With a title like Xcalibur, I doubt there is much of a mystery concerning the theme of this slot machine. Microgaming gives you here a slot themed around the stories of King Arthur, with Merlin, dragons and Guinevere being just a couple of the symbols which are present on the reels of Xcalibur. Naturally, the sword Excalibur is a big part of the action as well, given that the slot was named after it. It’s one of the many such slots, with inspiration drawn from King Arthur’s legends, and Excalibur is used as a symbol in most cases, but it’s rarely the main point on which the game focuses.
Xcalibur offers a lot of chances to win, 50 paylines being on 5 reels. Inside, you get bonus features, free games, multipliers, two scatters and an expanding wild, so a pretty good collection. The largest rewards go up to $1,250 only, which would be the major disappointment of the game.
Features of Xcalibur
Players that try out Xcalibur will find in it wild symbols which expand, bonus triggers, scatters and free spins.
The appearance of the wild Sword symbol is possible only on the 1st, 3rd and 5th reels. When they appear there, the Sword wilds will expand and take over the entire reel, but only if this gets you a new combination thanks to their substitution ability. You basically need to have an empty spot in a combo, on exactly the reel where the wild appeared. Wild symbols can’t substitute for the Wizard or Key scatters.
The first of the two scatter symbols would be with the Wizard, which shows us Merlin. The Wizard scatter will reward players whenever 3 or more such symbols are present on the reels. The prizes start at just 3x the bet, but can go up to 100x the bet if enough Wizards are in place.
Free Games Feature
To start this feature, the same 3+ Wizards that gave you prizes are needed. You get both prizes, the free spins feature giving you 12 rounds to play through. There are x2 multipliers applied to the prizes obtained during the free spins. There is no option to retrigger free spins here, which is the only downside I see in this feature.
Key Bonus Feature
The only other scatter symbol of the game, the Key, will not give you cash prizes, but it will be the trigger for a bonus feature when three of them are present on the reels 2, 3 and 4.
You get a new screen in it, with 8 doors to choose from. You use the key on different doors, and you get prizes from them. The feature ends when the Collect message is found behind a chosen door. The doors hide prizes which vary between 1x and 10x the total bet.
Betting options and jackpots
The game has a lot of lines, 50 total, and they need a similar number of coins if you want them all active. The line bet is not too high though, $0.25 being the maximum value of a coin. What you get in the end is a $12.50 wager.
The slot’s rewards are best when the scatter symbol offers them. At 100 times the bet, the top prize is worth $1,250. Regular symbols will pay $250 at most.
Design and symbols
The design of Xcalibur mixes in Medieval elements and characters that appeared in the stories with King Arthur. You have things like shields and swords on one side, while on the other side you will find characters like Merlin, Guinevere, dragons or King Arthur. The less fun part is represented by the poker cards, coming in different colors and with metal studs on them.
Symbols: Merlin (scatter, 100 times the bet), Key (bonus), Excalibur (wild), King Arthur (1,000 coins), Guinevere (500 coins), Dragon (250 coins), Shield (200 coins), Helmet (200 coins), Ace (150 coins), King (150 coins), Queen (100 coins) and Jack (100 coins).
Is It Worth Playing?
Like many other Arthurian slot machines, this one also has a lot of things to offer, but there are some downsides as well unfortunately. The biggest one would be the top prize.
The Xcalibur slot machine is offered through the Microgaming platform, so if you want to play it for real or just to practice, look out for casinos that use it.
