Fairy Tale Legends Red Riding Hood
NetEnt FairyTale legends Red Riding Hood is a glorious celebration of all those sugar sweet fairy tales of childhood but this one focusses on everyone’s favourite, that ingenious girl in the red hood who goes to visit her ailing grandmother in the forest…and the dreaded wolf- only in this version, that wolf is more of a love pest!
The fairy tale genre is well served by slots and I was curious to see if this new addition by NetEnt was going to become a classic like their Koi Princess slot machine (another lovely looking game – this one is manga themed) or was I being led to a witchy finale at the end of a gingerbread trail?
This is a game bulging with so many extras that it’s hard to get your head around with a world of base games and bonus fun for the grabbing.
Look and feel
We’re here in a world of the faraway fairy tale. The reels are set against the forest and sky with fireflies you’d expect from this particular legend. On the left of the reels is the game’s main character our pal Red Riding Hood, wearing her famous outfit with blond hair, blue eyes and a big smile. This is a bright and breezy game- not as colourful as the 1Can2Can slot (that one’s hard to beat), but it’s not far behind.
The reels are transparent and whirl with the relaxing electronic sound effects of the forest to accompany play.
Gameplay
Red Riding Hood is a 3 row, 5 reels and 20 pay-lines slot from the land of fairy tale fun. The quality of the graphics on this game are pretty off the scale, even when you compare them to the likes of the Eggomatic slot and other classics like Guns n Roses and so on.
Red Riding Hood’s high value icons are made up of the paraphernalia of enchanted fairy land and include the Fairy Legend logo, a golden shield with a crown, a silver shield with a bejewelled key, a pink rose on a blue background and a magical book framed in leaves. The lower value icons are the Ace through Jack of the card deck.
The Wild is a smiling blonde haired, blue eyed heroine of the tale but beware, she only pops up on her merry way, on reels 2, 3 and 4 in the base game. If you can land two Wilds in the main game you get sticky Wilds and these get better, giving you a nice little extra in the form of a Sticky Wild Respin.
The game’s Scatter is a treasure chest but this pal only turns up on reels 1, 3 and 5.
Fabulous fairy fun!
The base game offers a neat set of three distractions in the form of fairy themed fun including Fairy Magic Spin, Fairy Surprise and Fairy Wild Spin.
Fairy Magic Spin is a welcome treat from our winged friend when she magically forms a cluster of icons (not the logo icon) into a block of up to nine symbols together and for one spin these semi-transparently overlay the reels.
Fairy Surprise is a welcome piece of generosity from our magical pal, here when you make a spin that doesn’t make a win, after your failed spin she can pop up, kindly choosing one of the game’s high value icons, and turning the lower value card deck symbols on the reels into that symbol to help bring on a win.
And last, but not least is the Fairy Wild Spin which is great if you fancy a magically enhanced Wild spin with either 3 or 4 extra Wilds added to the reels (2, 3 and 4) and once those reels stop rolling then you get lucky with a re-spin. What’s not to like?
Treasure ahoy!
The bonus game is triggered by landing three of the treasure chest Scatters on reels 1, 3 and 5. Now the storytelling fun begins with a trio of three different games to play in this mode. Pick a treasure chest and find out which of these side games you’ll be taking on.
First up the super fun Beware the Wolf bonus is a howling good side game. Here you’ll find yourself transported to a new style board game where Red travels (thanks to you clicking a wooden gizmo) to her granny’s house collecting multipliers, coins and a jackpot as she goes, while being stalked by that nasty old wolf- but don’t hit Collect or you’ll end this money-spinning game.
If you select the Free Spins chest you’ll be given a generous ten free spins, landing further Scatters gives you more free spins. If you get a Coin Win then you’ll be the lucky bod who has a fairy godmother watching over you, giving you a coin win of a mighty x15 your stake.
Conclusion
NetEnt have created a game that is literally packed to bursting with extras, with those Fairy themed treats as an inspired extra and the Beware the Wolf board game bonus as a cool and rewarding bonus game to bring the classic fairy story to life- howling good fun!
