Machina Reloaded Megaways

Machina Reloaded Megaways: Slot Overview

Machina Reloaded Megaways is something of a homecoming for developer Kalamba Games, as the original Machina Megaways slot was the studio's first use of Megaways back in 2019. For the updated, reloaded version, Kalamba Games has stuck closely to the original blueprint, tuning parts of it and giving the game a visual shakeup while offering many of the same features. If you missed the previous Machina Megaways slot, that means extras like Cashpots, free spins with a symbol upgrade element, and four HyperBonus options where available.

First, the visuals which depict a downtown futuristic urban zone full of high rises, neon, and Asian signage. For a movie comparison, picture something like Bladerunner 2049, Total Recall (the newer non-Arnie one), or The Fifth Element at a stretch to get an idea. Maybe the base game is what cities will look like a few years into the future when we're driving cars that can hover? Wherever we might be, the visuals are quite good, and Machina Reloaded Megaways' game world feels more developed than the previous one, so that's promising.

Machina Reloaded Megaways is played on a grid with 6 vertically scrolling reels holding 2-6 symbols each and an extra tracking reel on the top holding 1 additional symbol per column. It's a set-up that produces 729 to 117,649 ways to win. A highly volatile production, Machina Reloaded Megaways has an RTP of 96.2% when playing normally, rising to various higher return levels when buying one of the free spins rounds from the HyperBonus menu. Playable on any device, wannabe cyborgs can pick a bet of 25 p/c to $/€50 per spin. However, if you want to play using max ways, minimum bet will be 50 p/c - not hugely convenient for those looking to stretch a budget.

To win, you'll need to land at least 2 premium symbols from the left-hand side in consecutive reels or at least three low-pay symbols. The lows are futuristic fonted 9-A card ranks, worth 0.8-1x the bet for six of a kind, while the five high pays are referred to in the rules section as the purple man, turquoise woman, green woman, red man, and the Cyborg, worth 1.5-2x the bet for six of a kind. Golden wild symbols are able to substitute for any of these normal pay symbols to help complete winning ways.

Machina Reloaded Megaways: Slot Features

In spirit, much of what's covered here was available in the first Machina Megaways game, but several of the details have been reprogrammed. Let's take a look.

Cashpots

First up is the Cashpots, which are linked to the most valuable regular pay symbol – the Cyborg. In the base game or during free spins, if 10, 12, 16, or 19 Cyborg symbols are in view, players win the Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum Cashpot, worth 5x, 12.5x, 300x, or 15,000x the bet, respectively.

Free Spins

Players are jacked into the free spins bonus round when 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatter symbols are in view, thereby awarding 10, 12, 15, or 18 free spins, plus a payout of 2x, 5x, 10x, or 15x the bet. During free spins, scatter symbols are collected whenever they land. When certain numbers of bonus symbols have been collected, lower premium symbols are upgraded to the Cyborg, and extra free spins are awarded. It takes a total of 4, 8, 13, or 18 collected scatter symbols to upgrade each of the four lower premiums (purple man, turquoise woman, green woman, red man) into Cyborgs. Each time this occurs, +2 free spins are added to the remaining amount. Each 5 collected bonus symbols from then on awards +2 free spins.

HyperBonus

Hit the bonus buy button if available in your region to choose one of four free spins bonuses. The cost for doing so is 56.92x for 10 free spins (RTP 96.4%), 105.94x for 12 free spins (RTP 96.51%), 240.3x for 15 free spins (RTP 96.6%), or 466.84x for 18 free spins (96.7%).

Machina Reloaded Megaways: Slot Verdict

Well, it's a reload, fair dues, though not a down to the last sinewy microchip overhaul. The theme treatment is arguably better; this one has a more thrillingly dark, Cyberpunk 2077 on a dark, wet night feel to the base game. Actually, a number of pop culture references to the future popped up during test runs. The golden Cyborg, for example, had echoes of the film Ex Machina, the tech thriller where the CEO of Blue Book set up an elaborate experiment using one of his employees to test the robot Ava's (played by Alicia Vikander) sentience. By the end, the employee fell for Ava's charms, unwittingly helping her/it escape confinement, in a rather thought-provoking meditation on all sorts of themes from consciousness, AI, humanity, freedom, to seductive robots.

Where were we? Oh yeah, Machina Reloaded Megaways, which might not be as thought-provoking but still has one or two things to offer the right punter. As mentioned, the theme's very well done; the non-Cyborg characters struggle to display as much presence as their mechanised counterpart, though the free spins biodome on an alien world thing is quite neat. On the gaming side of things, Machina Reloaded Megaways isn't massively different to the original model. The game grid has been expanded, increasing the number of ways, Cashpots are now static, but most of the rest is largely the same as it was before. Interestingly, despite the increase in ways, max win has spiralled in the opposite direction, from the 26,000x of the first one to the 15,000x up for grabs in Machina Reloaded Megaways.

All in all, the step from Machina Megaways to Machina Reloaded Megaways doesn't exactly represent a mind-melting paradigm shift. There is no doubt entertainment value to be found here for the right person, though. Perhaps someone who fell for the futuristic stylings of the first release, or is intrigued by symbol upgrade features in a Megaways slot, or just can't get enough visions of the future in life to ponder.