Hyper Strike Cash Megaways: Slot Overview
When we think of Gameburger Studios, there is one slot which instantly comes to mind. It's like certain actors who are forever associated with a particular role, even if they've gone on to do numerous others. Examples include Mathew Perry as Chandler on Friends, Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker, or Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter. When it comes to Games Global partner Gameburger Studios, it is always, always, 9 Masks of Fire that first springs to mind. It doesn't help that so many other studios have emulated the game, or even the fact Gameburger Studios has repeated itself in an attempt to draw the fan base back in.
One of those games was Hyper Strike, a sort of retro version of 9 Masks of Fire with fruit, and we now have its follow-up. For this one, Gameburger Studios has overhauled the original slot with the help of Megaways on licence from Big Time Gaming. The result is Hyper Strike Cash Megaways, which is a fairly clean merging of Hyper Strike and Megaways, with little in the way of surprise. Players are on steady ground should they choose to fire up Hyper Strike Cash Megaways, meaning a dazzling, if nondescript background, an eye-catching purple gaming grid, and the reassurance provided by a 7-rung ladder of scatter prizes. The prize values themselves aren't super exciting since they are the same as those found in the non-Megaways version. However, Hyper Strike Cash Megaways' max win is actually far in excess of the 2,000x when landing 9 scatters. Go figure.
To get the ball rolling, striking, or whatever, players select an appropriate stake where the levels start at 20 p/c and top out at £/€50. Once the base bet is set, players have the option of activating the Win Booster feature or buying the bonus round. The Win Booster doubles the bet, leading to an increased number of free spins scatters and Epic Strike scatters on the reels. It also guarantees at least 4 symbols land on each reel, meaning 4,096 ways to win, minimum. It's possible for up to 7 symbols to land on each of the 6 reels, producing up to 117,649 ways to win. A highly volatile game, Hyper Strike Cash Megaways packs a maximum default RTP of 96.1%.
Landing matching symbols on consecutive reels from the first reel onwards creates a win, and there are 9 regular pay symbols. These are cherries, plums, lemons, oranges, and melons as the low pays, and bars, bells, dollar signs, and 7s as the high pays. A winning combination made up of 6 identical symbols is worth 0.5x to 0.6x for the lows or 0.8x to 2.5x for the highs. Winning symbols are knocked off the grid by the Rolling Reels feature, and new symbols fall from above to replace them. Roll sequences continue in this way, racking up wins until no new winning way is created. Helping out by substituting for all pay symbols is the game's wild. The wild symbol appears on all but the leftmost reel.
Hyper Strike Cash Megaways: Slot Features
Hyper Strike Cash Megaways keeps things simple in the features area by sticking with tried and true favourites. These are the Epic Strike feature, free spins with an increasing win multiplier, and bonus buys.
Epic Strike
To get in on some of that instant cash prize action requires landing Epic Strike symbols. The more in view, the greater the reward. When 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 Epic Strike symbols land, the prize is 1x, 5x, 15x, 40x, 100x, 500x, or 2,000x the bet, respectively.
Free Spins
Players are awarded 10 free spins when 4 scatter symbols land to spell the word C, A, S, H. Each scatter beyond 4 in view awards an extra +5 free spins. In free spins, a win multiplier starting at x1 is added. Following each Rolling Reel roll, the win multiplier increases by +1. The win multiplier applies to all regular ways wins, though not to any Epic Strike payouts. The bonus round can be extended by collecting Retrigger scatter symbols. For every 4 collected, +4 free spins are triggered.
Bonus Buy
Hyper Strike Cash Megaways offers no less than 6 bonus buy options. These are 10, 15, or 20 free spins with the Win Booster deactivated for 50x, 70x, or 85x the bet, respectively. Or, with the Win Booster switched on, 10 free spins cost 100x the bet, 15 free spins cost 140x the bet and 20 free spins cost 170x the bet.
Hyper Strike Cash Megaways: Slot Verdict
Megaways might have taken the gambling world by storm, but Games Global and its associated ring of studios have been relatively low-key in their use of the licence. It's hard to think of many of the group's Megaways releases which have really made a major mark. In sticking with tradition, Hyper Strike Cash Megaways isn't super likely to either. For starters, the original Hyper Strike game, whilst bright and funky, was basically a fruit version of Gameburger Studios' iconic slot 9 Masks of Fire, and this one is more or less the same, but with Megaways running the show. This is not an attempt to slag off Hyper Strike Cash Megaways; just saying that it's not a Roman Candle of incandescent sparks of creativity burning bright. Really, it's just Hyper Strike with Megaways rammed on, with little in the way of additional extras.
There are highlights. One is the infectious classic slot vibe that continues to resonate with a lot of players. Gameburger Studios should have crammed in enough flashing lights and fruit to satiate fans of this kind of thing. Incorporating Megaways into the bargain also adds the sort of modernising effect a straight 3x3 or 5x3 fruit slot may have lacked, giving Hyper Strike Cash Megaways a more contemporary feel. It wouldn't have hurt if Gameburger Studios had pushed Megaways' capabilities further or added something original. The Win Booster is a possible innovation, but otherwise, this is basically a Megaways starter pack set of features. They can technically pop, and even though the free spins multiplier does not boost Epic Strike wins, Hyper Strike Cash Megaways still boasts ok potential of 5,000x the bet.
Whether Hyper Strike Cash Megaways goes on to be warmly received or bumps into a frigid, icy wall of resentment, it doesn't feel like a game which is going to stick around all that long in players' minds. What it does is just too generically commonplace to mark much of an impression. Not saying Hyper Strike Cash Megaways is a bad game. It's lively, delivers fun, familiar features, and has a flow. But so do a lot of other games, and while okay at what it offers, there's nothing extraordinary differentiating Hyper Strike Cash Megaways from a lot of what's already available.
