Battle Royal is a video slot from Play’n GO with 5 reels and 20 paylines. This slot with a historical theme was released in December 2018 and can be played at online casinos such as ComeOn!, PlayOjo or Vera&John.

Theme and game basics

This is the point where we have to confess that we’re history geeks. The writer of this review also happens to be particularly interested in the Tudor Age, which means we have a special appreciation for the theme of this slot: Henry VIII and his six wives. The game is beautiful, even if it isn’t exceptional. Henry and his wives all appear on playing cards stacked two high. Henry himself is the wild and the remaining symbols are card suit symbols (hearts, clubs, diamonds and spades.

None of the wives are named, but if you know your history, you can easily identify Jane Seymour, who is wearing the blue dress and smiles sweetly. Anne Boleyn has to be the one in the purple dress, Catherine Parr in green, Katherine of Aragon in red and then we’re not sure. Anne of Cleves was not pretty, but she was sweet and humble. Catherine Howard was young and sexy, but not nice and pretentious. So, you take your pick between the wives in gold and orange.

We love the detail in this game. As you spin the reels, one of the wives will usually blink or roll her eyes or smile even more sweetly, which is a tiny detail to add and pay attention to but gives this slot even more charm. Henry is altogether too jolly sometimes, but you can hardly blame him for that.

During the base game, all wives pay between 15x and 30x your stake for a 5-of-a-kind win. Each wife may turn wild during the bonus game and will then pay 30x your stake for such a winning combination. The same is true for Henry, who always pays 30x your stake for a 5-of-a-kind win.

You can play this game from €0.20 per spin to €100 per spin.

The Base Game

There’s only really one feature in the base game and you might miss it if you blink when it happens. The feature is called Royal Flush. When it happens, which is completely random, all low-paying card suit symbols will transform into the same symbol. Usually, you’ll end up getting one of the four card suits that will then appear in between all the wives and Henry.

But it’s also possible that the Royal Flush will turn all the low-paying card suit symbols into one of the wives. With a little luck, big payouts are possible here.

The Bonus Features

Aside from the Royal Flush, nothing much happens in the base game and you’ll be waiting for the scatters (the coat of arms) to land on reels 1 and 5 simultaneously. When that happens, you’re asked to choose one of the scatters.

Depending on your choice, either free spins are revealed or the Long Live the King feature.

When you get the free spins, you’re in for an experience. First of all, you will have to pick one of the wives who you hope or believe will ‘survive’ the free spins. They all come with a coin prize, which will be awarded, if your chosen wife does survive.

Once the free spins commence, the knife of a guillotine appears above each reel. On each spin, the guillotine will fall randomly on one of the reels. If one of the wives happens to be on such a reel (at least her upper half or wholly stacked), she will be beheaded and turn into a ghost that is also a wild. All matching symbols on the reels at that time will also turn. It looks really cool when that happens.

The free spins continue until all but one wife have been beheaded. You then have to choose one of the five reels that she will appear on and the guillotine will fall once again. If she is beheaded, the Long Live the King bonus is triggered. If she survives and happens to be the one you chose in the beginning, you will be rewarded with an additional coin prize and return to the base game.

The Long Live the King bonus is triggered either by choosing the scatter in the beginning or by beheading the final wife after the free spins. You’ll find yourself in the dungeon and get to pick among a bunch of chests, which will reveal coin prizes. Henry is waiting expectantly for you to choose and he’ll rush to the chest to grab his treasures. After each pick, the ghost of one of his wives will haunt the dungeon and if he happens to be in her way, he’ll die and the feature ends.

You can also escape the dungeon, if you happen to find the key in one of the chests. Your choice is then to either hunt for more treasure and risk being caught by a ghost, or to escape the dungeon (which you can do at any point before picking another chest) and receiving a mystery multiplier. The temptation to keep picking chests might outweigh your desire to escape, however.

Conclusion: Royal Fun with original features

The theoretical RTP (Return to Player) for Battle Royal 96.56%, which is pretty good. The slot is very volatile, and you may not see the bonus features often, but we found this game so much fun that we weren’t bothered by this. In fact, the wait for the scatters to land tended to be worthwhile.

And just to be fair, Henry only had two of his wives beheaded, whilst two more actually outlived him. So, this slot is not exactly what you’d call historically accurate. But it is incredibly well done and most definitely original. We expect nothing less from Play’n GO.