Sherwood Showdown Slot Review

Sherwood Showdown Theme/Symbols

Many of Novomatic’s older slots look rather dated to modern eyes. They’re certainly freshened things up with the design of their more recent releases and Sherwood Showdown is another modern looking slot. As its name suggests, Sherwood Forest is the setting here. On the reels you’ll see A to 10 symbols as well as Little John, Friar Tuck and Maid Marian.

The most rewarding symbol is the shield. Land 5 of these on a payline for a payout of 15 times your stake. There’s a wild too. As usual, this substitutes for everything with the exception of the scatter.

Base game modifiers

Spicing up the base game in Sherwood Showdown are 5 different modifier extras which deliver an assortment of goodies. Here’s what to expect:

• Horn Blower feature – look out for an animated Robin Hood who can appear on any losing spin and with a blast of his horn can turn an unsuccessful combination into a winning one.
• Fox Runner feature – this too can trigger at random on any losing spin. Foxes rampage up and down the reels to turn a loser into a winner.
• Winning Shot feature – Robin is a dab hand with the bow and arrow and he fires off a volley of arrows when this triggers. Each position that’s hit turns into a wild. A payout calculation follows with the new wilds in place.
• Stepping Streak feature – Robin appears at random, this time brandishing a compass. The reels shift in the direction show by the compass pointer. This can create a new winning combination. You can get multiple reel shifts here for even bigger rewards.
• Fill the Nest feature – in this modifier, Robin shoots an arrow at a bird’s nest. The eggs then drop a nest, increasing a multiplier as they do so. Special golden eggs are worth 3x apiece. Multiplier awards can reach up to 20x in this round.

Reel Rise feature

If you land scatters on reels 1 and 3, you could see reel 5 increase in size to 4 or 5 rows high rather than the standard 3. Called the Reel Rise feature, this boosts your chances of finding a 3rd scatter and triggering the all-important free spins feature.

Free spins with multipliers of up to 5x

The Free Spins feature is activated by landing scatters on reels 1, 3 and 5 on the same spin. Boosting your winning chances in this round are multipliers. The size of the multiplier depends on the scatter symbol that hit on reel 5 on the triggering spin.

• Bronze scatter = 1x
• Silver scatter = 2x
• Gold scatter = 3x
• Platinum scatter = 4x
• King scatter = 5x

You can extra free spins to your total if Robin appears. He can also increase the size of your multiplier. You’ll notice we haven’t given you a figure for the number of free spins on offer here. The amount depends on the outcome of battles between Robin and a wolf. If Robin is victorious, the free spins continues. If the wolf finishes on top, the round is over.

Hold & Spin Streak feature

This Hold & Spin Streak feature can trigger from within the Free Spins feature if you land a gold coin with a 2x attached. This is held and a series of streak respins follows. These continue as long as a new coin hits. The amounts attached to each coin are added together to give you a final prize amount.

Rob from the rich

With its high spec visuals and range of extras, Sherwood Showdown isn’t a typical Novomatic slot. The gameplay comes together rather well thanks to that impressive variety of bonuses and modifiers. Medium to high variance, the most you can win on each spin is 300 times your stake – add in the 5x multiplier from the free spins to win up to 1,500 times your stake (on every free spin).