Everyone likes a Christmas special, and in the universe of what must be the most franchised game show on the planet, that means a whole host of – well, of hosts – will be dusting down their Santa hats and ready to ask that immortal question – Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

Whether it is on the big screen in the cinema or the small screen in our homes, no new or special release is quite complete without an accompanying game. We saw it with The Lego Movie 2, and here it is again with the world’s favorite game show. As well as being franchised in more than 100 countries, Millionaire has also spawned dozens of games in its 20 year history. The latest in that long line has come out just in time to complement the Christmas specials and is the work of developer Big Time Gaming.



Megaways to be a millionaire

The problem with so many of the millionaire spin offs is that they seem a little anemic compared with the real thing, for the simple reason that there is no real money at stake. That is a problem that is swept aside with the new Who Wants to Be a Millionaire slot game, as the opportunities to win are deadly real.

The game is powered by a MegaWays engine, and while the number of potential winning combinations changes with each spin, it can reach in excess of 117,000. The game also features symbol drop re-spins as well as a free spins round that has dynamic multipliers.

Fire up the game for the first time, and you are immediately in familiar territory. The reels are set against the TV set that millions of worldwide viewers know so well. Reel symbols comprise playing card values from Ace to 9 and royal face cards, plus three different gemstones. Matching symbols on adjacent reels pay out winnings, and the best pay day comes from the purple diamond. Land six of those, and it will return 50 times your stake, which constitutes a payout of as much as $5,000.

That certainly trumps the moral victory of beating your younger brother or your aging grandmother on the PS3 version of the game, but the potential winnings do not stop there. When a winning combination is landed, a reaction blasts the winning symbols away, replacing them with new ones. This reaction can carry on indefinitely as long as winning combinations continue to be created.


Lifelines

The lifelines that are such an important part of the show are also here in the game. They appear at random to help you attain more free spins through choosing option A,B,C or D. Ask the Audience gives you a percentage against each choice to guide your decision, phone a friend is effectively similar, providing a probability against a particular choice, while 50/50 eliminates two of the wrong answers.

All in all, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire does a great job of capturing the feel of the game show, and the fact that gamers really do have the opportunity to win big makes it an even bigger draw.