Black Mamba (Play'n GO): Overview
Black Mamba is the fourth in a series of rock band themed slots developed by Play'n 🌧️ GO - the other ones being House of Doom, Sabaton, and Demon. As was kindly pointed out in the comment 🌧️ section of the Demon review by rock artist Marielle Tengström, much of our criticism that time around stemmed from ignorance 🌧️ of the classic rock scene. Safe to say, we learned a lot from her input and made a promise to 🌧️ ourselves to do better research going forward.
If Demon was a niche slot, Black Mamba is even more so. Not in 🌧️ terms of gameplay, it's a rather typical Play'n GO grid slot offering as you will see, but in terms of 🌧️ the theme. So, who are Black Mamba then? Well, turning to Wikipedia didn't make us much wiser. All that came 🌧️ up was an article about a Ugandan anti-terrorist organisation going by the same name - great guys we're sure, but 🌧️ not what we were looking for. Going by their Spotify bio, Black Mamba is an Italian four-piece hard rock band 🌧️ made up of vocalist Martina Cori, bassist Cecilia Nappo, guitarist Alexandra Maiolo, and drummer Fred Maragoni. Being a relatively small 🌧️ and unknown band, it comes off as a bit of a strange choice for a branded slot. At the same 🌧️ time, it gives us a chance to discover new music while also helping struggling bands with some publicity.
On the production 🌧️ side of things, you can expect loud music, lots of moving parts and blinking lights vying for your attention. A 🌧️ rock club serves as the setting for the game with the actual reels being positioned on a stage. Instead of 🌧️ Greek gods, as is the case in Rise of Olympus, you'll see one of the band members standing next to 🌧️ the reels to indicate the active feature. When it comes to symbols, the lower value ones are represented by various 🌧️ music-related items such as microphones, headphones, guitar picks, and drumsticks with cymbals. More rewarding are the band members - Alexandra, 🌧️ Cecilia, Fred of which 5 in a cluster will give you 5 times your stake. Any combination of those three 🌧️ symbols will give you 3 times your stake.
There are also two wild symbols included in the game - a regular 🌧️ wild which comes in the form of the band logo, and a 2x wild which is represented by vocalist Martina 🌧️ Cori. Land a combination of 5 of her and you'll win 50 times your stake. Highly volatile, you can play 🌧️ the Black Mamba slot across all devices from 0.20 to €/$100 per spin.
Black Mamba (Play'n GO): Features
Mechanically, Black Mamba is 🌧️ not very different from other Play'n GO grid slots like Rise of Olympus and Troll Hunters 2. It makes use 🌧️ of the same 5-reel, 5-row grid on which winning combinations are achieved when 3 or more symbols connect in clusters 🌧️ either horizontally or vertically. Furthermore, when wins are formed, the winning symbols are removed to make way for new symbols 🌧️ - allowing you to win repeatedly from a single spin. Each time you land a successful winning cascade, a win 🌧️ multiplier will also increase by 1x just like you've seen in Red Tiger's Dragon's Fire Megaways slot.
As you may be 🌧️ familiar with if you played any of the other grid slots mentioned here, Black Mamba also comes with randomly triggered 🌧️ features that may activate on a non-winning spin - here referred to as Solo features. Depending on which band member 🌧️ that is currently active (indicated by the band member standing next to the reels) a unique ability is performed as 🌧️ such:
Alexandra - Two symbol sets are demolished and eliminated from the grid.
- Two symbol sets are demolished and eliminated from 🌧️ the grid. Cecilia - Will add one or two wilds to the grid.
- Will add one or two wilds to 🌧️ the grid. Fred - Will transform one set of symbols into another symbol.
- Will transform one set of symbols into 🌧️ another symbol. Martina -When Martina is activated, she will demolish the bottom row, removing all symbols except wilds as well 🌧️ as creating a Martina symbol in place of other band members in view. If no band member symbol appears on 🌧️ the bottom row, no wild is awarded. This feature can only be activated during the Concert feature and in the 🌧️ free spins round.
No Play'n GO grid slot is complete without a Charge Meter. Landing wins with the band members contributes 🌧️ to filling the meter which has 6 sections in total - it's filled by 1 for each symbol. Now, when 🌧️ 4 sections have been filled, the Concert feature will come into play, and if all 6 of them are charged, 🌧️ the meter is overcharged, and the win multiplier is carried over into the feature as an extra bonus. Once the 🌧️ Concert feature has been activated, the band members will take turns performing their associated acts. Again, if you triggered it 🌧️ with the charge meter overloaded, you'll also benefit from a win multiplier.
The highlight in Black Mamba is the Free Spins 🌧️ feature which comes into play when clearing the grid of all symbols. Here, the band members will perform their individual 🌧️ solo acts on each losing spin. Better yet, Marina will do it on every single spin. You'll also benefit from 🌧️ a win multiplier - it resets between rounds to the multiplier value carried over from the triggering spin, but is 🌧️ otherwise unlimited. The free spins round can be re-triggered as well by charging up the meter in the same way 🌧️ as described previously - 4-5 and 6 symbol charging will award 2 or 4 spins respectively. Finally, the Concert feature 🌧️ can be triggered during the free spins round too while clearing the grid will give you an instant cash prize 🌧️ of 50 times your total stake.
Black Mamba (Play'n GO): Verdict
To newcomers, the game may seem overwhelming when laid out in 🌧️ writing like this. Veteran players, meanwhile, were probably rolling their eyes wondering what's new. Indeed, if you've played any other 🌧️ grid slot from Play'n GO, nothing here will really take you by surprise. The biggest difference, maybe, is the use 🌧️ of the win multiplier, but other than that it's pretty much Rise of Olympus with an Italian rock band theme.
So, 🌧️ is it worth playing? Absolutely yes. If you're a fan of these grid slots, then you'll probably enjoy Black Mamba 🌧️ as well, although there is always a risk that some will be put off by the theme (while others will 🌧️ love it, of course). Not many other providers can compete with Play'n GO in the grid slot segment, and although 🌧️ most of these titles are fundamentally similar, we don't seem to get enough of them.
Mathematically, the Black Mamba slot is 🌧️ equally well balanced as its siblings, but at the same time, it's also highly volatile. The top prize here is 🌧️ 5,000 times your stake, and while the probability of that happening is less than 1 in 100 million spins ("So 🌧️ there is a chance" as Lloyd Christmas would have said), the relatively low max win makes for more balanced gameplay 🌧️ that also allows for more frequent 500-1,000x payouts. Overall, Black Mamba is another great addition to the Play'n GO grid 🌧️ slot series, or as the band members would have said - Black Mamba, molto bene.
