Abrakadabra

Abrakadabra: Slot Overview

Abracadabra is commonly known today as a special word uttered by magicians as they pull off illusions and tricks. No one knows the word's origin, but abracadabra has been around since at least the second century when it was mentioned in a book called the Liber Medicinalis. Within this tome by Serenus Sammonicus, physician to the emperor Caracalla, those who suffer from malaria should wear an amulet with the word abracadabra written on it in a triangular shape. Having never tried this method of remedy, we can't comment on its efficacy and who knows, it is a strange world out there at times… It's this stranger side of the world that Armenian studio Peter & Sons taps into with its online slot Abrakadabra. A slot bursting with features, creatures, and plenty of magic.

Sometimes you can tell a Peter & Sons game from a passing glance; sometimes, it takes a little longer to work out. Abrakadabra is one that is instantly recognisable, possessing a classic Peter & Sons look. It's not the first time Peter & Sons has dabbled with the arcane, which it previously did in Voodoo Hex, for example, and with Abrakadabra's collection of interesting characters, magic makes the perfect subject matter for the studio's unique art style. In this instance, players find themselves in a mysterious outdoor location, a wizardy bloke next to the rising win multiplier on one side of the screen, beside a transparent gaming grid with an odd brown structure on the right-hand side. The mix of quirky characters, esoteric subject matter, and active animations mean that players who appreciate Peter & Sons' prior work should be happy with Abrakadabra's first impression.

Abrakadabra is played on a 5x3 main grid with an extra power reel placed on top of it. The visual presentation might be rather childish, but it's actually a highly volatile online slot, with a default return to player of 96.07% when placing individual wagers of 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin. In addition, users are free to activate the Power Bet, which doubles the chance of triggering free spins for an increased stake cost of 20%. Two feature buys are available, too; these are covered below.

Winning ways trigger a cascade where the winning symbols are removed, and symbols from the power reel fill the gaps, then cascading symbols fill any remaining gaps. Cascades repeat until no new win is created. Abrakadabra does not use paylines; instead, wins are created when matching symbols land on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost reel. This translates to 243 ways to win. For low pays, Abrakadabra has J, Q, K, and A card ranks, firing off an award of 0.25 to 0.35 times the bet when landing 5 OAK. Following them are a skeleton, a green jelly-like creature, a witch, and a reddy orange entity. Landing a 5 premium symbol win is worth 0.55 to 2.5 times the stake. Next is wilds, which are able to replace any regular paying symbol to help connect wins.

Abrakadabra: Slot Features

With a fair share of tricks in its hat to pull out, Abrakadabra offers features such as a power reel, Wild Lives, Multiplier Powerup, a Step Multiplier, free spins, Super free spins, Wild Placement, and a bonus buy.

Power Reel

Running above the main grid is Abrakadabra's power reel. Symbols on the power reel are released when winning symbols are removed beneath them by cascades. There are two types of symbols – wilds with lives, and powerups with features like extra free spins or Multiplier Powerups.

Wild Lives

Wilds come with 1 to 3 lives. Wilds remain on the gaming grid until all their lives have been used. A life is used on each cascade or spin.

Multiplier Powerup

This is only available in free spins and Super free spins. When it drops, it increments the current multiplier by +1 step in free spins or +1-3 steps in Super free spins. If more than 1 Multiplier Powerup is released at once, they add their step together.

Step Multiplier

Each win increases the win multiplier. In the base game, the multiplier resets at the end of a cascade run; it does not reset in free spins or Super free spins. The multiplier grows in stepped increments of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… meaning the multiplier increases from x1, x2, x4, x7, x11, to x16, and so on.

Free Spins

Getting 3 scatters on the grid awards 7 free spins, and any additional scatter awards a further +2 free spins. As well as the non-resetting win multiplier and the Multiplier Powerup, free spins come with a wild placement feature, triggered randomly if the power reel has 2 or more wilds at the end of cascades or on a non-winning spin. When triggered, the wilds may be placed on any position on the grid.

Super Free Spins

When 1 or 2 scatters are present on the grid, they are collected. When 450 of them have been collected in total, 10 Super free spins are awarded. Super free spins are the same as regular free spins, except the Multiplier Powerup can increase the multiplier by up to +3 steps.

Buy Free Spins

Players interested in buying entrance to the free spins round have two choices. One costs 90x the bet to buy 7 free spins, the other is 120x the bet for a random number of 7-11 free spins.

Abrakadabra: Slot Verdict

It had been a while since the previous Peter & Sons game review, so it was nice to see the Armenian outfit back in action. Abrakadabra is a through-and-through example of the studio's work too. You can see echoes of previous games, such as Valkyries, which had its own power reel, Cauldron, a magic-themed slot with Super free spins scatter collection, and the general look and feel of Abrakadabra oozes P&S. On one level then, players who have been entertained by the team's previous releases should find no trouble sliding into Abrakadabra's realm and seeing if it might perform a bit of magic for them, too.

In a way, much of what's in Abrakadabra has been used before in one form or another, so it might not present a major attraction for gamblers who like to stride forth into brave new territory each time they try a game. But that doesn't seem to be Abrakadabra's main objective. Instead, it's all about immersing oneself into a magical world, one with personality and one or two tricks up its sleeve. The tricks can be potent too. A rising win multiplier might be common, yet Abrakadabra's particular increment system has the chance of producing a potentially parabolic effect which might deliver a thrill ride. Super free spins help give the game lasting appeal, and achieving the top win figure of 10,000x the bet would be a climactic event.

When Peter & Sons burst on the scene, it was like a gust of fresh air. There was just nothing really on the market that looked like what the studio was releasing. The same still applies, but the studio has yet to release a major icon of a slot, so while games like Abrakadabra are fun to play and loaded with charm, it does seem like Peter & Sons has hit a certain comfy plateau.