Fruit Shop Megaways Online Slot

Fruit Shop was released in 2013 when it was a very retro, classic fruit game with nice-looking symbols and a big top prize of 8,000-times stake. It’s actually still a top 100 hit in the UK so it obviously did an awful lot right. Cut forward to 2021 and we find a Megaways version of the game sitting nicely in the top 50. NetEnt must be delighted!

The Megaways system is eating the world of slots at the moment. Invented by Big Time Gaming, a company with a relatively modest set of games you might think, the system is now licensed by all the big names and there are many many hits, including a whole subgenre of games that are Megaways remakes of classic games.

Megaways usually come with a set of extras:

• They are large reel sets (six here) with uneven layouts.
• This helps deliver a huge number of ways to win, which is increased by matching up symbols as long as they are on adjacent reels.
• The total when all the symbols in play can be 117,649 ways to win.

The games typically have big prizes, in this case, it is 10,000-times the stake at the top end, and are more often than not towards the top end of the volatility spectrum. This game is rated as high volatility, which means it should award (on average) bigger prizes but they will pay them out less often.

Despite these figures, the game delivers an RTP of 96.06%, which is a very standard issue. RTP measures how much of the money wagered on a game will be returned to players over the game’s whole lifetime. This is a long-term average measurement, not a prediction, but it suggests this game should perform in much the same way that most other games are.

Fruit Shop Megaways is a big step forward for NetEnt, and it’s nice to see a classic slot game given a Megaways do-over.

Let’s have a look and see.

How to Play Fruit Shop Megaways

Fruit Shop has a lot of tweaks but it’s very easy to understand and is in many ways a classic NetEnt slot.

The control panel runs along the bottom of the screen. At the far left is a menu toggle that brings up game documentation and some gameplay options. Then there is an information button, which you should press to read the rules and the paytable. Get in the habit of doing this, it’s always good to know what you’re playing.

Then there is a betting control, which is a single pick option opened via a menu. The central console will be changing soon. At the moment it is a spin button with an auto spin and turbo spin control on either side. Auto spin and turbo modes are being regulated out of existence in the UK. To the right of this set of buttons are a winning window and a balanced window, with a sound control at the end.

There may be more controls in the game frame.

The pay table opens with cards:

• 10s pay 0.1, 0.15, 0.25, and 0.4-times stake.
• Jacks pay 0.15, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.5-times stake.
• Queens pay 0.2, 0.25, 0.4, and 0.7-times stake.
• Kings pay 0.25, 0.3, 0.5, and 1 times stake.
• Aces pay 0.25, 0.4, 0.6, and 1.25-times stake.

Then we have the fruits, with

• watermelons paying 0.4, 0.5, 0.7, and 1.5-times stake.
• Oranges pay 0.4, 0.5, 1, and 1.75-times stake.
• Lemons pay 0.5, 1, 1.5, and 2.25-times stake.
• Plums pay 1, 1.5, 2, and 4-times stake.
• Cherries pay 1, 2, 3, 5, and 12.5-times stake.

There is also a wild that appears on reels 2 to 5.

Fruit Shop Megaways Slot Bonuses

This works like this:

• The wild is the first bonus symbol. It stands in for any symbol and appears in all phases of the game.
• Free spins are triggered by winning with a “medium win” symbol. Wins with medium and low win symbols during the free spins rounds grant additional free spins.
  • A cherry grants 1 free spin for a paid, 2 for 3, 3 for 4, 4 for 5, and 5 for 6.
  • The other fruits award 2 to 5 free spins for similar length Megaways wins.
• The low win symbols grant 1 to 4 free spins for Megaways of 3 to 6 symbols.

Free spins start with a multiplier that counts up from 1-times every time there is a win. This can get as high as 10-times.

This is an unusual way to deliver free spins that is somewhere between the usual respins mechanism in Megaways and a standard free spins round.

Fruit Shop Megaways Slot: The Verdict

This is a really interesting game and one that you really should consider checking out.

The mathematics looks good all the way down, the RTP is fine, the volatility may not be to your taste, but the top prize most certainly will be. The betting range runs from 0.2 to 100 coins. Please make sure that you play safely. We also have a hit frequency for this game, which is just over 17, so you should expect to see a win around every 17 spins or so. All of these measures are long-term ones so don’t treat them as predictions.

History tells us that players like Megaways, and this game is already a big hit.

The most interesting feature is undoubtedly the free spins/respins hybrid. This is a new take on the Megaways system and it will be interesting to see if it is taken up by more designers. Even if only NetEnt ever use it it will have a big footprint because NetEnt has nearly a third of the European market. The game design stays true to the original title, so it’s a jazzed-up classic game, and if you love those old games then this is a really nice take on it.

Quite cute and also quite sophisticated this is an interesting and summery game for 2021.