Forest Mania Slots

iSoftBet aren’t kidding around when they say that this real cash slot is complete mania – the lunacy here is off the charts, but in a wholly good way. Typically when you play slot machines, you have a standard matrix of 5-reels and a selection of winlines, but with Forest Mania that rulebook goes out the window. Instead of one grid you have two, both different in size and the number of lines, with a minimum 0.50 stake and maximum of 100.00.

To the casual gamer, a novice even, this sounds like a scary interface to be presented with: it’s difficult focusing on one let alone two. However, we can promise you that this game isn’t difficult to play in the slightest. In fact, we found it to be so easy that we’ll actually miss having the two for one when it’s gone. There are some random events to trigger, as well as quite a few standard icons to get your paws on, so let’s crack on with the good times.

Wild Little Critters

We’ve all heard of wild symbols, even those of us that aren’t well versed in slots know that they’re common. Nevertheless, that familiarity doesn’t mean that these critters will be overlooked when they fall onto the matrix, in fact, in Forest Mania you’ll be begging for these tiles to appear. The reason being is that there’s a transformation going on, of sorts.

Imagine for a moment that you’re spinning along, when all of a sudden one of your icons turns into a wild inside the first grid. Immediately all the other identical symbols across the both the grids now turn into wilds as well, with the winning lines now rolling in. It sounds like it’s too good to be true, but we can promise you that it happens during this game. That being said, it isn’t an event you can control as it’s completely decided at random, and so you’ll get a mixed variance depending on your luck and perseverance.

Another Gift

Wild symbols are one thing, but wild reels are also on the cards during the manic experience here. Once again it’s a randomly activated feature, which means that you sort of sit back and wait rather than be proactive, but alas that’s the price we pay here. Should you see this special in action, up to three of the reels inside the first matrix will become wild. That would be good on its own, but than on the other matrix you’ll get those reels matched.

Even though we appreciate the spontaneity of Forest Mania and its extras, we can’t help but feel disheartened by how they’re activated – you have no say over the reels. And while that’s exciting, it soon becomes boring if you keep getting misses instead of hits. Fortunately for us, iSoftBet have included free spins in this slot as well, just to make up for being so hardass everywhere else.

A Mania of a Different Kind

So we get that this is a thrilling game – the name says so after all – but it’s not the only one out there that brings excitement, as Happy Holidays shows us. From the creators at Microgaming, you have another 3D animated slot, only this one is a lot less impressive to look at than Forest Mania. Not that it matters in the grand scheme of things, as the features of the paytable are pretty much identical to your experience right now. As always, there’s slight similarities, such as you being in control of activating the specials rather than waiting and seeing, but that’s about it.

Give It a Break…!

Remember how we mentioned the free spins, well we have some bad news for you: they’re activated at random as well. Yes, we didn’t quite believe it at first either, but it seems iSoftBet want you to jump through a lot of hoops without any promise of a payoff, something we find mildly annoying.

But let’s pretend that you get these games; you’ll get 10 rounds in total, as well as the increased likelihood of the two aforementioned wild features. That’s it. Again, our disappointment is bubbling over profusely as we sit here and keep discovering these irritating extras. Having three features, all of which are random, seems steep even to us, and we’ve sampled a lot of weird and wonderful paytables in our time.

False Sense of Security

Forest Mania is a bit of weird one: it has such a stunning aesthetic, but then the gameplay just seems out of whack. It doesn’t work with you, it’s constantly going against you, meaning you feel like you’re waging war against the reels rather than having a casual punt or two. Therefore this game goes down in value, resulting in a less than impressive three out of five stars.