Adventures Beyond Wonderland Magical Maze

Adventures Beyond Wonderland Magical Maze: Slot Overview

Better lay off the corrupted liquorice for this one, folks; we're about to dive down the rabbit hole in a voyage to the unpredictable world of Wonderland. The name of the game is quite a mouthful - Adventures Beyond Wonderland Magical Maze, and it comes off the production line from software provider Quickspin - a studio well-known for making use of classic tales. Heavily based on a live casino game produced by Playtech, Adventures Beyond Wonderland Magical Maze is also a continuation of the studio's Power Glyph range of slots which does its thing alongside other features like Power-Ups & Power-Up Stack, and a trio of Free Spins Worlds.

We've probably said this before, but picking the Wonderland theme gives a studio the chance to get all colourful and wacky with the slot's design. Adventures Beyond Wonderland Magical Maze isn't super wacky, yet it is full of colourful characters and is a brightly lit slot. A special shout-out's gotta go to Walter the Caterpillar, that chap who sits at the bottom left-hand of the screen. The guy chills out in his flowery shirt, minding his own business, living his best life. He just don't care. The rest of the view wasn't as amusing, but it cheerfully packs in a measure of Wonderland charm.

Adventures Beyond Wonderland Magical Maze is played on a 5x5 game grid which is like a pathway for the symbols to travel along - more on this below. When ready to set the thing in motion, players are able to select a bet of 10 p/c to $/€100 per spin but be aware that the game is available in three RTP models. The highest is 96.15%, and at this level, the volatility is medium, rated as 3.5 out of 5.

Winning combinations in Adventures Beyond Wonderland Magical Maze are formed when at least 3 matching symbols line up in a horizontal or vertical direction anywhere on the grid. Wins are removed when they hit, and the symbols do a slightly disorientating shuffle as they fill the gaps and move along the pathway. If another win is created after the symbol shuffle, the process repeats again until no more wins hit. When it comes to symbols and their values, the pay table lists a cupcake, a top hat, a teapot, a dodo, and a crown as the lows worth 1x to 5x the bet for 5 OAK, then the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter, and the Queen of Hearts as the mediums paying 8x to 12x the bet for 5 OAK.

Adventures Beyond Wonderland Magical Maze: Slot Features

A game with a long name gets a relatively long list of features as well. These are wilds, Power Glyphs, the Power-Up & Power-Up Stack, plus Magical Maze Free Spins.

Wilds & Power Glyph

Winning combinations of 3 or more medium symbols or wilds spawn a Power Glyph symbol. Wins with 3 or more low symbols without Power Glyphs or wilds spawn a wild symbol in one of the empty spaces. Wilds symbols are able to substitute for anything except Power Glyphs or White Rabbits and pay up to 50x the bet for a 5 wild win. Power Glyphs substitute for all symbols except White Rabbits and have the same value as wild symbols.

Power-up & Power-up Stack

At the start of a spin, the Power-Up Stack is randomly filled with 12 Power-Ups. When a Power Glyph is used in a win, it activates the next Power-Up in the Power-Up Stack. When no more wins hit, the next active Power-Up activates:

• Walter Wilds Power-Up – picks 3 to 5 random grid positions and turns them into wilds. Does not transform the White Rabbit.
• The Queen of Hearts Power-Up – removes a column of symbols and creates a Power Glyph in the middle of it.
• Cheshire Cat Power-Up – picks 1 random low-pay symbol type and transforms it to a more valuable type.
• Mad Hatter Power-Up – the grid is shuffled around, except the White Rabbit.

Magical Maze Free Spins

Free spins are triggered when the White Rabbit makes it all the way to the rabbit hole at the bottom of the screen. When triggered, 1 of 3 Free Spins Worlds is randomly selected, as is a random number of free spins from 6 to 8. During free spins, the Power-Up linked to the Free Spins World is more powerful as well as more frequent.

• Queen of Hearts Free Spins – the Queen of Hearts removes 2 columns of symbols and creates a Power Glyph in the middle of them.
• Cheshire Cat Free Spins – the Cheshire Cat picks 2 random low-pay symbol types on the reels and transforms them to a more valuable type.
• Mad Hatter free Spins – the Mad Hatter gives the grid a better result when shuffled. The White Rabbit is not shuffled.

Getting the White Rabbit to the hole at the bottom of the screen awards an additional 1 to 5 free spins and moves into 1 of the 3 different Free Spins Worlds.

Buy Feature

Instead of waiting for the White Rabbit to traipse on in to the rabbit hole, players may buy access to the bonus round instead for the cost of 60x the bet. The max RTP for this is 96.66%.

Adventures Beyond Wonderland Magical Maze: Slot Verdict

In Quickspin's words, Adventures Beyond Wonderland Magical Maze is another rendition of the famous Playtech IP. It also expands the studio's range of Power Glyph slots. For a bit of online slot lore, the first one, Golden Glyph, was Quickspin's first-ever cluster game and introduced players to the Power-Up concept. This device went on to find further use in games like the sequel Golden Glyph 2, Warp Wreckers Power Glyph, and now Adventures Beyond Wonderland Magical Maze. This one is a puzzling game of pluses and minuses, desirable elements as well as less desirable ones.

For the most part, reviewing Adventures Beyond Wonderland Magical Maze was a positive experience, and there is a lot of stuff going on here to discover. The shuffling effect of the avalanche/cascade-style mechanic might take a few spins to get accustomed to, as it doesn't just drop symbols straight down to plug the gaps. Instead, symbols march along the pathway, but Quickspin hasn't just used this method just for the lols. Instead, the pathway is needed to guide the White Rabbit along in an attempt to eventually trigger free spins. Kinda neat, as this method adds a mission element to the game while hopefully spawning wilds or Power Glyphs along the way, triggering Power-Ups. Having three bonus rounds adds variety as well, and powering up the associated Power-Ups is a welcome touch.

However, the abundance of features and innovation has not translated to abundant potential. Quite the opposite, actually, as Adventures Beyond Wonderland Magical Maze taps out at the oddly low amount of 876x the bet - acquired in 100 million spins, no less. That stat will likely be a mood killer for some players, and it's a shame because the rest of Adventures Beyond Wonderland Magical Maze is quite entertaining. Nevermind, the game feels aimed at players who aren't fussed about chasing colossal winning numbers and who would be happy with all the other good stuff available in Adventures Beyond Wonderland Magical Maze.