Crystal Cavern

The year is almost out, but the flurry of UK online slots titles just keep coming out of studio production lines. No rest for the wicked, as the saying goes. The newest slots title to cross our path is Crystal Cavern by Kalamba Games, and instead of giving the player complete control of every spin, they've decided to change things up a tad with a slot that spins in sets of 10. This might sound like we're veering away from actual slots, but once we've explained the reason for this, it'll make sense. In fact, these sets of 10 spins are all there as part of the formula that makes the free spins feature so exciting. Time to see if this casino game can shine.

When looking at the theme of Crystal Cavern, it's more a case of trying to determine what the theme actually is. From the looks of it, it appears to just be an underground cave littered with crystals. However, to make things more spectacular, there are some neon special effects to make you think there could be an 80s disco going on down in that cave. As explained earlier, this isn’t the most traditional of online casino games, specifically slots, to have ever been released. Every wager consists of 10 spins. However, on the left of the reels, you’ll see that you can play in 3 different modes as part of the Hyper Bet function. You choose to wager with a 1x setting, a 2x setting, or a 3x setting. The lower the setting, the lower your wager, while the higher the setting, the more expensive the wager. The reason for this is something we’ll explain later.

There’s a noticeably high number of paylines in Crystal cavern of 4,096, which isn't too bad, although we have seen better. The wagering limits start at 0.30 and are capped at a maximum of 30.00. As far as the volatility goes, you’ll find it between medium and high, while there are six reels on which to land 3, 4, 5 and 6 of a kind winning combinations. If the neon look is your vibe, you might see a similarity to the slot Neon Jungle, which also uses this attractive look and feel.

We sometimes feel a little lost trying to make out what the lower paying symbols are in Crystal Cavern, as they seem a little unrelated to the theme but consist of a bunch of things such as mushrooms, plants and shells. The symbols that give you wins of higher values are crystals, which makes a little more sense, with the red crystal carrying the highest value for winning combos.

There's only one extra icon that falls in the game, and that's the wild. For players that might be unaware, the wild is an icon you’ll find in most online slot machines in the UK, and its function is to act as all regular symbols in order to make up winning combinations.

It’s when we come to the bonus feature that it becomes clear why your wager consists of 10 spins. During the base game, you'll see that purple orbs land in different places on the reels, and when they land, you'll see that they get collected into a meter to the right of the reels. You might also see that the orbs have multiplier values added to them. If you collect a minimum of 6 orbs in the set of 10 spins, you'll be awarded three free spins. Collecting six orbs is the minimum requirement. However, every orb over and above that number collected adds an additional spin.

The Hyper Bet you’ve set the reels at is also a multiplier that will be applied to wins during free spins, and it also means playing a higher Hyper Bet means bigger wins in free spins.

Crystal Cavern is a great slot to play, for real cash or as a slot in demo mode, in that it really is different from most of the titles you’ve played before. Is it necessary to wager in sets of 10 spins? Probably not, but it shakes things up and, surprisingly, there are actually some huge payouts that can be found in this cavern.