Mystery Drop Slot Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Mystery Drop Review

StakeLogic has plenty of original games under their belt, but they have some unapologetically blatant copycat jobs on their conscience too. Mystery Drop falls into the latter category, as it’s pretty much a do-over of Avatar UX’ CherryPop. Any mention of the trademarked PopWins mechanic has wisely been avoided. In fact, nothing is said about the feature at all, but it’s still at the core of the gameplay in this somewhat strange release.

Each win thus doubles the winning positions, adding rows and win ways to the grid. The somewhat awkward pace has not been improved, unfortunately, and Mystery Drop comes with a somewhat inferior math model. The Super Stake feature is the biggest difference really, and while you get the occasional random bonus round triggers, as well as retrigger possibilities, the 50,000x potential is sliced in half.

Mystery Drop Features

You win by landing 3 to 5 matching symbols from left to right on adjacent reels, and winning symbols disappear from the grid while being replaced by 2 new symbols. This increases the reel height up to 6 at the most in the base game, awarding up to 15,552 possible win ways.

You win 5 free spins when you manage to expand all rows to 6 positions in height in the base game. You can choose to gamble to win up to 16 free spins, and this takes you to a Pachinko style game. Choose a drop position, and watch there the ball lands. There are 3 spots providing extra spins, but if you miss those you lose the whole feature.

The Bonus Round plays out on a 5x6 starting grid, and you can now expand it with up to 9 positions per reel in total. A full 6x9 grid comes with 118,098 win ways, and you will benefit from Mystery Symbols during the feature.

The progressive bonus round multiplier starts at x2, and it increases by +1 for every win. You get a +4 “bonus” increase if you max out the grid with 9 rows on each reel, and after that the multiplier will increase by increments of +3 per ‘popwin’. With the Super Stake switched on, you can win +5 extra spins if you land 3 scatters anywhere in sight.

The Super Stake feature doubles the price you pay per spin, and there are a few benefits. As mentioned above, you can win extra spins during the bonus round, but the feature might also trigger at random times on a non-winning base game spin. Keep in mind that the 50,000x potential is only available with the Super Stake turned off, but you still get a decent 25,000x max win potential with the Super Stake turned on.

Non-UK players can take advantage of the Bonus Buy button, and simply purchase the feature at any time. This will set you back 75x your stake with the Super Stake switched off, while you’ll have to cough up 150x your stake with the Super Stake turned on. This awards 5 free spins, but you can play the Gamble Drop game to win extra spins, if you dare.

The 200 Spins Mystery Drop Experience

We had some initial grid expanding wins, before we decided to purchase the bonus round. This happens at 0:48 into the 5-and-a-half minute highlights video, and we took our chances in the Gamble Drop game.

Review Summary

Blatantly copying AvatarUX’ PopWins mechanic, and releasing what amounts to a CherryPop copycat, would have been more forgivable if StakeLogic had bothered to fix the pace problem we’ve often complained about in this range. This is not the case however, as filling the popwin symbol positions still takes way too much time (play the highlights video above on 2x speed to see how much smoother it feels).

CherryPop comes with both a higher RTP and a higher potential, so it’s hard to come up with too many good reasons to go with the Mystery Drop copycat version. The only thing is the somewhat confusing Super Stake option, offering extra bonus round triggers but with half the potential, as well as the possibility of extra free spins. We really don’t see the point in this release. Why tarnish your reputation to copy a game/mechanic that wasn’t much of a success in the first place?

Pros

• ‘Popwins’ style grid expansion
• FS w/ progressive win multiplier
• Gamble for extra FS up front
• Bonus buy for 75x or 150x (not UK)
• Win up to 50,000x your stake

Cons

• CherryPop copycat complicated by Super Stakes
• Beware of adjustable RTP ranges

If you appreciate Mystery Drop you should also try:

CherryPop - is the original Avatar UX release that the game at hand is clearly “inspired” by (to say the least), and it comes with a solid 56,386x potential.

Star Clusters Megaclusters - is something to consider if you like unusual dynamic reels games. The inventors of the Megaways engine, BTG, brings you an innovative mechanic that splits symbols into 4 smaller versions when you win. You can win up to 23,000x your stake via the progressive multiplier in the bonus round.

HippoPop - is another installment in Avatar UX’ PopWins series, and this mechanic can increase the base game reel set to 5x6. Each win increases the progressive multiplier, and the value is carried over into the bonus round. The grid can go as high as 8 rows during the feature, and you can win up to 48,150x your stake.

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