1 live and will reset your Respins to 3. The first part of the Heart Bonus is over when you have no more Respins left or the grid is filled.

During the second part of the Heart Bonus you will be taken to the actual game. You will start with the lives you were able to get in the previous grid. There is no set amount of Free Spins you get, you can keep spinning as long as you have lives. What comes in play now is the Terminator symbol, displayed by a crossed heart. Whenever this lands on the last reel, you will lose a live. As far as we know, you cannot lose more than 1 live per spin.

In the Free Spin Rounds, you will collect a multiplier. This multiplier increases with every win. Keep in mind, this includes multiple winning combinations at once. For every win, the multiplier will increase by +1 and will stay until the Feature is over

Additionally, the Wild Duplication feature gets expanded. During the Heart Bonus, any Wild that was placed on a reel via the Wild Duplication gets a random multiplier between 2x and 5x. This feature is vital for big wins.

The feature will end as soon as you have no more lives left.

• Win Exchange

The Race Megaways features the Win Exchange feature. In this feature, you can gamble any win in the base game between 25-times and 100-times for a Heart Bonus. The higher you win, the higher your chances of getting the bonus. But be careful, you can also lose the whole win. Additionally, if you managed to get a win over 100-times your bet size, you can directly exchange it for a Heart Bonus.

• Bonus Buy Feature

Instead of waiting for a bonus in the base game, you can just buy it. For 100-times your bet size you can skip the line and trigger a 3 Scatter bonus immediately. Keep in mind that you will buy 3 Scatters directly, there is no chance for you to trigger with more. Also, The Race Megaways is a very volatile slot, so be careful when buying it. The Bonus Buy RTP is set to 96.36%, slightly higher than the base RTP.

The Race Megaways: Conclusion

It’s hard to find concluding words for The Race Megaways. Let’s begin with the design of the game first. The Race Megaways follows many of the same design choices Big Time Gaming have gone with in other Megaways games. The whole theme makes you feel like you’re in some kind of game show where you put everything on the line. Even the music is so intense. And not intense like in for example „Max Megaways“, where you know that it’s more or less a parody. The music in The Race Megaways really makes you feel like you’re fighting for a big win.

Unfortunately The Race Megaways comes with the same issues like many other games from Big Time Gaming. The base game is pretty boring, there’s rarely something special happening, besides the occasional Wild Duplication. As for the bonus game, the idea with having lives instead of a set amount of Free Spins is something refreshing, although the bonus game itself is more of a Bonanza-ish approach. Nonetheless, it is nice to see something more unique once in a while.

With that being said, The Race Megaways is not a bad game, not at all. It can be really tidious from time to time, but as soon as you hit the 3 Scatters for the Heart Bonus, the thrill and excitement starts. This concludes our online slot review about The Race Megaways. We had lots of fun testing it and we hope that we left no questions unanswered.