Showdown Saloon Slot Review

Showdown Saloon is a video slot from Microgaming, developed by Fortune Factory Studios, with 5 reels and 15 paylines. This slot was released in December 2018 and can be played at online casinos such as ComeOn!, Mr Green or Royal Panda.

Theme and game basics

Showdown Saloon takes us to the wild Wild West. There aren’t many Wild West themed slots around, so it’s still possible to get a unique take on the theme. Showdown Saloon sounds a little more interesting than the scene we’re actually finding ourselves looking at. The reels are set on a gambling table scattered with cards, chips, bullets and a revolver. You could conceivably imagine someone drawing their pistol and shooting you if they think you might be cheating at cards.

The background music fits very well with the theme and we actually like the look of the slot, even though it’s neither complicated nor sophisticated.

On the reels you’ll find stacks of chips among the high value symbols, a pistol, dice and whiskey with glasses. The Wild is a hand of poker cards. Playing card symbols make up the remaining low value symbols.

Five wilds will give you the highest payout on a 5-of-a-kind win with 100x your bet. The pistol gives us 7x our bet, the stack of chips 4x, the whiskey 3x and the dice 2x our bet for such a winning combination.

You can play this game from €0.20 to €100 per spin, making it suitable for all budgets.

Base Game

In the game rules, you’ll find mention of “Mystery Stacks” as the main feature in the base game and in the bonus game. There’s little mysterious about those stacks, however, and there’s no mystery symbol in the game either, in case you were wondering.

Here’s how the feature works. As you spin away the reels, any of the symbols on the reels (except the Wild as far as we can tell), can appear stacked on the first two or three reels. You’ll see those stacks spinning past and will hope that they will land at least on the first two reels. If that happens, you’ll receive a re-spin, where the two stacks are held in place and more might be added. If a third stack is indeed added, the symbols will actually expand to give you one mega symbol on the first three reels. Wins are paid out and another re-spin follows. This will continue to happen until a) no further stacks are added or b) all reels are covered in stacks, meaning you get one mega symbol covering all five reels. Huge wins are possible here.

Bonus Game

Now, the scatter, which either shows us the Sheriff or some criminal with crossed guns, can also show up in stacks. Two stacks will trigger a re-spin and three stacks will activate the free spins. Once again, you will be awarded re-spins until either no more stacks appear, or all reels are covered in the scatter symbol.

If you did manage to get three stacks of the scatter, the free spins will be triggered. You’ll receive 5 free spins in that case. Four stacks of scatters will give you 10 free spins and five stacks will give you 15 free spins.

During the free spins, the so-called Mystery Stacks are active as well, which means symbol can appear stacked and re-spins are awarded as long as you get at least two stacks on the two left-most reels.

Unfortunately, free spins cannot be re-triggered.

Conclusion: A simple slot with big showdowns

The theoretical RTP (Return to Player) of Showdown Saloon is 96.15%. That’s only average value and the slot can be volatile at times. You will see the Mystery Stacks often enough but rarely will it show you high value symbols. Mostly, you’ll get the playing card symbols in stacks and then mega symbols. Still, it’s helpful when keeping afloat whilst waiting for the free spins.

That said, the free spins don’t hold more promise of big wins either. You may get the feature once or twice and still not win much. Still, big wins are definitely possible, and we had some good runs with showdowns that were worth waiting for. Eventually, however, you might want to move on to something a little more interesting or hard-hitting.