Twister Slot Machine
Twister is a by-the-numbers 1996 disaster movie starring Bill Paxton and Heather Hunt. It’s also the name of a video slot released by software platform Microgaming. The casino version has the same theme as the movie, being that it’s all about violent tornadoes, but in every other respect it’s rather different.
The non-progressive slot, which was released ten years after the film, boasts 5 reels, 15 paylines and a top jackpot of 15,000 coins. To help you along the way, the colourful, cartoonish title also features a gamble option and both wild and scatter symbols. With 32 winning combinations waiting to be found, let’s not beat about the bush: is Twister worthy of a spin?
Coin denominations
Twister has a rather’s high bet-per-spin maximum of 75 credits. The coins that can be staked, however, come in all sizes, including 0.01, 0.02, 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, .025 and 0.50. You can bet a maximum of ten coins per line, and a minimum of one coin per line. All wins pay left to right except the scatter, which pays any. The game has a reputed return-to-player figure of 95.9%, which is a little better than average in our experience.
Fun symbols and grinning twisters
The game is arrayed on a 5x3 reel grid which dominates most of the screen. The grid is dominated by all manner of kooky symbols, including a busty blonde wearing postbox-red lippy and clutching a cocktail and cigarette. Is she ready for the tornado? Hell no, she should be in a bomb shelter, not strutting her stuff with a daft grin on her face! Anyway, that’s the way of it: the symbols demonstrate how fantastically unprepared the town is for the impending catastrophe.
Another icon shows an old woman with curlers in her hair, sucking down a cigarette (is this slot sponsored by Marlboro?!) and there’s also a gap-toothed kid in a baseball cap and a silver-haired old coot with spectacles and a moustache. Four other symbols demonstrate the havoc wreaked by the tornado: a mangled car, a caravan, a gas station and a wooden portaloo.
The twister is given human characteristics, with bushy eyebrows and a demented grin. He’s also blue and looks like a cross between a Smurf and Elvis. Go figure. Anyway, the twister pays out the highest sums in the game, including five for two, 50 for three, 1,000 for four and 15,000 for five in a line. The wild also substitutes for all other symbols except the scatter, to help you form pay wins.
Another special symbol is the TV set, which has the words BREAKING NEWS across it. The breaking news presumably concerns the fact that a tornado is about to turn the whole town into a pancake, but in the game, three or more TVs grants you 20 free spins! Not only that, but all subsequent wins come attached with a 2x multiplier. As such, you could potentially win 30,000 credits in the bonus round. The free spins can also be re-triggered during the bonus feature, and all bets and lines played are the same as the game that started the free spins.
As well as providing free spins, the TV symbol pays one for two, two for three, 20 for four and 60 for five matching.
Among the other icons, the clueless granny pays 500 for five, 100 for four and 20 for three. The blonde bombshell pays 400 for five, 100 for four and 15 for three, while the toothless teen pays 200, 80 and 12. The moustachioed man pays 100, 50 and 10.
Twist or bust
Once you’ve scored a win, a gamble will become available. If you wish, you can double your winnings. To try your luck, just click Gamble, then guess the colour of the face-down card – black or red? Should you win, you can either collect your multiplied winnings or roll the dice once more. However, if you guess incorrectly, you will lose the lot.
Twist and shout
Twister is certainly one of Microgaming’s better video slots. The graphics won’t have your extolling the game’s design to your nearest and dearest, but the gameplay will have you coming back for more, hoping to hit five of those damn twister icons. The presence of both wild and scatters means that there’s always a round of free spins or a winning combination around the corner.
