While a melee might have several meanings, when Thunderkick designed its Grand Melee slot, the developer was thinking about the “confused crowd of people” since you can see a performance, a show, or a fight going on the grid and spectators below it observing the stage. 

The "stage" is in a 6x4 format, allowing up to 1,193 ways to win. The slot uses an unusual pay ways system, where matching symbols must appear on at least three consecutive reels, corner to corner or flush. It is not overpacked with features, but you have a special Sticky Respin feature with three modifiers and a free spins bonus round, so these, and the quite unique name and theme of the slot, are enough to intrigue you into knowing more about it, right?

After you’ve joined a Thunderkick casino, find Grand Melee, get a free spins bonus, load the slot, and you'll instantly notice that it looks nothing like any previous title by the developer. Thunderkick took things differently with this slot, making it cartoony and cheery. You can see the crowd below the stage-inspired grid, and pavilions on the sides, giving you the feel that some performers group traveled from town to town in the Middle Ages. You can see a huge castle in the background, further convincing you that the slot occurs in Medieval times. 

On the right of the grid, you can see the three-bar button first, where the Sound and Game Settings buttons are. Going down, you see a Trophy, and by pressing it, you enter the paytable, where in addition to an explanation of how symbols need to land to form a win, you will see the symbols and their values. The high-pays are the performers in different colors, giving you 3x to 10x the stake for a five-of-a-kind combo, while the low-pays are playing card Royals, giving you 1x to 1.5x the stake. 

Moving down, you see the Speaker button, but in the bottom right corner, you see the big Spin button. Moving left now, below the grid, you see the Bet button, and by pressing it, you adjust your bet from $0.10 to $100. The Autoplay button follows, then the Payout and Cash displays.

Regardless of whether you’d want to try it on your tablet or smartphone, your Grand Melee play would be interruption-free and smooth, regardless of your mobile device's operating system. The slot was designed with mobile players in mind, so it is optimized for all screen sizes and all devices. 

Grand Melee’s base game is quite unique. A Sticky Respin feature triggers at random, in both the base and the bonus round, which selects a symbol. This symbol is displayed above the grid, and if at least five instances of it land during the spin, they become Sticky and remain in their position, while other positions go through a Respin. If new ones land, they’ll also become Sticky, which will continue until no new chosen symbol lands. The feature will end, and you’ll get your win evaluation. 

In the meantime, though, during the Respins, three special symbols may land to boost your wins further. The Game Area Expansion, which transforms into the Sticky symbol type and extends the grid up to 7 rows high, the Symbol Expansion, which also converts into the Sticky symbol and Expands to cover the entire reel it landed on and the Symbol Upgrade, which transforms all instances of the chosen Sticky symbol into a more valuable symbol.

You need to land at least five scatters to trigger the bonus round; you get as many free spins as the number of triggering scatters. Triggering the free spins can also happen during the Sticky Respins feature, especially if the scatter is the chosen sticky symbol. 

That being said, the free spins can be retriggered, and you have a meter below the grid presenting exactly the number of free spins you have left. Expect the Sticky Respins feature to trigger more often during the bonus round.

Grand Melee comes with a default RTP of 96.17% and high volatility. The maximum payout it can deliver is 5,000x the stake. Since the max bet is $100 and the max payout potential is 5,000x the stake, you could win up to $500,000 in this slot if you play it with this bet level. 

While it might not wow you as other Thunderkick slots have, Grand Melee is still not an off-putting title in terms of visuals and design. Sure, it looks and feels a tad different from other online slots by the developer, but it is still unique, telling its own story open to interpretation. The payout potential is decent, and the gameplay is not overcomplicated, so overall, it is a slot that deserves your attention.