Book of Oz Slot Review

Book of Oz is a video slot from Microgaming, developed by Triple Edge Studios, with 5 reels and 10 paylines. This magical slot can be played at online casinos such as ComeOn!, Guts or LeoVegas.

Theme and basic information

The Book of Oz online slot brings us the magic of the Wizard of Oz. Of course, the wizard turned out to be somewhat of a fraud, but the same cannot be said about this slot. We’re in Emerald City, so green really is the colour featured most heavily in these parts. This slot concentrates on the realm of the wizard, leaving out all other parts of the beloved story. But that’s okay. It keeps things focussed instead of overly complicated or convoluted.

The wizard himself, young and handsome, is the highest-value symbol on the reels. He will give you 500x your stake in a 5-of-a-kind win. The game also comes with three potions, where the lion brings courage, the heart some kind of love and the key presumably intelligence? We’re not sure about the latter, but it matters very little. The courage potion is worth 200x your stake in a win of five of a kind and the remaining two still pay out 75x your stake for such a winning combination.

It’s noteworthy to add that all high-value symbols already pay for 2-of-a-kind wins, which includes a substitution by the wild symbol. The wild is the Book of Oz itself and it is also the scatter in this game.

You can play this game from €0.10 to €25, making it a great option for the budget conscious among us.

A base game with a re-spin twist

With 5 reels and only 10 paylines, you’d think there wouldn’t be anything special in the base game. Indeed, this slot isn’t heavy on the features and not unique either. But that’s okay, because you will enjoy playing this game. We were surprised by how much we enjoyed spinning the reels in this game, even forgoing auto-play, because that keeps things a little more interesting.

You see, the main feature that might interest you in the base game is the re-spin feature of the individual reels. After each spin, you can re-spin each reel individually, which will cost you some coins. How much it may cost you to spin each reel, is written beneath each reel. The higher the prize, the higher the likelihood of a win.

So, you’re looking at an investment when you decide if and which reel you might want to spin. This can actually be incredibly worthwhile, if you already have a 3- or even 4-of-a-kind win with high-paying symbols. You may have to pay 30x your bet for one spin on one reel, but if you end up winning 120x your bet, you could consider taking that risk or making that investment, whichever way you want to look at it.

We have done this on several occasions and as long as you keep an eye on your budget and how many spins you want to invest before calling it a day, you can walk away with great wins.

A bonus game that looks familiar

If you know your video slots, coming a cross a slot from any game developer that is called “Book of…” anything, really, you might want to stop and think why that sounds familiar. If the wild/scatter symbol then shows us a book, we may even reasonably assume what feature is available. And indeed, with Book of Oz, the familiarity is striking.

You need three wild scatters anywhere on the reels to trigger 10 free spins. Four scatters will give you 12 free spins and five scatters even 25 free spins.

Before the free spins start, the Book of Oz will open up and randomly pick one of the symbols of the game that will expand and pay out regardless of their position on the reels as long as you get at least two to start with.

Sound familiar? Yes, because we’ve seen this feature in Book of Ra (from Novomatic) and Book of Dead (from Play’n GO). Instead of going all Egyptian, however, we get the Wizard of Oz as a theme here.

Conclusion: A well-done slot with familiar features in a unique combination

The theoretical RTP (Return to Player) of Book of Oz is 96.5%. That’s great value and much better than what we get with Book of Ra or Book of Dead. Whilst the volatility of this slot cannot be underestimated, we triggered the free spins at least once within 100 rounds of playing, sometimes twice. Getting three scatters on the reels somehow didn’t seem difficult. Or perhaps we simply enjoyed a good run.

And trying that re-spin feature in the base game was a worthwhile endeavour every now and then as well. Individually, the features in this slot aren’t unique. But the combination is new and make for a surprisingly entertaining game. We really enjoyed Book of Oz and can recommend that you take it for a spin and check it out for yourself.