Forbidden Throne is a game that gets a fantasy theme, with two sides to it, one dedicated to ice and the other to fire. It’s also a recent release from Microgaming, the industry’s largest developer of online slot machines. You’re going to get more lines than from the typical slot machine with 5x3 reels, 40 of them in this case and fixed, so you always have them active as you play. The game doesn’t offer huge top payouts, the best ones reaching just $10,000, but it has other ways to make the action more fun, mainly through its wild reels, wild symbols, scatters and free spins.
The bet is going to always cover 40 lines, as I mentioned before, so the only decision that the player can make is when it comes to the number of coins used per line and their value. You have up to 10 coins to use for each of those lines, with the denominations reaching $2 at most. The complete betting range in Forbidden Throne is from $0.40 to $800, so there is enough there for anyone to find a value that they’re comfortable with.
The theme in Forbidden Throne is one of fantasy, showing us the kind of environment and characters that we would expect to see in movies. There are two sides to the action here, one relying on ice, the other on fire. They are represented by certain symbols, which can appear as wild reels. The first reel gets an ice horse, while the second reel has the ice princess. The third reel is a mix between the two sides, with a castle that’s half in the cold, half in the sun. The fourth reel has a fire warrior, while the fifth reel gets the Phoenix bird, made out of fire apparently. Among the other symbols, you have fire and ice elements, two helmets for each of the two sides, a book and various gemstones which are used for the low paying tier. The background is that of a deserted landscape, with fire inspired colors on the right and with the blue of the ice on the left side. The game has the right quality when it comes to its design, though the story is not well enough explained, so you don’t really get what is happening between the two sides.
First of all, the symbol that should be getting the most attention is the one that can pay you the most. I’m talking about the wild feature, which you will notice that it uses the Forbidden Throne logo. Have these symbols form combinations of two to five symbols on active lines, and the rewards can go as high as $10,000. As you’d expect though, most of the time you will just have the wild as a replacement when combined with regular symbols, so that it can help them bring you new wins. One of the things that sets this game apart is the way it uses its wild reels. Every single round that you go through, either during regular or free spins, will have at least one wild reel present. The five symbols that I mentioned previously (horse, princess, castle, warrior and Phoenix bird) are used for the five wild reels. These wilds are substitutes for most symbols, but not for the scatters, which will simply shine through from behind the wild reel overlay. The image selected for the scatter symbols seems to be that of some kind of orb, a magical item colored in yellow. It’s the only one that you don’t really care where it lands. These scatter symbols appear three or more times during the rounds where they are useful, and if that happens you get 10, 20 or 30 free spins out of them. You will get the chance to retrigger the spins again, as long as you can meet the requirements and land another set of 3+ scatters.
To land the biggest prize of Forbidden Throne, you will need five symbols which sport the logo of the slot, and all of them need to be on the same active line. Together, they will pay a 500x reward, which can mean up to $10,000. In actuality, because you have at least one wild reel present each round, you will always complete multiple combinations at the same time, not just one. It’s understandable then, why the top rewards are so low, since you should be getting more than one jackpot combo formed. In terms of average RTP, expect this to be a normal Microgaming slot machine, with the percentage being at 96.01% for it.
The game will pay just as well as any other Microgaming slot, so play it if you enjoy its theme, features or design, as those are the ones that set it apart.