After looking at the data, I think sharks should be terrified of us, despite the understandable primitive dread many people feel of them. Marine Policy, a publication, estimates that 100 million sharks are killed annually, while other sources place the rate closer to 273 million. Using the lesser estimate, that amounts to 11.41 shark fatalities every hour, every day of the year. I don’t know how to interpret this data. How long do you think it will be until all sharks go the way of their Megalodon ancestor? There sure are a lot of dead sharks. The megalodon, or “big tooth,” was a prehistoric shark that lived in the ocean between 23 and 3.6 million years ago and now appears on, or is at least referenced in, a Play’n GO slot machine.
The name may be Mega Don and not Megalodon, but the parallels are clear. As one might expect from a game centered around sharks, the setting is submerged in a lively ocean. We also thought about the iconic Push Gaming game Razor Shark. The Mega Don logo here resembles the shark from Push’s first shark-themed slot machine. Picking forward-facing sharks may inevitably lead to some overlap, but the rest of Mega Don is a very new can of worms. The soundtrack is more expressive than the visuals, ranging from comfortable ambient while nothing is occurring to Jaws-level intensity when things heat up.
Mega Don’s mathematical model is just as erratic as his music, with a default RTP of 96% and lots of ups and downs. Mega Don is a 5-reel, 4-row video slot machine with 1,024 chances to win, triggered when three identical symbols appear in neighboring reels, left to right. The stakes each paid game round range from 10 pence to £/€100, and you may play on any device.
Both the payout schedule and the game mechanics of Mega Don echo the maxim from Jack London’s novel White Fang: “Life lived on life.” Those who ate, and those who were eaten. It was a matter of “eat or be eaten.” There are six little fish that pay out between 0.4 and 1x the wager for five of a kind, and three sharks that pay out between 2 and 4x the bet for five of a kind. The wild sign, shown as a jaw, may stand in for any other icon (save the scatter) to help you win.
Slot Features: Mega Mob Boss
Both the main game and the free spins in Mega Don revolve around symbol changes.
Grazing Period
Up to three of the main game’s low-paying fish symbols can be improved at random. If the selected fish appear on the reels, they will be changed into a special, higher-paying shark symbol.
Food for Sharks
The number of free spins you receive is determined by the number of scatters you land, which can appear anywhere on the reels.
With three scatters, you get six extra spins and one upgraded symbol.
If you get 4 scatters, you get 9 free games with 2 extra upgrades.
There are 12 free games with three upgraded symbols if you get five scatters.
In the same vein as the Snack Time bonus, whenever the upgrade symbols land on the reels during free spins, they are replaced with random shark symbols. The upgraded icon you choose will stay in place until the end of the bonus spins.
Retriggers should be watched out for. Players that obtain 3, 4, or 5 scatters during the bonus round will be rewarded with:
Additional 3 free spins with 1 upgrade symbol.
Six more free spins with two more power-up icons.
9 more bonus spins with 3 more power-up icons.
All six of the low-value symbols may be transformational if we really wanted them to be. When you have more than one upgrade sign in view, they will all merge into a single shark symbol.
Judgment on Mega Don’s Slot Machine
The top paying symbol may appear familiar, but this is not Razor Shark. The main game just plods along, sometimes releasing bubbles and giving out the occasional victory. Infrequent sonar pings signaling a potential Snack Time trigger increased the rate of heartbeat. Having so many possibilities to win in Snack Times rather than relying on paylines to link fish or sharks is a plus.
However, as the name implies, Snack Time is really a prelude to the Shark Feast. If you find that you enjoy playing with features that allow you to modify symbols, then you should give Mega Don a try. The bonus round has somewhat of a ‘book of’ theme to it, so anyone interested in Ra might want to give it a shot. It doesn’t have the same kind of progressive element as games like Pink Elephants, but the element of surprise in seeing whatever high pay symbol is picked makes up for that.
Landing a fourth or fifth scatter is more rewarding since you not only earn more upgradable symbols but also more free spins, making the Shark Feast round far from static. There were more retriggers than expected throughout the testing period, even if six free spins on a three scatter trigger doesn’t sound like much. Symbol values aren’t particularly high, thus individual way winnings weren’t particularly impressive. However, combining a large number of upgradable symbols with a large number of ways may result in some thrilling moments, and wins of up to 10,000 times the wager.
We weren’t immediately captivated by Mega Don since its basic blue water and ambient sound effects were a touch sleepy. Once the fish start biting, though, the game might become intense. Despite its merits, Mega Don doesn’t feel destined to be the top predator in the shark/underwater genre, despite the fact that symbol changes may be an exciting journey.
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