Mystery Reels is an online slot game that fits into the categories of both classic machines and video slots. It was produced by the Red Tiger Gaming studio and released in 2017, despite looking as if it was released at least a decade earlier.

A strong retro vibe flows throughout this online casino game, and its colourful interface tickles your imagination from the first spin. Not everything is as it seems, though, as Mystery Reels has some mysterious special features in store for you, ones that regular retro slots would normally be deprived of.

Furthermore, Mystery Reels comes complete with 4 types of jackpots, and that’s something we don’t get to see every day at Canadian online casinos.

Initially released as Mystery Fruit, Mystery Reels doesn’t have a distinct subject or theme. It evokes the atmosphere of the old fruit machines, through both the symbols and the ambience. At the dawn of the slot industry, fruit symbols were the main craze.

Slots weren’t designed based on different themes; instead, they all consisted of three reels, fruit symbols and some would have symbols of bars or bells just to mix things up. Mystery Reels has an updated look, but it has kept the charm of its ancestors. The graphics are as crisp as they can be and the sound effects are very much adapted the arcade style of cabinet machines.

As they are presented in the paytable, from the lowest-paying to the highest-paying symbol, the icons are cherries, lemon, orange, plum, grapes, watermelon, bell and a red lucky seven. The symbols are polished and quite attractive, but they will only bring you base game wins. The game comes down to one Mystery Symbol and a special Wheel Bonus symbol.

Keeping the traditional spirit alive, Red Tiger Gaming hasn’t tampered much with the structure of the reels. The game runs on a 5×3 standard engine, and offers as many as 20 winning lines. The lines are fixed and active on every spin of the reels, which means that every individual spin brings a total of 20 chances for a winning combo.

Of course, only the biggest prize gets paid in case of multiple combinations, as it is customary. The focus is on the game, so even though the icons are drawn nearly perfectly, the animations are subtle. The minimalistic approach is also seen in the control panel.

The players are allowed to set their wager by clicking on the Total Stake button located at the lower left. A menu will open and the player chooses the value he or she is satisfied with. The range of options would usually give both the high rollers and cautious players values that they can work with and feel comfortable wagering.

You can choose an Autoplay option and let the reels spin without having to put them in motion yourself during 10 to 100 spins. You can also set your loss limits. The big gold Spin button is on the right, ready to start out your quest for the mystery fruit.

There are no Wilds in Mystery Reels and no traditional free spins, but the features that substitute them are up to par. Moreover, Mystery Reels slot may come with four different jackpot prizes: the Daily Jackpot, the Quick Hit, the Super Jackpot and the Mega Jackpot.

The volatility is medium to high and the reported RTP for Red Tiger’s Mystery Reels stands at 96.24%. The game was developed in HTML5, which means it is compatible with anything from standard desktop computers to iOS/Android tablets and smartphones.

Designed to flood you with a wave of nostalgia, Mystery Reels is a throwback to the old casino days. However, the game does not look dated, as it boasts top-notch graphics and some neat features to go with them.

The absence of Wilds and freebies is unlikely to alarm most Canadian online players who get to try this slot, due to the fact that the clone-spawning mystery apple and the prize wheel take care of that quite well. The Wheel Bonus isn’t all that easy to trigger, to be honest, but it makes Mystery Reels worth a whirl.