Maverick Saloon Slot Machine
This is a wild-west themed slot – complete with gunfight bonus scene and twanging guitar soundtrack. Compared to many GamesOS slots, the graphics on this game are very good. You play as if you were at the main street of a gold rush era town, and hear distant horses running when you spin. Add to this the chance of a big pay out (GamesOS slots always have at least one outsized line win) and the potential or a big free spins game and you’ll find this is a western themed slot worth checking out.
The level of detail for the background graphics is very good, with the Saloon on the right of the reels and the obligatory general stores on the left. The reels are transparent, which gives you a feeling of depth perspective when you spin and see the street continue behind them. Symbols are a real mix of quality and detail. There is a priest and a serving girl who are very detailed; at the other extreme the playing card symbols (which have a wooden effect) are very plain. In between you’ll find the cowboy, a native Indian, guns and gambling accessories. Twangy guitars (well, a full band) play while you spin and is varied enough not to get repetitive. There is a mouth organ tune for some wins which is accompanied by subtle animations (and sometimes other sound effects) when you do hit a winning combination.
While there is only the single bonus game, this is split into two parts. First you have a ‘shootout’ which determines how many free spins you get – and then the spins occur.
Setup and Play for Maverick Saloon
You’ll find 5 reels on this game and 9 winning lines which you can select from. The standard GamesOS range of 10c to 50c per line gives you a spin amount of 90c to $4.50 for all lines. There are the standard options of gambling your wins on the flip of a playing card, and setting up auto-spin for up to 2000 spins at a time.
The outsized win on this slot comes via the wild symbol (gun, hat, dice and cards). Getting 5 of these on a line will win you 9000 coins, with a generous 2500 coins for just 4, 250 for 3 and 10 for 2 bonus symbols. As a wild, this symbol substitutes for the regular (non-bonus) symbols to make a winning combination. When this happens those wins are doubled.
Regular wins are topped by the priest and cowboy with the hat over his face. These are both worth 750 coins for 5 (1500 if that win includes a wild), and 125 for 4. The side-profile cowboy comes next, at 400 coins or 5. The Indian and Woman are next at 250, with the playing card symbols in their usual supporting role of making up the smaller wins.
There is one more symbol, the ‘Bonus’ crossed guns. This has 2 separate roles. First it triggers the bonus game – you’ll need 3 or more to get the free spins going. Second, it awards prizes anywhere on the reels as the scatter symbol. 2 bonus symbols get you 2x your total bet, 3 brings 5x, 4 gets 20x and if you get 5 of these anywhere on the reels you will win a big 500x your total bet amount.
Maverick Saloon Bonus Game
I enjoyed the first part of this bonus game. It is like a training session for a gunfight, with several opponents popping up on wooden boards. Your job is to shoot them by clicking on each with your mouse. Every time you do this you will get a number of free spins. These accumulate until the last one you shoot gives you a multiplier for your wins – at which point this part of the game ends.
You then go to the reels, which look the same except for a counter where the Saloon sign used to be on the top. The game speeds up a little and you get through the spins you won. If you hit 3 more of the bonus symbols you’ll break out into the shootout again to get some more spins added to your total.
Maverick Saloon – Conclusion
This slot has a nice balance between big win potential, great graphics and an entertaining bonus game. It is not the most involved of Western themed games I have ever played, though it is certainly one of the best. The music and sounds work well, and the shootout portion of the free spins game is a lot of fun. I’d be happy to recommend this one to anyone who enjoys the genre.
