Supermania Slot – Free Demo

Belts, rings and gloves on a six-reel grid

Supermania is yet another grid slot in Pragmatic Play's tumbling range to come rolling off the assembly line, and it employs a superhero theme to carry a familiar set of features, symbols, and gameplay. I played 480 spins of it at a 240-credit stake. It's not without precedent and shares several traits with earlier Pragmatic Play grid slots.

For starters, the backdrop is a loud one, and Supermania portrays the world of a comic book hero, all belts, rings and gloves arranged over the reels. Stakes can be had from 0.20 to 100 per spin. Switching the Ante Bet on raises that stake by 25% and doubles the chance of triggering the free spins.

Eight of a kind, anywhere on the grid

On each spin, symbols tumble into the 6x5 grid, and there are no paylines at all — 8 or more matching symbols anywhere on the grid are enough to win. When a winning combo lands, the symbols concerned are cleared to let new ones drop into place, and this procedure continues until no more winners land. Each fresh drop can form another win of its own. Then a new spin starts.

The symbols aren't the most thrilling in the catalogue. But they do the job, and in rising order are the card royals 10 through to A, then four superhero items such as belts, rings and gloves. The latter set is the most profitable, with 12 to 30 of a kind paying between 2 and 50 times the stake depending on the symbol, and lesser clusters of 8 or 9 pay from 0.25 up to 10 times the bet. The top of each band needs the best-paying symbol at the top of the count.

Why two x50 symbols leave x100

Assisting is the multiplier symbol, which can land on any reel in the base game and during free spins, bearing a value from x2 all the way up to x500. It can arrive on the opening drop or on any tumble that follows it. When a tumble sequence comes to a close, every multiplier in sight is added together. Two x50 symbols therefore leave x100 on the sequence, not x2,500. The total is applied to the win from that sequence.

Drilling down into the mechanics of the game I find a stated RTP of 96.50%. In any case, that is the studio's figure and not mine. Over my 480 spins I wagered 115,200 credits and got 95,040 back. It sits with high volatility. The longest run I had without a win was 19 spins, ending on spin 268.

The Minty Summary: Four hundred and eighty spins at 240 credits returned 82.5%, and not one fourth scatter turned up in the whole run, so every credit Supermania paid me came off the base game — where the multiplier symbols add together rather than stack on each other. Spin 419 was worth 223.2 times the stake on its own and the balance still finished 20,160 credits down.

The 15 free spins I never triggered

The base game has the occasional moment, but things can get frantic during the free spins. They come into play when 4, 5 or 6 scatters land on one spin. The round arrives with 15 free spins, and the trigger itself pays 3x, 5x or 100x the bet depending on how many scatters brought it in. That 100x for six scatters matches the price of buying the round outright.

Multipliers behave differently once the round is underway, and a multiplier that lands on a winning spin is added to a global multiplier. The value counted is the same x2 to x500 the symbol carries in the base game. That then multiplies every subsequent win where a fresh multiplier lands. The global figure therefore only grows on spins that actually pay. Those multipliers are kept for the entire round, and 3 or more scatters during the round grant 5 more free spins. Each retrigger is worth 5 spins however many scatters land above three.

There is a bonus buy to make use of for a price of 100 times the total stake, for anyone not in the mood to wait for scatters during the base game. The Ante Bet is the cheaper route to the same round, at a quarter more per spin rather than a hundred times it.

Spin 419 against the other 479

There is no denying that Supermania shares components with other Pragmatic Play grid slots, and the scatter-pays grid and the tumbles are the same notionally. Wisdom of Athena and Starlight Princess 1000 are Pragmatic Play titles built the same way, tumbling grids with multiplier symbols. And yet when Supermania is doing its thing it really doesn't matter. The star of the show is the multiplier symbol. That thing can go crazy stacking up on the grid, landing two and three at a time, adding itself together, and generally creating all sorts of havoc.

These grid slots normally work best amid unruly chain reactions of wins and features. In free spins those chains feed the global multiplier rather than a one-off total. The multiplier is the main figure in most, if not all, of these moments.

All up, the base game can plod at times. Outside spin 419, my best returns were 4,320 and 3,360 credits on spins 189 and 188, 18.0 and 14.0 times the stake. Over 480 spins at a 240-credit stake the free spins never showed once, and only 84 spins paid anything. Forty-four of those 84 paid back less than the stake. The balance never rose back above the 100,000 credits it started with, ending on 79,840 for a session return of 82.5%. It bottomed out at 37,648 credits after spin 417, two spins before the big one. The one moment that sparkled came from the base game anyway, spin 419 paying 53,568 credits with multiplier symbols in view, 223.2 times the stake.