Robin Hood: Shifting Riches

Go on a reel adventure with the medieval hero and his band of merry man on the slot from NetEnt. Robin Hood: Shifting Riches was released in 2011 and has now received an HTML5 makeover to make it suitable for play on mobile devices. Get ready to plunder the Sheriff’s gold with wild substitutions, the Shifting Reels mechanic with progressive multipliers and a free spins round with extra wilds and retriggers that can lead to wins of up to 1,000 times your bet.

Slot Details

Robin Hood: Shifting Riches is a video slot with five reels, three rows and 20 fixed pay lines. Wins are awarded for two to five matching symbols on a line from left to right only. You can join the fabled archer on desktop or mobile from 0.20 to 100 credits per spin. The game has low to medium volatility with an RTP of 96.80%.

A serene scene from Nottingham Forest during autumn season with the royal castle in the distance forms the fitting backdrop to a wood-encased game window that is constantly in motion on winning spins, courtesy of the Shifting Reel mechanic. A heroic soundtrack rounds off the slot design.

The pay symbols start at the low end with card royals from 10 through to A, beautifully crafted in medieval style and awarding 1.25x to 3.75x your bet for a single five of a kind. They are followed by a royal guard, Friar Tuck, Little John, Maid Marian and Robin Hood himself. Hit five on a line to win 6.25x to 50x your stake.

The slot logo is the wild symbol, substituting for all regular pay symbols while money bags are the collectable scatter in the base game. An icon marked with ‘Free Spins’ will replace it during the bonus round.

Robin Hood: Shifting Riches Slot Features

The game was one of the first to use true 3D technology in an online slot, giving it at the time a superior feel which was further emphasized by Netent’s newly developed Shifting Reels. The mechanic is at the core of the gameplay, creating the chance to deliver multiple wins within a spin. Any time you land win on a spin, it will be paid followed by the entire reels shifting on reel to the right. Reel one than spins again, repeating the process if you land a matching symbol that creates another winner. The sequence continues as long as a new winner is hit after shift. At the same time, a win multiplier is progressing from x1 to x2, x3 and x5 for consecutive wins within the same spin. It will reset at the end of a round.

Key to triggering the bonus feature are the money bags, which can land on any reel in the base game. When they do, the reels opens up as Robin appears to place the bag into the cart below the reel. The bag then transforms into a wild symbol for the current round. Collecting 4 bags in a chest will trigger 10 Free Spins for each fully filled cart which can be indefinitely retriggered. Theoretically, you could start with 50 free spins should you manage the feat to get the fourth bag for all five chests it the same spin. Two or three scatters landing on a free spin will add +5 and +10 free spins, no limits.

Before the round starts, Friar Tuck will spin a giant wheel containing the premium symbols. The one stopping in view will be an extra wild for the duration of the feature, providing more chances to score a win. The progressive multiplier is also in play and works just like in the base game. The free spins will be played at the average bet level used during the bag collection.

Final Verdict

The slot was quite the innovation when it was released in 2011 but the Shifting Reels mechanic never became really popular in the casino community. It’s one of those things that look interesting, maybe even deserving more attention but never quite making it. Unsurprisingly, NetEnt never used it again in another game. What was the major downfall is the at times tedious bag collection to trigger the main event. Waiting hundreds of spins for the final bag to drop is not much fun. Plus, the win potential is somewhat muted, the top win on a single line stands at just 250x bet with the maximum multiplier, which pegs the overall win potential around the 1,000x bet mark.

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