Can you hypnotise a serpent into paying you a bumper haul of coins? That’s the aim in The Snake Charmer, a 5 reel, 25 payline video slot from NextGen Gaming. It comes with a free spins bonus round which offers stacked wilds which can appear on all reels. Play from between 25p to £50 per spin.
The Snake Charmer features a selection of Indian inspired images on the reels. Look out for baskets of snakes, the pungi (the instrument traditionally played by snake charmers), an elephant and a Bollywood style dancing girl. The latter is the top payer of the standard high value symbols, offering payouts of between 2 and 1,500 coins.
The reels are set against a starry, night time backdrop that includes a building that looks suspiciously like the Taj Mahal. The Snake Charmer himself dozes on top of the reels. Very fine it all looks too. The on screen action is played out to an Indian soundtrack dominated by sitars and drums.
The snake is wild and substitutes for all other symbols apart from the scatter. It can be very lucrative in its own right, offering payouts of 5,000 coins if you manage to find 5 symbols in a payline. Just 2 wilds will deliver you 10 coins.
The snake charmer is the scatter – find 3 of them anywhere on the reels and you’ll trigger the feature and be awarded 10 free spins. During the free spins, look out for the snakes that fly up from the baskets under the reels. They can fill up entire reels and turn them wild. Manage to get them on the leftmost reels and they can certainly provide a big boost to your winning opportunities. The only downside here is that the free spins cannot be re-triggered.
The Snake Charmer is not the most complicated slot you’ll come across. The impressive visuals, catchy soundtrack and most importantly, the free spins with expanding wilds, all add up to an entertaining overall package. It may not be a classic but this Indian-themed offering is certainly a little charmer. If you like this theme, I would suggest you try Playtech’s Sultan’s Gold which is very good and highly volatile. You also have WMS’ Viking Vanguard where the serpent is the main character.
