Lady Merlin Lightning Chase

The first thing to know about Boomerang’s Lady Merlin Lightning Chase, is that this is basically 2 very different games rolled into one. Without the Boom+ Ante Bet feature turned on, you don’t get access to the bonus round, the RTP is below average and the max win deflates to a meager3,808xyour stake. You’re basically left with a Hold & Respins feature and a lousy math model, to put it bluntly.
The good news is that you can still play with bets as low as 40p per spin with the Boom+ feature switched on, so even penny punters should be able to afford it. The cartoonish fantasy theme is decent enough, and you get plenty of cash collect base game wins with the Boom+ turned on. Access to the increasing multiplier wild bonus round is vital if you want to crack the25,600xpotential, and we see no reason to play this game with the Boom+ feature off.
The above mentionedBoom+ featuregreatly affects wilds in this game. When turned off, you get regular wilds that step in for all regular pay symbols. When switched on however, wilds also step in for scatters and the collect symbol. Wilds come with a x2 multiplier in the base game, and they can land on the 3 middle reels only.
Lightning coil cash symbolscan land anywhere, and they come with amultiplier prize between 1x and 100x your stake. If you land a collect symbol on the middle reel (or a wild on the 3 middle reels if Boom+ is turned on), all cash coil values are collected. The x2 wild multiplier applies to lightning coil cash wins as well.
If you land at least 6 lightning coil cash symbols with nocollect/wild symbolin view, theybecome sticky for 3 respins. The respins counter resets per new cash coil symbol you land, and only blanks, cash coils and collect symbols land in the Hold & Respins feature. When you land a collect symbol, all cash coils are summed up, and you start over with 3 streak respins and no sticky cash symbols on the first spin.
You can only trigger the Bonus Round with Boom+ switched on, and you win10 free spinswhen you land3+ scattersanywhere in sight. The wild multiplier is increased by+1 per wild or scatteryou land, and this also awards+1 extra spin.
The bonus round can also be triggered randomly from the base game, just as long as you don’t trigger the Hold & Respin feature, or the bonus round itself, on that spin. You can trigger the Hold & Respin feature from within the bonus round though, and the free spins feature can also be retriggered.
We get several okay cash collect payouts in the base game, before we trigger the bonus round at the 2-minute mark of the 4+ minutes long highlights video. We got a smaller scatter win up front, and the default 10 free spins was dealt out. You can see how we fared by hitting the play button below.
The whole Boom+ ante bet feature seems totally unnecessary in this game, as Lady Merlin Lightning Chase is not even half the game without it. We don’t see the point in confusing players with this nonsense, but it is what it is. Without Boom+ the potential is a measly3,808xyour stake, compared to a very solid25,600xwith the Ante bet active.
You need Boom+ to even be able to access the bonus round, and you get to collect far more cash coils when also the wild serves as a collector symbol. Since you can still spin the reels for less than 50p, the Ante Bet is highly recommended to say the least. That is, of course, if you find this game to be worthy of your time and money. We had an okay time testing it, but will hardly be back for more.
Pros
Cons
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