Casino Bonuses
Provider | Mancala Gaming |
Reels | 5 |
Rows | 4 |
Paylines | 1,024 |
Bonus Rounds | 1 |
Bet Range | 0.10 - 9 |
Volatility | Low |
Max Win | 4,540x |
Bonus Buy | No |
RTP | 95.00% |
Our Rating | 7.3 |
Latest Slots
Game Overview
I’ve noticed a significant uptick in terms of presentation with the last few Mancala Gaming slots I have tried, which is a great thing by the developer. Portal Master online slot is also the first “all ways” game that I have tried by Mancala, which should be a better fit for the large 5×4 playfield than the 20 pay lines that I have seen used on other similarly-sized Mancala games. The maximum win is a reasonable 4,540x your stake, whilst the RTP is the familiar 95% that appears to be common to all of Mancala’s slots.
The paytable is exceptionally long, and after having a quick look through the various pages, I quickly determined that this was going to be a game with more features than you can shake a stick at! There are expanding wild symbols, scatter crystals, energy spheres and all kinds of other special symbols, and a free spins bonus round that awards between 10 and 25 free spins.
We have a free demo slot of Portal Master available below if you want to give the game a try for yourself before continuing.
Portal Master Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
The theme of Portal Master video slot is quite difficult to describe… Mancala labels this game as “Sci-Fi” based, which I guess is factually correct, but I also got a bit of anime/adult cartoon vibe from the graphics and symbols. The ambiguity of the theme may work to the game’s advantage, as I see no reason this game wouldn’t appeal equally to both sexes. I can’t think of any other online slots to compare it to either, and whilst I wouldn’t go as far as calling the game highly original or anything like that, the unfamiliarity of it may also help attract new players who are intrigued by the unusual design.
Here’s something which should attract a few players – there are four high-paying symbols on the paytable, including the premium orange dragon, which pays 250x your stake for a full payline of five-of-a-kind. That’s a huge number for a 1,024 pay ways game, so I suspect it doesn’t appear too often… but that wouldn’t stop me from trying! However, there is a huge gap between the dragon and the second-placed purple owl, as that symbol only pays 15x your stake for all five. Things continue to drop off rapidly with the blue stingray, paying just 1.5x your bet for five-of-a-kind, and the green rhino is even worse at just 0.8x. The scatter crystal pays 30x your stake for all five but does not trigger the bonus round – for that, you will need to collect energy spheres and trade them up. For details about this, see the bonus rounds section below.
The minimum bet in Portal Master is €0.10 per spin, while the maximum is €9.00. This is a decent enough range, and there is only a tiny minority of players who are likely to be upset at not being able to bet €10 or more every couple of seconds.
Base Game & Modifiers
The base game of Portal Master takes place on a 5×4 playfield with 1,024 pay ways. Many symbols are stacked on the reels, including some higher-paying ones, but unsurprisingly, the 250x per way dragon symbol does not appear stacked.
The Portal Master Wild
There is an expanding wild that appears on the third reel during the base game and reels two and four during the free spins. Whenever the Portal Master lands on-screen, she will expand to cover the entire reel, which will hopefully help you to win on some additional pay ways.
The Portal Master will also grant you an Energy Sphere each time she appears, which can then be traded for the free spins bonus round detailed below.
Scatter Crystals
Scatter symbols are usually used to trigger bonus rounds, but things work a little differently in the Portal Master online slot. Scatter crystals also have a small payout attached to them whenever three or more appear simultaneously, but that doesn’t mean that one or two crystals are useless to you.
You can use the energy spheres you collected from the Portal Master in combination with the scatter crystals to transform the crystal into a regular symbol that will complete a pay way. This is quite an innovative feature that takes some skill to master correctly. You have to choose whether to save your energy spheres towards the free spins feature or use them immediately to create a winning opportunity.
Portal Master Slot Free Spins Feature
To get to the bonus round, you will need to collect two mid-level energy spheres from the portal master and then trade them up for one of the high-level energy spheres. Once you do this, the free spins bonus round will begin immediately.
The number of free spins you will receive is determined randomly at the beginning of each feature – it can be 10, 15, 20, or 25 free spins. Extra wilds are added to the reels before the bonus round starts, but the Portal Master will not grant any energy spheres during free spins. This makes it impossible to retrigger the free spins, so you will have to hope you get lucky and win a more significant number of spins right from the start; I didn’t receive the 25 spins even once during testing but I did get 15 a handful of times.
Portal Master Slot Review Final Thoughts
The paytable makes it seem like there will be a lot more to Portal Master than there is, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a good game. The variety of special symbols, the whole trading up system, and the ability to use energy spheres and scatter symbols together give this game a lot more depth than you might expect.
At the same time, I never got close to even a fraction of the maximum advertised win whilst I was testing this slot. I may just have been unlucky, but I believe it is fair to say that unless you hit a full pay way of the highest-paying dragon symbol, you will never win anything huge from this slot.
It’s still a recommended game; just keep in mind that despite appearances, this is a low-variance game, so it may not be everyone’s cup of tea.
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