Britain’s Got Talent Megaways

Britain's Got Talent Megaways: Slot Overview

Televised talent shows might feel like a relatively modern invention, but they've actually been around for decades. One of the first was Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts, an American show that ran from 1946 until 1958 and was sponsored by a tea company. Fast forward to the late noughties, and Britain's Got Talent appeared, where the winner gets to perform at the Royal Variety Performance in front of the British Royal Family. An honour, to be sure, and several contestants have used the show to springboard to successful professional careers. Now, fans of the hit show have the chance to play a branded slot version created by Iron Dog Studio.

The result is Britain's Got Talent Megaways, a branded game that opened a can of emotions when it first landed on the desk. What would it be like? Cringey, cheesy, amusing, completely over the top, inspirational? As it happens, it ended up being none of these things, which is too bad because those at least would have created some sort of emotional response. Instead, Britain's Got Talent Megaways' next level genericism provoked little more than a 'meh'.

One of the main issues is the game is built around Iron Dog's VIP Branded Megaways framework, which was already old hat to begin with. This means essentially the same features, math model, stats and potential in the template are carried over. The lack of creativity is exacerbated by the visuals. Stepping on stage, pouring everything into a song or routine, laying your soul bare to be critiqued by celebrity judges as well as the public would be an extremely emotional high stakes activity. Shame Britain's Got Talent Megaways doesn't tap into even a modicum of the drama.

Played on a 6-reel Megaways game grid, holding 2-7 symbols each, this system provides up to 117,649 ways to win. Mathematically speaking, the game is highly volatile and produces a theoretical return value of 96.2%. Potential is big, and the game is available on any device where stakes of 20p to $/€20 may be set.

Winning combinations are formed when matching pay symbols land adjacent to each other from reel number one. There are nine pay tiles; five are 10-A royals worth 0.6 to 1x the bet for six of a kind, while premiums are two X's, a mic, a star, and the game's logo. Landing a six premium symbol combination triggers a payout of 2 to 25 times your stake. Red buzzer wilds appear on reels 2-6 and substitute for any of the normal pay symbols. There is also a golden buzzer wild which does the same thing but has an x2 multiplier.

Britain's Got Talent Megaways: Slot Features

Features in Britain's Got Talent Megaways are tumbles, free spins with a progressive win multiplier, and a bonus buy button.

Tumbles

Whenever a win way hits, the symbols involved are removed from the reels and remaining symbols down into the gaps. Tumbling continues in this fashion, racking up wins until no winning combination is formed.

Free Spins

Should at least 4 consecutive tumbles occur, then free spins are activated; 4 tumbles award 8 free spins, while each successive tumble after four awards +2 free spins up to a maximum of 14. In free spins, if a reel reaches 7 symbols high, it is locked at that height for the remainder of the feature and awards +1 extra free spin. Another way of gaining more free spins is when consecutive tumbles occur; 4 in a row gets you +2 additional free spins, plus 2 more for each successive tumble, up to 14. Players also benefit from a progressive multiplier during free spins. It starts at x1 and increases by +1 following each tumble or when a reel is locked at 7 positions high.

Bonus Buy

If bonus buys are available where you reside, then Britain's Got Talent Megaways may ship with one. Clicking it allows players to buy 6, 8, or 10 free spins with 0 or 1 locked reels. The cost ranges from 30x the bet to 130x.

Britain's Got Talent Megaways: Slot Verdict

Whatever else might happen on the TV show, it does uncover hidden gems of talent. Take a look at the original Susan Boyle clip or Paul Potts for classic examples – just make sure you've got tissues nearby for any tears. Britain's Got Talent Megaways, the slot, on the other hand, comes across as a generic, soulless, corporate appliance that lessens the concept of Megaways. Once upon a time, new Megaways releases were a big deal, a headfirst dive into a creative vortex of unique experiences. Over the years, as so many studios have licensed it and had a go, the veneer of untouchability has chipped away in places. Stunners are still released, no argument, but Britain's Got Talent Megaways does nothing to raise the bell curve, relying almost exclusively on brand recognition.

Brand is an appropriate word here in a project that feels completely devoid of passion. It wouldn’t be a surprise if hardcore fans of the TV show are underwhelmed by this. Britain's Got Talent is famous for flamboyance, emotion, drama, and yes, talent. However, aside from the name, there's very little in the slot that really expresses the show. Okay, it has a few silhouetted images of performers in the background, a couple of buttons and X's, but it's all so lifeless. Contrast this one to the DOND range, another big, branded British TV-to-slot crossover, which largely gets it right because solid elements of the show can be experienced in-game.

Technically, Britain's Got Talent Megaways does have the features and big potential of around 20,000x+ to provide entertaining moments. Fair dues. However, there are far more inspiring Megaways games to enjoy. It's as if a board room committee made up of people who had never played games or seen the show before met to design a slot. The bones were provided by the VIP Branded Megaways template, a bunch of stock images of entertainers were pasted in, and everything was rolled up to make a quick bob. Apologies to anyone who poured their heart into this, but it just didn't feel like there was much desire to wow fans of the show.