The Phantom’s Curse Review

Universal Monsters: The Phantom’s Curse is a video slot from NetEnt with 5 reels and 40 paylines. This slot pays both ways, meaning you get wins from left to right as well as right to left. You’ll be able to play Universal Monsters: The Phantom’s Curse at online casinos such as Zulabet, Zet Casino or CasinoEuro.

Theme and game basics

The Phantom’s Curse is the latest in a series of Universal Monsters’ slots from NetEnt. The Invisible Man and Frankenstein belong in the series as well. This time we get the Phantom of the Opera theme and the slot would even have been named accordingly, if it hadn’t been for Microgaming’s release of their Phantom of the Opera slot and subsequent licensing issues. Be that as it may, the theme is based on the famous musical and it’s beautifully done. The theatre is the backdrop, the soundtrack is suitably dramatic, the Phantom and Christine feature prominently on the reels. They’re also the highest-paying symbols, where the Phantom pays 200 coins for a 5-of-a-kind win and Christine 100 coins for such a win. Any of the wild symbols, however, also pay 200 coins in such a winning combination. Additionally, we get the rose ring, a yellow rose, a hand mirror, a dagger and the four card suit symbols on the reels. The golden chandelier is the scatter symbol and the mask is the generic wild, though the stacked mask, the stacked masked Phantom, stacked Phantom and stacked Christine (always stacks of two with golden frames) are also wild symbols, though they only land on reels 1 or 5.
As it happens, all symbols come stacked in this slot, which comes with a 5×4 grid of symbols. Since it also pays both ways, it tends to be on the more volatile side, giving fewer wins that can potentially be pretty decent.

Gameplay and features

The game comes with various bonus features. Land a stacked Phantom and a stacked Mask on reels 1 and 5 and you get a free re-spin where the two stacks as well as all other Phantom and Mask symbols on the reels become sticky wilds. Since the slot pays both ways, great wins are possible here.
Then there’s the click-me bonus game that is triggered when the stacked Phantom appears on reel 1 and stacked Christine appears on reel 5. First, you get to pick among 8 red roses for coin wins, which keep collecting until you get the X. Then follow three mirrors that determine whether you get a 1x, 2x or 3x multiplier.
The free spins are triggered when the scatter lands on reels 1, 3 and 5. We get the Phantom free spins, where the masked Phantom appears as a wild symbol, adding potential for more wins. In theory, we’re getting unlimited free spins. However, each of the five reels has a rope to the chandelier on the left-hand side attached to it. Whenever one of the Phantom wilds appears on a reel for the first time, one of the ropes gets cuts. Thankfully, subsequent Phantom wilds on the same reel won’t cut a rope. Plus, subsequent Phantom wilds will also appear stacked. The feature ends when the final rope has been cut, though there really is no limit to how many spins that may take. On average you’ll probably get between 8 and 15 spins, mind you.

Conclusion

The theoretical RTP (return to player) of Universal Monsters: The Phantom’s Curse is 96.57%. That is good value, but since the slot tends to the more volatile side of things, it does not always leave you feel like a winner. Indeed, the Phantom re-spins have yielded our biggest wins during this game and it took over 300 spins to see the free spins for the first time. You may play the click-me bonus round once every 100 spins, however. Whilst the slot looks great, offers a great soundtrack and decent bonus features, it is neither the best nor most interesting game NetEnt has given us. It just feels a little bit boring, which may just be because of the lack of big wins or anything much interesting happening on the reels. The bonus features appear frequently enough, they just lack excitement, which is a bit of a shame.