Shimmering Woods Slot Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Shimmering Woods Review

Set in an enchanted forest opening, where crystals stick up from the ground, Playtech invites you into yet another installment in their Payways series. Shimmering Woods might not be visually top notch, but the reel-expanding Symbol Splitting mechanic syncs very well with Cascading Win multiplier, adding up to a highly entertaining base game.

Given the massive 25,000x potential, you might expect a brutal beast lurking underneath the hood, but that’s not really the case here. The game is certainly volatile, but it scores only 7 out of 10 on Play’n Go’s own scale. The bonus round increases the tension as more symbols become splitting, and this is a very worthy follow-up to the highly successful Frozen Gems.

Shimmering Woods Slot Reel Screen

Shimmering Woods Features

The wild symbols will step in for all regular pay symbols, and it also pays the same as the highest value diamond symbol. That is 3x your stake for 5 on a payline.

The Cascading Reels mechanic removes all winning symbols, and allows a fresh batch of potential winners to drop down from above. This process repeats as long as you keep landing new winning combos, and each Cascading Win increases the progressive multiplier by +1. The multiplier resets to 1x between paid spins.

A random symbol (including the wild) will be chosen before each spin, and it’s highlighted in the box above the reels.

This becomes the “Splitting Symbol”, and any instances that land will split into 2. This increases the number of rows from 3 up to 6 at the most, which again increases the number of win ways from 243 to a maximum of 7,776.

The Bonus Round is triggered by landing 3 purple crystal scatters on reels 1, 3 and 5 on the same spin. Between 0 and 3 scatters can split via the Shimmer feature however, and this gives you the following bonus round possibilities:

• 3 scatters award 10 free spins with 1 splitting symbol.
• 4 scatters award 13 free spins with 2 splitting symbols.
• 5 scatters award 16 free spins with 3 splitting symbols.
• 6 scatters award 19 free spins with 4 splitting symbols.

Any active Splitting symbols from the base game is carried over to the bonus round, and the box above the reels now contains all symbols. Highlighted symbols will split as in the base game, and these do not reset between spins in the bonus round. The win multiplier does reset between spins however, but it’s still active during free spins.

Retriggering the bonus round means you will get additional Splitting Symbols.

If you get 3, 4, 5 or 6 scatters during the bonus round, you are awarded with 3, 6, 9 or 12 extra spins respectively, and these come with 1, 2, 3 or 4 extra Splitting Symbols, also respectively. It’s possible to turn all 9 symbols, including the wild, into Splitting Symbols via retriggers.

The 200 Spins Shimmering Woods Experience

The Splitting Symbols mechanic appealed to us in Play’n Go’s Frozen Gems, and perhaps even more so in this game, due to the higher potential. We had a very good time testing Shimmering Woods, and we will definitely be back for more. You can see how we fared in the brief and edited highlights video below.

Review Summary

Play’n Go has certainly flirted with expanding reels mechanics before, and the splitting symbols mechanic took center stage in their highly successful Frozen Gems. Shimmering Woods can be seen as a follow-up title with an even more daring potential. Being able to win up to 25,000x your stake is quite exceptional for this developer, and it certainly makes this release an attractive prospect.

The gemstone theme is perhaps a tad too generic, but it doesn’t really matter when everything else runs so smoothly. Cascading Wins builds the progressive multiplier, and combined with the Splitting Symbols mechanic, things are kept fresh and unpredictable in the base game. Of course, everything is enhanced in the bonus round, where potentially every symbol can become Splitting.

Pros

• Cascading Wins w/ increasing multiplier
• Splitting symbols for up to 7,776 win ways
• Bonus round w/ up to 9 splitting symbols
• Win up to 25,000x your stake

Cons

• Beware of customizable RTP ranges

If you love Shimmering Woods you should also try:

Frozen Gems - starts out with 5 reels and 243 win ways.

A frozen reel on the top can unleash the symbol split feature, which increases the number of win ways up to 8,748. The progressive multiplier does not reset in the bonus round, and this can lead to payouts up to 10,000x your stake.

Perfect Gems - is the predecessor to Frozen Gems. When symbols on the horizontal top reel line up with symbols on the 4 middle reels, they split in 2. This can generate up to 21,609 payways, and the progressive multiplier bonus round comes with a 5,000x potential.

Gem Splitter - is a similarly themed title from Wazdan, and here a randomly chosen symbol will split into 5 different combinations on each spin. This Multiways feature can increase the number of win ways up to 59,049, and you can win up to 9,000x your stake in the bonus round.

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