Blade Slot

The Marvel Comic Universe has given us slots featuring superheroes and mutants, and now with Blade we have vampires as well. This bloodthirsty slot boasts grizzly graphics and the unique Blade Split feature which adds additional symbols to your winning payline. The free games and multipliers aren’t bad either.

Storyline and Characters

Blade is a man born with vampire super powers who goes on to become a vampire slayer. He first appeared in Marvel Comics as a secondary character in 1973, but soon became a popular character in his own right. A trilogy of Blade movies was released between 1998 and 2004, starring Wesley Snipes. Playtech have based the Blade Slot game on these movies. Blade’s mother was killed by a vampire doctor while she was giving birth to Blade. Some of the vampire’s enzymes passed into Blade’s blood and left him with vampire-like capabilities, including longevity. At age nine Blade rescued an old man from a vampire attack. The man turned out to be a vampire slayer and trained Blade in his art. Blade became an expert in weapons and hand-to-hand combat, hence his nickname. The trilogy of Blade movies feature Blade as an adult determined to wreak revenge on the creatures that killed his mother. At the same time, Blade has to use a special serum to keep his own quasi-vampire instincts in check. This storyline makes for a dramatic and suspenseful slot game, if a little gory.

Symbols

Blade’s blood spattered reels have some great animated symbols, even on the simple playing card images.

• Wild – This is Blade himself, suited up in black and armed for battle. He looms in at you and bears his fangs when triggered in a winning combination.
• Blade Split – this special symbol is best feature of the game. Blade himself appears in the symbol and swivels around to slash it with his sword, leaving a huge tear down the middle. You now have two symbols where you previously had one, and an extra symbol to add to your winning payline. Combinations of six symbols are therefore possible.
• Scatter – The Blade Logo. If three or more scatters land on the reels the logo will light up and the lettering changes to announce the launch of the Free Games round. The scatter functions as an Extra Wild while you are taking your free spins.
• The Vampiress – this beautiful creature with an ample bosom appears with fangs bared and her long, red fingernails splayed. When triggered she scratches at you and blood streams from her nails.
• Blade’s Firearm – When this symbol is activated Blade appears and swings the weapon around to take aim and fire.
• Other weapons – there are three other Vampire-killing weapon symbols: EDTA darts, sliver spikes and the Bladerang. All light up when triggered.
• Playing cards from 10 to Ace – blood drips down these symbols when activated.

Wagers and jackpots

This is a 5-reel slot but thanks to the Blade Split Feature paylines of 6 of a kind can be hit. The maximum jackpot is for 6 wild symbols: 25,000 coins. There are 20 paylines in total. You can bet between 0.01 and 1.00 in whichever currency you play in for real money.

Other Ways to Win

• The Free Games feature in Blade comes with a growing multiplier; the values range from x2 to x5. The starting multiplier is randomly selected, and as the free spins roll out, the value alternates. You get 15 free spins in total.
• The Marvel Multilevel Mystery Progressive Jackpot – just like all the Marvel Mystery slots, Blade offers you access to this progressive jackpot in real money mode. Check out Free Slots’ other games from the Marvel range: Incredible Hulk, Fantastic Four, X-Men and Iron Man to find out how the jackpot game works.

Music, audio and graphics

In addition to the gruesome animations, the background to the reels has been well crafted by Playtech. We thought the blood spattered all over the operating buttons was a clever touch. The music consists mostly of electric guitar bursts; for example, when you hit trigger the Blade symbol, as well as musical sequences taken from the movie in the Free Games round. The audio picks up the pace while you take your free spins.

The Last Word…

One of Playtech’s best slot games in terms of theme and animations but certainly not for the faint-hearted. Stay away if blood makes you squeamish! 8 out of 10.