The Magic Orb Hold & Win Slot Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

The Magic Orb Hold & Win Review

iSoftBet is one of those developers that keep churning out new Hold & Win installments like there is no tomorrow, and it’s therefore highly refreshing when they finally release something out of the ordinary run-of-the-mill stuff. The Magic Orb: Hold and Win is basically a 7x7 grid slot with the Hold&Win feature bolted on to match the series, and the streak respins style feature is not really the main attraction (as indicated by the mediocre 250x top prize).

You get colorful gemstones on gray tiles, set against a foggy backdrop with mysterious stone formations. Both the setting and the excellent soundtrack seems inspired by Isle of the Dead, a symphonic poem composed by Sergei Rachmaninoff, and the Magic Orb at the center awards both modifiers and bonus rounds. The free spins round is where you’re most likely to close in on the 20,776x potential, not least due to the increasing cascading win multiplier.

The Magic Orb: Hold and Win Slot - Reels Screen

The Magic Orb: Hold and Win Slot Features

You can turn on/off the Super Bet feature between base game spins, and turning it on means you pay 25 % more per spin. You can expect an Orb modifier every 52 spins on average, and the likelihood increases to 1 in 30 spins with the Super Bet switched on. The RTP also creeps above 96 % if you play with the ante bet switched on.

The premium gemstones (golden frame) pay between 25 and 500 x your stake for 15+ in a cluster. In addition, you have a wild symbol that steps in for pay symbols to help complete wins.

Winning symbols are removed via the Cascading mechanic, making consecutive wins possible from the same spin as new and/or existing symbols drop down to fill the gaps. This goes on as long as you keep winning.

The Magic Orb seen at the center of the grid never moves, and it’s also never part of any cascading wins. What it can do however, is award modifiers at random times, and these are as follows:

• Transform - turns random symbols into a matching symbol type to generate a win.
• Wild - adds a bunch of wilds to random positions, giving you a win.
• Multiplier - awards a multiplier of x2, x3, x5 or x10, which boosts all wins from the current spin.
• Destruction - removes all pay symbols except one randomly chosen type.
• Free Drops - gives you the free spins bonus round.
• Hold & Win - triggers the Hold & Win streak respins round.

The Free Drops feature can also trigger when you land 3 scatters in the same base game cascading sequence, and you get 6 free spins no matter how the bonus round is triggered. The global win multiplier increases by +1 per cascade, and the Magic Orb can dish out Transform, Wild, Destruction and/or Additional Free Drops. The Orb is activated between each free drop, and it can award up to +3 extra drops per trigger.

The Hold & Win feature can also trigger organically, and this happens when you land 5+ coin scatters anywhere in sight.

The triggering scatters become sticky on an otherwise cleared 7x7 grid, and you start with 3 respins. Only blanks and new sticky scatter coin lands, and the latter resets the respins tally to 3 again. The feature ends if you run out of respins, or fill the grid.

The scatter coins don’t hold any value, but 40+ coins award the Mega Prize worth 250x your stake. There are 3 lesser prizes also, and the Mini, Major (15+ scatters) and Maxi (30+ scatters) jackpots pay 25x, 50x or 100x your stake, respectively. You’re guaranteed to win at least the Mini Prize once the feature is triggered.

The 200 Spins The Magic Orb: Hold and Win Slot Experience

You get to see a few base game drops, before the free spins round is triggered at 0:40 into the 5:56-minute highlights video. We got plenty of extra spins, and some decent modifiers as well, so the feature went on for quite a while. Towards the end, around the 5-minute mark, you also get to see the Hold&Win feature play out. See for yourself by hitting the play button below.

Review Summary

As much as we appreciate a break from iSoftBet’s “assembly line” Hold&Win production, The Magic Orb: Hold & Win still contains a few drawbacks that must be pointed out.

First of all, some kind of turbo spin or ‘double-click’ option would have been greatly appreciated, as cascades take way too long (play the highlights video above on 2x speed to see how much better it flows). Game pacing should be a science at this point, as it does affect the feel and flow in a major way.

Secondly, the gemstone-infused grid makes The Magic Orb come across as more generic than it had to, which is a bit sad since it’s an otherwise unique creation in the series (and overall in the genre). The Rachmaninoff-esque soundtrack created a dense, yet mysterious, atmosphere, which we appreciated, and the Orb modifiers can prolong both base game cascades and the bonus round. The unusually high 20,776x potential seems a bit far fetched though, but the possibility is always there.

Pros

• 4 unique and random Magic Orb modifiers
• Magic Orb can also trigger both bonus rounds
• FS w/ increasing multiplier and orb modifiers
• Hold & Win w/ combined prizes up to 425x
• Overall max win of 20,776x your stake

Cons

• Slow cascades become annoying
• Free Spins hit rate is 1 in 376
• Hold & Win hit rate is 1 in 272

If you enjoy The Magic Orb: Hold and Win Slot you should also try:

Brilliant Diamonds: Hold and Win - is another gemstone-infused installment in iSoftBet’s Hold&Win range, but this is not a grid slot like the game at hand. The random diamond modifier can lead to solid base game payouts though, and you can land both jackpots and overall payouts up to 5,440x via the hold and win feature.

Colossus: Hold and Win - is a Greek mythology inspired release in the Hold&Win series from iSoftBet, and you’ll benefit from expanding wilds on reels 2-5, and these come with a random multiplier up to x10. The random multiplier will also benefit you in the hold and win feature, where you can fill the grid to win jackpots up to 10,000x your stake.

Stars of Orion - is a cosmic gravity mechanic installment from ELK, and it’s an 8x6 cluster pays grid slot.

The winning symbol collecting Magic Meter dishes out 5 modifiers, and the progress on the meter does not reset in the bonus round. This can lead to payouts up to 10,000x your stake.

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