The action heats up very nicely in Summer Queen, a highly volatile 5 reel, 40 payline video slot from Novomatic. Top of the bill here is the bonus round that awards 10 free spins, complete with a special Summer Queen bonus where the special chosen symbol can spread across the reels to make potentially massive winning combinations. Pay homage to her majesty from between 40p and £60 per spin.
The title of this game may be Summer Queen but don’t expect much in the way of royal trimmings. You won’t see any crowns, thrones or palaces here. Instead, it’s wild animals that take centre stage – you’ll see parrots, toucans, zebras and lions spinning alongside Novomatic’s usual lower value playing cards.
Land a 5 in a line combo featuring the zebra or lion and you’ll win an award equal to 10 times your total bet. The most rewarding of the standard symbols is the Summer Queen herself – find 3, 4 or 5 of the mysterious veiled lady and you’ll pocket a prize of 1, 5 or 20 times your total stake.
Appearing on reels 2, 3 and 4 only, the Summer Queen logo is the wild – it doesn’t offer any pays in its own right but it does replace all other symbols with the exception of the crystal ball which is the scatter. The scatter offers the same payouts as the Summer Queen. Land 3 or more crystal balls and you’ll also trigger the Summer Queen Bonus feature and with it, 10 free spins.
Prior to the start of this feature, 1 symbol will be randomly selected. This will be the special stacked symbol for the duration of the feature. The special symbol comes into play if you land more than 1 of them on non-adjacent reels. If that happens, the special symbol will fill up the spaces in between the pair.
For example, if the lion is the chosen symbol and you land a lion on reels 2 and 5, all of the reels 3 and 4 would transform and become lions too. A new payout is made with the new symbols in position.
This is a typical Novomatic video slot. The design is nothing to write home about and the base game action doesn’t really get the blood flowing. As usual, it’s the bonus round where the real action is on offer. They usually spice up what could be a standard free spins round and have come up with a cracking modifier here.
Be warned though, an audience with the Summer Queen can be an expensive business. This is a hugely volatile game so expect lengthy down spells and potentially big swings. The theme here is all over the place (queens, zebras, crystal balls???). Who cares when there’s so much volatile action on offer? If you’re looking for a simple, high risk, high reward video slot then Summer Queen delivers some potentially scorching action. Alternatively, Autumn Queen by Novomatic is recommended.
