Crystal Queen is brought to you by Quickspin and is based on the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen’s story about the Snow Queen. The fairy tale is centred on the struggle between good and evil which Gerda and her friend Kai experience. The game is available to play on mobile and tablet devices too.
With an obvious fairy tale theme, the soundtrack sounds like something from a Disney movie (think Frozen!) which superb graphics and animations (as with all QuickSpin slots to be fair). Playable from 50p to £100 a spin, it has 5 reels and 20 paylines which increases to 32, 44 and 56 paylines depending on how many consecutive wins you get.
This is because Crystal Queen uses the Swooping Reels feature – when you have a winning combination, the contributing symbols disappear with the empty spaces being filled with new symbols falling from above. Each ‘swoop’ will unfreeze a new row hence giving you more paylines.
For 3 consecutive wins, you will benefit from 6 rows. As a result, the multiplier increases to 2x, 3x and 5x respectively! It’s a little like NetEnt’s Gonzo’s Quest but with extra rows (and paylines). There is also a regular wild symbol which appears on reels 4 and 5 in the base game and reels 1, 2, 4 and 5 in the Free Spins Bonus feature (described below).
However, there is a Spreading Wild symbol which appears on reels 1, 2 and 3 in the base game and reels 2, 3 and 4 in the free spins feature. The Spreading Wild symbol adds 1 to 5 extra wilds randomly adjacent to the Spreading Wilds to give you bigger wins.
Then you have the Free Spins Bonus feature which is triggered when you get 3 or more scatter symbols (the gold symbol with a red circle in the middle) anywhere on the reels – you will receive 10 free spins. Now, this is played with all 6 rows enabled and therefore all 56 paylines unlocked.
More importantly, winning combinations are paid from left to right and right to left meaning you have Both Ways Wins! The Swooping Reels feature applies so wins can also be subject to up to a 5x multiplier.
I really like Crystal Queen as it has a nice combination of features which can lead to big wins. I’ve won decent amounts with the Swooping Reels feature in the base game but the free spins feature is where the bigger wins will almost definitely come from. There’s up to 850 times your stake to be won which is good as I consider it a medium variance title – if you prefer more volatility, Quickspin’s King Colossus is highly recommended.
