Sidewinder DoubleMax

Sidewinder DoubleMax: Slot Overview

While nowhere near as ubiquitous as, say Megaways, for the moment, Yggdrasil Gaming's DoubleMax mechanic is nonetheless on the up and up, having powered a number of excellent and not so excellent slots so far. Several partner studios have incorporated the mechanic in their own games, none more enthusiastically than associates Reflex Gaming. The studio has managed to blend its old-school presentation style with the more modern effects DoubleMax brings once again in the online slot Sidewinder DoubleMax.

Old school presentation might be a diplomatic way of describing Sidewinder DoubleMax's appearance. With its glowing lightning bolt background and low-budget effects, Sidewinder DoubleMax didn't exactly impress visually. Audibly either, where the music and effects sound like they were lifted from an arcade game from the 80s or 90s. In short, Sidewinder DoubleMax is classic Reflex Gaming fare, good for fans of the studio's particular style, a red hot poker to the senses of anyone else.

If Sidewinder DoubleMax looks like something you'd like to get involved with, then know that on the back end, it runs on a highly volatile math model, generating an RTP of 95.5% at the default level. Gamblers can select stakes of 20 c to $/€100 per spin, plus a bonus buy and a Golden Bet option are both on hand. The Golden Bet, when switched on, increases the bet by 25%, and for the extra cost, the chances of triggering the Sidewinder feature are increased as well. The gaming is held on a 5-reel, 3-row grid matrix, covered in 20 paylines for landing winning combinations across.

Winning combinations in Sidewinder DoubleMax may be 3 to 5 of a kind in size, and the game has 8 regular paying symbols. These are, from low to high, cherries, oranges, plums, grapes, green 7s, red 7s, yellow 7s, and a logo symbol. Payout values range from 1x the bet up to 10x the bet for a 5-matching symbol win. One important thing to note is that wins pay left to right from the leftmost reel onwards and right to left from the rightmost reel onwards. Five-of-a-kind wins pay both ways, too. Wilds have the same payout value as the logo when making winning lines of themselves and can also substitute for all symbols - the game does not have scatters. Both wilds and super wilds only appear on the board via the Sidewinder feature.

Sidewinder DoubleMax: Slot Features

The Sidewinder feature is Sidewinder DoubleMax's main extra, outside the Golden Bet and the bonus buy. How the Sidewinder feature works is that it triggers randomly on any losing spin. When triggered, the reels literally shuffle like a deck of 5 cards before being laid back out on the grid, and the multiplier trail is activated. If the shuffled reels produce a win, the multiplier trail progresses by 1 step (increasing in value), and the reels are shuffled again. This process goes on until no win is produced after a shuffle. Then, the feature ends and the multiplier resets to x1.

Up to 6 wilds and/or super wild positions are randomly added to the multiplier trail at the start of the Sidewinder feature. When the trail reaches these positions, a wild or a super wild is added to a random position on the reels. A super wild is a stack of 3 wild symbols.

Bonus Buy

From the bonus buy part of Sidewinder DoubleMax, players can trigger the Sidewinder feature for the cost of 50 times their stake.

Sidewinder DoubleMax: Slot Verdict

Reflex Gaming continues to underwhelm by pushing out stuff that feels about two decades late to the party. The thing is, someone must be playing these games, and each to their own, of course. Why else would Yggdrasil Gaming team up with them, and why would Reflex Gaming stubbornly refuse to modernise? Of course, modern doesn't necessarily mean better than the old ways, but retro doesn't necessarily translate to uber cool and stylish either. Reflex Gaming has staunchly placed its flag deep in the retro sand, proclaiming to the world, 'This is all me up in here' and refusing to budge.

At least, the studio refuses to budge in terms of presentation, with each consecutive release typically feeling like you've stepped through a time warp whenever they light up the screen. Sidewinder DoubleMax certainly had a cringey, dated look to it. Hey, you love it, or you don't (or don't care), but it's not a great look, and it made the job of getting on board with the good stuff Sidewinder DoubleMax does have to offer that little bit harder. The good bits? Well, it's nice the studio is attempting new stuff with the DoubleMax feature rather than creating another Raptor DoubleMax kind of event.

By the same token, Raptor DoubleMax set the DM bar high, and Sidewinder DoubleMax failed to reach the same level of flow, excitement, and fun factor. No doubt there are moments here when luck and shuffling align, attested to by a 5,000x the bet max win. But, there are simply more interesting and entertaining options floating about the place, mere clicks away, for players looking for some increasing win multiplier action.