Release The Kraken Megaways

One of the soundbites to my childhood was the sinister, low-toned notes of “Release the hounds”, as Mr Burns would set his pack of dogs on anyone naive enough to venture to his mansion’s doorstep.

It was a line that stuck in many people’s minds, promoting an entire generation to think twice before committing the act of trespassing on someone else’s property.

Since then, things seem to have kicked up a notch or two and, in some circumstances, are getting a little out of hand…

For example, should you ever find yourself knocking on the front door of Pragmatic Play, do prepare yourself to hear the fateful last words of “Release The Kraken”.

Now by no means have I actually fact-checked this statement…I’m almost certain the team over at Pragmatic hasn’t actually got a mythical 8-legged beast held in captivity ready to devour trespassers and cold-callers but there is always a possibility, right?

One thing for sure is that this provider loves a good Kraken; so much that a trilogy of games has been warranted, all based around tentacle-tantalising action.

Release the Kraken Megaways Base Game

“Release The Kraken” began the series in dramatic fashion before getting a full, more level-headed makeover in “Release The Kraken 2”.

Releasing onto casino platforms come 14th October 2024, the feared beast from below is now set to make a mega comeback…a Megaways comeback in fact…in Release The Kraken Megaways.

Playing out on a 6-reel game board, utilising the Megaways mechanic, each reel can land symbols between 2 to 7 deep up to a maximum of 117,649 ways.

Rated as medium on the volatility scale, Release The Kraken Megaways comes with an RTP of 96.40% and a maximum win potential of 10,000x bet.

With plenty of features to keep an eye out for, along with a roaming Wilds bonus mechanic, let’s plunge the depths and see what our Kraken is guarding this time round…

Release the Kraken Megaways Offers Players up to 117,649 Ways to Win

Release The Kraken Megaways Base Features

Win spins are formed by combining 3 or more matching symbols across adjacent reels from left to right.

10 regular paying symbols are included in this release ranging from low-paying 10, J, Q, K, A paying up to 0.8x for 6 matching symbols and high-paying jellyfish, eel, fish characters and shark paying between 1x to 7.5x for 6 matching symbols.

The game’s Wild symbol resembles the Kraken, able to land on reels 2 to 6 and substitutes for all regular paying symbols.

Release the Kraken Megaways Wild Respins

Mystery Symbols

Now there is nothing very mysterious about a Bomb…they are fairly self-explanatory but in this instance, they represent a Mystery Symbol.

Mystery Symbols may only land, at random, during base game play.

Whenever Bombs land during a game round, all Mystery Symbols visible will transform into the same, regular paying symbol.

Wild Respins

Should you manage to land 3 Wild symbols during the same base game round, a Re-spins mode shall be activated.

During the re-spin, all active Wilds on the reels shall “roam” around the board before locking into new positions.

Landing extra Wild symbols during a re-spin shall award one extra re-spin and any new Wilds shall become roaming.

The feature shall come to an end when no further re-spins remain.

Mystery Symbols Will All Transform into the Same Random Paying Symbol

Guaranteed Win

During any base game round, where no winning combination has been formed, the game can randomly activate the Guaranteed Win feature.

Upon activation, symbols on the screen will re-configure to create a winning combination with a minimum pay-out value of 10x bet.

Before Free Spins Begin, Players Must Open Chests to Reveal Random Upgrades

Release the Kraken Megaways Bonus

Landing at least 3 scatter symbols during the same game round shall trigger the Free Spins bonus, awarding 6 initial free spins.

The game screen takes you to an underwater treasure trove with multiple Treasure Chests to pick from.

The number of picks awarded is determined by the number of scatters that caused the bonus trigger; 1 pick per scatter landed.

Each chest contains a different upgrade feature to help enhance the Free Spins round as follows:

• Extra Free Spins – can reveal 1, 2, 3 or 4 extra free spins.
• Guaranteed Ways – minimum guaranteed ways of 2000, 5000 or 10,000 for every spin.
• Wild – begin the free spins with an extra roaming Wild symbol.
• Multiplier – +1x or +2x multiplier that shall apply to winning combinations throughout the bonus free spins.

During the free spins, any Wild symbols that land shall become roaming and remain throughout the feature.

Should 2 Wild symbols land on top of one another, the bonus multiplier will increase by 1.

It is possible for the bonus scatter to land on reel 6 and, should this occur, 1 additional free spin shall be awarded along with 1 extra treasure pick.

All Roaming Wilds are Persistent For the Duration of Free Spins

Bonus Buy

Pragmatic have given the player 2 bonus buy options with Release The Kraken Megaways:

• At the cost of 100x bet, trigger the free spins bonus with 3 scatters.
• At the cost of 150x bet, trigger the free spins with a random chance of 4, 5 or 6 scatters.

Release the Kraken Megaways Free Spins

First Impression

Who doesn’t love a bit of Megaways action, eh?

Pragmatic have often used the Megaways mechanic as a means to add a little more “zing” to a previously released title; Big Bass Bonanza Megaways and The Dog House Megaways coming quickly to mind.

By and large, this tends to work very well, adding a little more depth and adding a new level to transferred mechanics and I have to say Release The Kraken Megaways is no exception.

The roaming Wilds feature works very well in Megaways format, bringing the feeling along that any hit can go big when plenty of Wilds are in play.

This can clearly be enhanced with the possibility of guaranteeing minimum ways during the Bonus Free Spins round, where your choices really can count for everything.

A nice touch is that landing 2 Wilds on top of each other actually awards something, in this case an increased multiplier, unlike roaming Wilds of old in classic Blueprint games where you would essentially “lose” a Wild for a spin.

The base game features are fairly good here too.

Seeing a good cluster of Mystery Symbols landing can pay dividends and the Guaranteed Win feature, although I didn’t see this often, is a nice added touch.

Graphically and theme-wise, whilst nothing wrong as such, personally I would have liked to have seen a bit more in the sense of foreboding and fear.

I know then tends not to be Pragmatic’s style on the whole, but when you base a game theme around a famous, historically-feared beast, portraying some of that reputation within the game wouldn’t hurt a great deal.

The design of the Kraken, itself, in the original Release The Kraken showed this very well but the following two releases have certainly seen this portrayal toned down a fair touch.

Very nit-picky, I know, and it certainly takes nothing away from the solid game play that has been offered to players within this title.

The old saying is that “Three’s a crowd” but Pragmatic Play continues to prove this to be not always fact with their new-formed tentacle trilogy.

*The screenshots taken of games reviewed on this site are taken from Demo Play, as reviews are often written before games are released for real play.