If you’ve ever seen the inside of a land-based casino or visited a casino site, you’d be hard-pressed to claim that you’ve never seen a Wild West-themed slot. What drives the industry to be so obsessed with this theme year after year is beyond me. Although I would be totally fine never seeing one of these games for the rest of my life, here we go again.

I am here to present the slot game Mustang Gold Megaways. This is indeed the same game that Pragmatic Play released some time ago, but instead, this version comes with the Megaways mechanics. The difference? More symbols mean more ways to win, up to 117,649 ways, to be exact.

This review provides insight into the software settings and design, as well as information about the in-play features and bonuses Mustang Gold Megaways provides. While 95% of this game plays exactly like the first Mustang Gold slot game, you may still want to play it. In fact, you can do that for free, as the demo is embedded in this review.

Mustang Gold Megaways by Pragmatic Play comes with the same sunset backdrop that looks over the mountains and places the slot within the fenced-off ranch. The design of the layout is more grandiose. With the 5 reels being able to hold 2 to 7 symbols, this range is what makes the mechanics of Mustang Gold Megaways produce up to 117,649 ways to win. Above the reel is another row that only shows four symbols, and this spins horizontally and also contributes to the number of ways you can win. 

The jackpot table highlights the Grand, Major, Minor, and Mini prizes to the right of the slot. To the left of the game grid are the Ways to Win counter, the Buy Free Spins feature, and the game’s Ante Bet option. 

Mustang Gold Megaways also comes with a Tumbler feature, which I will explain in more detail below.

When you load the slot, set the betting value. This is what you will be paying per spin. Bet costs range between $0.20 and $360 a spin. Stick to a budget and never play beyond that. With the bet set, select the spin button and watch those reels spin.

To win, you just need the same symbols to land across adjacent reels. 3 to 6 matching symbols will produce a win, and when this happens, you will witness the Tumbler feature. The removal of winning symbols from the reels allows the symbols above to drop into the vacant space. Then new symbols will enter the game to now fill the space vacated by the symbols that dropped down. This motion of replacing symbols can produce new wins and consecutive wins, all from one spin.

The top symbols to land are the white mustang, the black mustang, the cowboy, and the cowgirl. The lower symbols are the J, Q, K, and A. The more symbols you land, the greater the payout. The more you bet per spin, the higher the value of your winnings will be. The bet size also impacts the size of the four jackpot prizes and the values of the money symbols.

The money symbols will reflect x2, x3, x5, x8, x10, or x15 of the total bet. Concerning the jackpots:

Mini = 20x the bet

Minor = 50x the bet

Major = 100x the bet

Grand = 2500x the bet

Jackpots are won by landing the Jackpot symbol and the Collect symbol.

Collect Symbol: To win the money symbol values, you need the Collect symbol to land on the reels at the same time.

Free Spins Bonus: To activate this bonus, you must land the Collect symbol along with the bonus Scatter symbol. Players have a choice of gambling their spins in an attempt to win more before the round begins. You can gamble to win 100 free spins, but this has risks. During the game, the Golden Collect symbol can appear. The power of this feature allows you to win all values shown at the end of a Tumble. This symbol will move down the reels with each Tumble activated by a win, thus collecting money values the more you win. You can also re-trigger the feature by landing Scatters with Collect symbols.

Ante Bet: By increasing your bet by 50%, you double your chances of landing the features needed to launch the bonus round.

Buy Free Spins: You can buy your way into the bonus game for 120 times your bet value.

Classic Pragmatic Play here, ladies and gentlemen. You have a game that could have boasted a lot of opportunity and payout potential, but instead, the developer does the classic Pragmatic Play thing and offers very little; all we have are cash symbols and a free spin bonus. This is as groundbreaking as night turning the sky dark. We’ve seen this too many times, and it's lazy.

I played Mustang Gold Megaways with $1 spins and set the slot to play 50 auto-spins. The music to this game is about the only rousing thing. Sure, I made wins, and quite frequently, but the values never surpassed the $1 I was betting per spin. The Tumbler feature prolongs the game time, which, when not winning much, makes the game drag.

On spin 36, I landed the bonus feature, winning four free spins. I declined the option to play for more. During this round, I struck a further four free spins and, in the end, won a total of $86.50. With several spins left, I decided to quit while I was ahead and cash out my $60.45 return.

The max winnable from this game is capped at 5,000x the player’s bet. If you gamble at $360 a spin, this gets you a return of $1,800,000. The RTP is an average 96.46%, and the volatility is programmed at the highest possible setting.

I did well to win and win well. But this is luck and rare for high-volatility games. Until I landed the bonus, the slot wasn’t doing much. Wins were less than my bet, and collected a few money symbols. It’s not a very good game when it comes to value for money, so I would pass. Instead, you might want to try these Western-themed casino games:

• Deadwood R.I.P by Nolimit City
• 2 Wild 2 Die by Hacksaw Gaming
• Dead or Alive 2 by NetEnt

All slots are free to play, and if you join a casino reviewed by akfxoqsd.shop, you might get the chance to play all these slots with a new first deposit welcome bonus.