You’ll find something chilling about the animated character to the left of the reels. Your host never stops moving and has an evil look to him. When he suddenly springs to life, the effects are excellent – though, they might make you jump the first couple of times.
That solid production transfers to the reels, with glowing animations marking out your wins. Music is violin-based, and certainly adds to the overall edgy atmosphere. My pick of the animations is for the random bat feature. This is fast, though stunning. You’ll be keen to see where those bats land, too – as there is plenty of big-win potential via this feature.
Bats feature frequently in this game. If you watch the spin button, you’ll see them briefly fluttering every time you spin. On some spins, you will see the Dracula avatar to the left of the reels focus and bring his arms together – as if summoning power.
Next, flames shoot from head to toe – and he turns from a man into a swarm of bats. These fly over the reels, turning a group of symbols into flames. This could be a simple square, or a bigger and more elaborate pattern. They can appear anywhere on the reels.
These symbols then become one of the regular symbols at random – and the reels spin. You won’t always match up symbols on the left-hand reels to create prizes. With the symbols grouped, those times you do will often trigger big wins.
Bat features are random. Sometimes you have 2 or 3 in quick succession. Other times, you’ll need to wait a while to trigger one.
To trigger the free spins bonus, you need two special wild symbols on reels 2 and 4. One shows Dracula (in human form), the other shows a lady who would not look out of place in Victorian London. After a graphic introduction, you’ll see the pair of them replacing the seated Dracula at the side of the reels.
You then have 10 free spins. An extra stacked wild showing the two together appears on reel 3 for these. You also have more frequent bat features, and doubled wins too. You can re-trigger for more free spins by hitting both of the special wilds on reels 2 and 4 again.
Like many NetEnt pokies, the number of win lines and minimum bet don’t match. There are 40 win-lines crossing a 5×4 grid this time – and you can spin for just 20 coins and up. Bigger coin sizes and bet multipliers are available, along with an auto-play option.
Bigger wins will come from those times you trigger multiple win-lines at the same time. It is possible to trigger all 40 at once. The highest-paying symbol shows a muscular Dracula. This is worth 200 coins for 5 of a kind. The lady matches this prize. Other higher payout symbols show characters from Victorian London. Playing card symbols have been put into shield emblems for the lower prizes.
There are wilds in play, too – these simply have the letter ‘W’ scratched in blood on them.
NetEnt is one of the leading casino software companies in the world. The company was founded in 1996 and since grown into an industry titan producing some of the most popular slots of all time.
The list of NetEnt online slots includes titles such as Street Fighter II The World Warrior and Starbust. NetEnt is always looking to innovate adding new gameplay features and upgraded visuals.