Maid Marian Slots
Contrary to the renowned story about the hero from the legendary Sherwood Forest, it is not Robin Hood who’s shining on this new slot from Inspired Gaming. Instead, Maid Marian is the hero on the reels, standing ready with bow and arrow to award locked spins during the bonus round. She will fight for glory and big wins of up to 250,000 coins.
Inspired Gaming was founded in London in 2002, focusing on mobile gaming and virtual sports at a time when the internet age was just about to take off. In 2016, the company was acquired by Hydra Industries Acquisition Corp. from the US. Together they fused into Inspired Entertainment Inc., a multinational company listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Over the years, they released some outstanding slot games such as Centurion, Rise of Anubis and Lightning Squad. Maid Marian is their latest offering being brought to casino floors and online gaming hangouts.
The Warrior’s Slot Reels
The warrior-turned Maid Marian will stand her ground on five reels, four rows and 20 fixed paylines. Features include wild substitutions, stacked symbols and a free spins round with locked spins and sticky wilds. A scene that resembles the Sherwood Forest from the famous British legend is the background of a game window in the form of a typical flag standard from those times. Colored in deep reds, it stands in contrast to the intricately designed pay symbols. A medieval soundtrack adds to the authenticity of the theme.
The slot has nine pay symbols as well as one wild, one bonus and one special symbol. At the low end, they are Js to As, paying 2x your bet for five of a kind. The premium symbols in ascending order of value are a bow with an arrow quiver, a “wanted” poster of Maid Marian, a gold ring with a blue gem, and a medieval chest with gold coins. The slot logo is the most valuable symbol, paying 20 times your stake for landing five of a kind.
Maid Marian fielding her bow is the bonus scatter, which appears on reels one, three and five only. The wild is an intricately designed tile featuring the word “wild” written in a medieval style. The special symbol is an arrow-shooting target. It will appear in free spins on reel three only to trigger the Locked Spins feature.
The Medieval Stats and Numbers
The slot might have a medieval theme, but its numbers and stats are clearly up to today’s standard. Designed in HTML5 format, Maid Marian is available on any device and on any OS platform. The RTP of this medium-variance game is set at 95%. Players can enter the medieval game for 0.20 to 60 coins per spin. Inspired Gaming limited the maximum win potential to 250,000 coins per game round.
Activate the Fortune Bet
Want a better chance to trigger the bonus round? Then activate the Fortune Bet on the left of the game window to see Maid Marian scatters increase to a double-stacked symbol. It will increase the chance to hit the free spins, but it will cost an additional 50% of the initial bet. Surely this can be an option when the wait for a bonus round is getting too long, and it certainly suits those impatient slot-playing enthusiasts among us.
The Bonus Round With Locked Spins
Maid Marian scatters in full or partial view on reels one, three and five will award eight free spins which cannot be retriggered. An arrow-shooting target appearing on reel three during free spins will trigger five locked spins for each occurrence. During the Locked Spin feature, the target and any wild symbols landing on the reels will become sticky for the duration of the five spins. Wins are paid after each locked spin. This is the best moment to trigger big and mega wins on this slot. Having multiple wilds remain sticky for a few spins will inevitably lead to some good winning combos.
Did you not manage to score the target once in the eight free spins? Not to worry. If locked spins have not been awarded during the feature, an additional free spin is granted which guarantees that locked spins will be triggered.
Other Medieval Reels
The European middle ages were dominated by territorial wars between the main forces on the continent. Extensive crusades, constant skirmishes and year-long wars were then part of daily life. A large number of heroes, legends and true tales have emerged from those times, providing plenty of fodder for video slot games. Robin Hood has some 20 slots in his name, while Marian has also featured on a few. King Arthur would be probably proud to see a dozen or so video slots named after him. Some of the best choices among these medieval-themed slots are Robin Hood: Prince of Tweets from NextGen Gaming and Mighty Arthur from Quickspin.
My Contemporary Verdict
Will we join Maid Marian on her quest for justice, glory and big wins after spinning the reels of this new slot from Inspired Gaming? The game is most certainly well designed, but the RTP distribution is not really to my liking. Too much of it is coming from the free spins round, making it vital to hit the bonus feature rather often. The Fortune Bet will increase the frequency, but it will also add 50% to the cost of a spin.
Once in the free spins, the wins stack up nicely when the shooting target appears multiple times during the round to award five locked pins on each occurrence. I easily managed to score wins worth 50x to 80x my bet during the rounds, and occasionally well over 100x. But I never got close to the top win of 400x the bet on a single spin. Will you score it? Play Maid Marian now to find out.
