5 Monsters

5 Monsters: Slot Overview

'The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.' So said horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, and the sentence could apply to the fear of what might be lurking out there in the big wide universe, ready to invade Earth, enslave its people, and drain resources in a never-ending cycle of galactic conquest. Or, the creatures out in space could be like the ones found in 5 Monsters from software developer Max Win Gaming in a collab with Relax Gaming. These critters are cute as can be, happy, smiling extra-terrestrials. They can also be helpful too, and bring a variety of modifiers to 5 Monsters' potentially massive hold & win bonus round.

For setting, players may be onboard an alien mothership or traversing the stars in some Terran-built spaceship. Either way, the view is made up of the inside of a spaceship and a porthole view of the cosmos. Up top, we've got a progression meter made up of high-pay symbols, inactive to begin with, while down below, the barrels refer to another aspect of the collection feature. All will become clear in time, so best just to buckle into your space couch for a deeper blast into 5 Monsters.

At its core, 5 Monsters is a highly volatile online slot with a variety of RTP models. The RTP depends on things like game level and how you'd like to customise the bonus buy, but as a guide, the Level 0 return to player value is 96.38%. The game info screen lists all of the values in great detail. When picking a stake, the options are 20 p/c to $/€18 per spin.

Taking centre stage like Captain Kirk on his Command Chair is 5 Monsters' game grid. It's got 5 reels and 5 rows and uses a pay-anywhere scatter win mechanic. Basically, regular symbols pay anywhere on the screen as long as at least 7 matching ones are in view. The 3 low pay symbols are triangle, square, and circle imprinted bubbles, while the high pays, here called major symbols, are 5 circular objects like planets or eggs or something. Landing a 7-of-a-kind win pays 1 to 4 times the bet, whereas a cluster of 15 is worth 50 to 300 times the bet. 5 Monsters does not use a wild symbol.

5 Monsters: Slot Features

5 Monsters is a mix of progression systems, the Collection Bonus, random symbols, and the bonus buy feature.

MaxSymbols

The MaxSymbols and the progress bar sit above the game grid. When a winning combination of major symbols hits, it activates the respective symbol on the MaxSymbols panel. Activated MaxSymbols are collected in the progress bar. Filling the progress bar unlocks a monster and enters the Collection Bonus. The Progress Bar keeps its progress at each bet size.

Game Levels

5 Monsters has 6 game levels. Level 0 ends when Monster 1 is unlocked, Level 1 ends when Monster 2 is unlocked, Level 2 ends when Monster 3 is unlocked, Level 3 ends when Monster 4 is unlocked, and Level 4 ends when Monster 5 is unlocked. Level 5 starts when all monsters are unlocked, and players stay at Level 5 once reached. In addition, in the base game, the Random Symbols feature may randomly activate when there is an active MaxSymbol.

Collector Bonus

The Collector Bonus is activated when the Progress Bar is complete. Here, 3 spins are awarded, and landing a new symbol resets the spin back to 3. The round ends when the max win is reached, or spins run out. During the round, Multiplier and Activator symbols may land, which have these effects:

• Multiplier Symbols – reveal a value of 2x to 5x the bet.
• Activator Symbols – trigger the ability of the corresponding Monster.

Each of the Monsters applies its unique feature when triggered. These are:

• The Framer – places frames with multiplier values in random positions. When a Multiplier symbol lands on a frame, its value is multiplied by the frame value.
• The Payer – takes one of the multipliers from the reels and adds it to all Multiplier symbols.
• The Booster – increases the value of one of the Multiplier symbols.
• The Collector – collects all multiplier values from the grid and adds them to its activator tile.
• The Mentalist – multiplies the lowest and highest multiplier values in view together.

Buy Feature

The Buy feature guarantees entry to the Bonus Round, and players can enter with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or random monsters for 75x, 100x, 150x, 200x, 300x, or 150x the bet, respectively. The game info screen lists all of the RTP values.

5 Monsters: Slot Verdict

According to NASA, the closest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri, and by close, it is 40,208,000,000,000,000 km away. In other words, travelling there, even at the speed of light, would involve a lot of wait time. A similar but by no means as lengthy scenario plays out in 5 Monsters. It's a game that has the potential to get better the longer you play as the progress bars fill and more and more monsters are unlocked. Of course, the buy bonus is an option, too, though, for players who would rather grind it out, it might take a bit of patience to get to 5 Monsters' more thrilling parts.

However you choose to get there and plant a flag, 5 Monsters' more thrilling parts might actually be quite thrilling. Like Golden Gods, 5 Monsters is Max Win Gaming taking on slots like Money Train 3 and others at the higher end of the hold & win spectrum. To Max Win Gaming's credit, the team has come up with a new experience rather than, say, do what Stakelogic did with Money Track 2 with its odd copycat presentation. In some ways, 5 Monsters did give off Reactoonz-like vibes, but it is an original experience when all of its components have been factored in. As for winning potential, you need to go large if you want to take on the big dogs in the hold & win scene. This 5 Monster does with a neatly symmetrical figure of 55,555 times the bet. Hitting that number or anything near it will likely take some immense contributions from those Monster modifiers in the bonus round.

Will it happen before the ancient ones from beyond the stars return to claim Earth? Maybe, maybe not, yet the potential is there for players willing to flex a bit of patience and level up or flex a bit of cash and buy the bonus round. This particular style might not be to all tastes, but it's hard not to tip a hat in appreciation to Max Win Gaming for daring to be different.