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.
