Towering Pays Excalibur (GamesLab) Slot Review

Towering Pays Excalibur: Slot Overview

Towering Pays Excalibur is a video slot developed by Games Lab and powered by Yggdrasil Gaming, released on February 3, 2022. The game draws its theme from the Arthurian legend, centering on the legendary sword Excalibur embedded in a stone, King Arthur, and elements like castles, meadows, and mystical powers. It employs the innovative Towering Pays mechanic, featuring a dynamic grid that starts at 5 reels by 3 rows and expands up to 5 reels by 8 rows, increasing paylines from 15 to 65. This creates a progression-based gameplay style rich in features, including multiple free spins variants, a hold and spin game, and bonus wheels. Targeted at players who enjoy medium-high volatility slots with stacked mystery symbols, expanding grids, and frequent feature triggers, it offers a hit frequency of 64% and maximum wins up to 6500x the stake.

Design and Graphics

The visual design of Towering Pays Excalibur immerses players in a medieval Arthurian setting, with a backdrop featuring a blocky grey castle near a lush meadow, river, or moat, evoking a somewhat cold and down-to-earth atmosphere. The reels form a dynamic central panel that expands vertically as stages progress, providing a sense of growth and advancement.

Towering Pays Excalibur Slot – Base Game

Symbols include low-paying card suits (clubs, spades, hearts, diamonds), medium-paying colored emblems (red, yellow, orange), high-paying premium emblems (purple, turquoise, green), and a golden King Arthur wild. Special symbols comprise Excalibur swords, shield symbols, and feature wheels. Animations are functional, with Excalibur symbols revealing matching pay symbols across their stacked positions and grid expansions accompanied by thematic effects. The overall aesthetic is straightforward and serviceable, playable across mobiles, tablets, and desktops, though it lacks standout graphical flair or immersive depth, appearing somewhat simple and dated compared to the feature complexity.

Gameplay Mechanics

Towering Pays Excalibur operates on a 5-reel grid with variable rows from 3 to 8, utilizing fixed paylines that increase with grid height: 15 paylines at 3 rows, 25 at 4 rows, 35 at 5 rows, 45 at 6 rows, 55 at 7 rows, and 65 at 8 rows. Wins form by landing 3 or more identical symbols in adjacent positions starting from the leftmost reel. The wild symbol, depicted as golden King Arthur, substitutes for all pay symbols except Excalibur, shields, and wheels, paying up to 250x the bet for 5-of-a-kind.

The base game revolves around the Stage Play mechanic, where landing at least one Excalibur symbol on each eligible reel advances the stage, adding one row and 10 paylines. Excalibur Magic allows these symbols—appearing on reels 1-3 initially, expanding to more in higher features—to transform all covered positions into the same random pay symbol, acting as stacked mysteries. A random Prize Multiplier can apply to any win, scaling with grid height:

The grid resets after certain features, maintaining a fluid base game flow driven by progression toward maximum height for enhanced win potential.

Symbol payouts for 5-of-a-kind are as follows:

Bonus Features

Towering Pays Excalibur boasts an extensive array of interconnected bonus features, emphasizing progression and variety. Key mechanics include Quest Bet (costs 15x extra stake, enables shield reveals on Excalibur for Hold and Spin access), Feature Wheel (triggered by 3 wheels on reels 1,3,5; offers upgrades, Win Spins, free spins, or Hold and Spin with Quest Bet), and Avalon (at 5×8 grid with Excalibur on all eligible reels; multi-level wheel with similar prizes, plus 200x instant in some paths).

Towering Pays Excalibur Slot – Free Spins

Win Spins guarantee wins by covering reels 1-3 with matching Excalibur symbols while reels 4-5 spin (grid size fixed).

Four Free Spins variants award 6 spins on 5×3 grid (+1 per stage advance), with Excalibur eligibility varying:

Hold and Spin triggers on 6+ shields (extra shields add rows up to 8), granting 3 respins with sticky shields bearing cash values. New shields reset respins to 3; full grid yields 1000x bonus. Shields may reveal post-feature wheels.

Bonus Buy options (all at 5×8 grid):

Towering Pays Excalibur Slot – Bonus Buy

These features interconnect via wheels and Quest Bet, creating layered gameplay.

Betting Options and Payouts

Bets range from €0.25 to €25 per spin in standard mode, increasing to €0.40–€40 with Quest Bet active. The RTP stands at 95.58%, below average, paired with mid-high volatility and a 64% hit frequency. Maximum win potential reaches 6500x the stake, achievable through feature combinations like full-grid Hold and Spin (1000x guaranteed) plus multipliers up to 10x. Payouts emphasize stacked symbols and grid expansion, though paylines may limit hits on taller grids despite high symbol density. Quest Bet enhances Hold and Spin access at extra cost.

Conclusion

Towering Pays Excalibur excels in dynamic grid expansion via Stage Play and a vast feature suite, including varied free spins, Win Spins, wheels, and Hold and Spin, fostering progression and high-win potential up to 6500x. The Excalibur Magic stacked mysteries and scaling multipliers add excitement. However, the 95.58% RTP lags, feature overload can confuse, paylines struggle on expanded grids, and simple graphics feel mismatched to the complexity. Players can test the slot risk-free using the built-in demo available on this page. Overall, it suits feature enthusiasts tolerant of volatility and lower returns, but streamlined alternatives may appeal for clarity.