Charmed Hearts Slot
While we often like to talk about the creativity of slot machine developers, it’s hard these days to come up with something that’s truly unique. After you play enough games, it begins to feel like every format under the sun has been tried. But once in a while, someone tries something different that proves there’s still plenty of room for innovation in this industry, if you’re willing to try something just a little bit different.
That’s the case with Charmed Hearts by Konami, one of the latest casino slot machines from the popular manufacturer. The game uses the same all ways format that players have seen plenty of in recent years, but uses a few twists to give it a different feel than most machines in this category. Not only are the reel sizes unusual, but there are ways to expand the play area even further, increasing your chances of winning on dozens of lines at once.
It Comes from the Heart
The Charmed Hearts video slot is a new land-based slot machine that was created by Konami. Given the name, you’ve probably suspected that the machine has a romantic theme, and you won’t be disappointed when you sit down to play: there are plenty of hearts and roses found on screen, along with a bright pinkish-purple color scheme that gives the game a look that’s both soft and distinctive.
This game is often offered in banks alongside other penny slots, making it perfect for low limit gamblers. However, players will often have the option of changing denominations if they’d like to spend a bit more on each spin. Players bet in units of 50 coins in order to have access to all winning possibilities, so a typical minimum bet on this machine is $0.50.
A Labor of Love
The Charmed Hearts video slot is a five reel game with a rather unusual layout. The first three reels feature three symbol positions each, while the final two use six positions instead. Since this game uses the all ways system, you won’t be worried about paylines, as all left-to-right combinations can win regardless of where on each reel a symbol lands. That means there are 972 ways to win, something that Konami calls “Ultra Reels.”
The variety of symbols on the screen is about what you would expect given the theme. For starters, players can make smaller wins by matching the card rank icons, which range from nines up through aces. For bigger wins, you’ll want to look for thematic icons like boxes of chocolates, perfume, and crowns. The biggest wins come from a beautiful woman. Interestingly, even this high-paying symbols offers relatively low payouts: five in a row will only earn you 2.4x your spin bet on a single line. That’s offset by the fact that you can create wins on many different paylines at once thanks to the all ways system in place.
A Charming Feature
One the key special features on this game can be randomly triggered at any time. This Charmed Hearts feature can occur on any spin, and will add three more symbol positions to the second and third reels. These new positions can only result in two potential icons appearing: a blank, which will never help you at all, and a golden heart. These hearts are wild symbols that can substitute for anything else, and will help complete winning paylines wherever they possibly can. This can potentially give you as many as 3,888 ways to win on a single spin.
There’s also a white flower, which acts as a scatter symbol. Hit three or more of these, and you’ll earn an instant prize. You’ll also gain entry into a free spins round, where you’ll get seven or more bonus plays at the same stakes as the triggering spin. During this feature, the Charmed Hearts feature will occur much more frequently, improving your odds of hitting a big win.
Falling in Love
It’s not easy to create engaging gameplay without making things a bit too complex for new players, but Konami has managed to do just that with this new game. When you play Charmed Hearts, you’ll get to enjoy an unusual format that you haven’t experienced before, but nothing that happens during gameplay will be likely to confuse you, and the theme is neutral enough to sort of fade into the background while you enjoy the action. If you like relatively low volatility slots that still offer you the potential for big payouts, this is an excellent choice.
