Mystery Kingdom™: Mystery Bells

Wazdan has released several games featuring the Hold the Jackpot mechanic, covering a variety of themes. They claim that this latest release has an element of horror, although that’s debatable – the tolling bells are more musical than chilling and the bats are almost cute, so you won’t need to play this game with the lights on!

Design

There’s been no cutting of corners when it comes to the design of Mystery Kingdom™: Mystery Bells. A spooky castle sits high on a hill next to a misty forest, but it’s the reels that will grab your attention.

Spin up gold coins, along with the red and gold Cash Infinity™ symbols that could help trigger the bonus round. There’s great attention to detail, which extends to the soundtrack too. It’s haunting and every so slightly eerie, so it sets the game off perfectly.

Gameplay

This game is all about the bonus, so there are no wins to be found during the preliminary stages. Set your volatility to high, medium or low, choose your stake and spin the reels. You’ll need to fill the middle row with symbols to progress to the bonus round, and Cash Infinity™ symbols help you by remaining Sticky until the end of the bonus round.

If you land a Cash Infinity™ symbol on the middle row, you greatly increase the chances of triggering the Hold the Jackpot bonus round. But once you’ve filled the middle row with symbols, there’s one more task before you enter the bonus, and it could land you the Grand Jackpot prize!

One Click to the Grand Jackpot fills empty spaces on the grid with bells – pick one to reveal an empty space or one of the four jackpots. If you reveal the Grand Jackpot, you forfeit the bonus round and walk away with the game’s top payout.

Hold the Jackpot bonus

The Hold the Jackpot bonus starts with 3 respins, but landing additional symbols resets the counter back to 3 for more winning opportunities. Look out for Collector symbols, that take the form of treasure chests. They collect the values of all coin symbols and apply a multiplier for bigger payouts.

You could also spin up Mystery symbols that reveal any game symbol, other than a Cash Infinity™ icon, or any Jackpot prize other than the Grand Jackpot – you’ll have to fill all 12 spaces in the grid to trigger the big payout.

Win Potential

With no wins possible during the base game, Mystery Kingdom™: Mystery Bells is all about the bonus. Unless you pick the Grand Jackpot prize just before entering the bonus round, your only other chance to land it is to fill all 12 spaces in the grid.

Gold coins award 1x – 5x your bet, with Cash Infinity™ symbols increasing that to 5x – 10x the wager. The collector icons can massively increase the value of your final prize payout, by adding up all cash values on the reels and applying a multiplier worth 1x - 20x.

The game offers four jackpot prizes with the following payouts:

• Mini – 10x
• Minor – 20x
• Major – 50x
• Grand – 750x

There’s an optional gamble feature, in which you guess whether a gemstone is green or red, with the chance to double your win – or lose it completely. And some jurisdictions outside the UK permit players to buy the bonus, although you’re not guaranteed to win back your stake, so this isn’t a fast route to a win.

Our Verdict

There’s no doubting the fact that Mystery Kingdom™: Mystery Bells looks the part, and sounds good too, thanks to the themed soundtrack. The Hold the Jackpot feature is tried and tested with a huge fanbase, so a degree of success is probably assured.

Our only complaint is that the top payout of 750x the bet is very low and certainly won’t attract any players in search of big prizes. It’s a fun game to play though, so be sure to give it a try!