Ella Mental Slot Machine
When everything fails, turn to science to find the answer. In Ella Mental, you get to borrow the lab equipment of a young and successful scientist to run your own experiments and turn lead into gold in this modern, manga-inspired video slot game. The developers from Games Warehouse really managed to create something unique here, as we will see soon.
Ella Mental relies heavily on its many bonus features to keep players into the game. You will find that the medium volatility and 95.65% RTP of the game make the experience quite average at first, but don’t let it fool you; Ella Mental does have a few nice surprises to offer. Let’s have a look at them in our full review right away.
Let the Experiment Begin
Ella Mental was clearly inspired by Japanese animes in terms of aesthetics. The game will take you inside a busy, high-tech lab where machines take up most of the screen space. The light is dim, and the character design is clearly straight from a manga. We certainly weren’t expecting that, but it ended up being a pleasant surprise.
Ella Mental contains only a few command buttons, which hints to simple rules and a dynamic gameplay. As it turns out, the game has quite a few surprises beyond its original look. All you have to do is keep the reels spinning and follow a few ground rules, which we will detail next.
Science Above All
The 5 reels of Ella Mental are home to 20 fixed paylines, with a betting range stretching from 0.20 to 200 credits in total. The command buttons that you will need to adjust your settings are all located under the reels, including the autoplay switch. As you can see, the basic rules of Ella Mental are extremely classic.
As for the paytable, it contains both card icons and some more original symbols such as radioactive waste, machine parts, strange alien creatures and so on. When playing all-in, the game jackpot stands at 1600 credits in total. Given the average volatility of Ella Mental, your initial chances of scoring any sort of big cash prizes are actually not that high.
Mini Games to Spice Things Up
Ella Mental makes up for its very average base game with a plethora of fun bonus features. You can start by keeping an eye out for the wilds, which can help you score some extra winning combinations when you least expect it. Failed spins also have a chance of triggering a chain reaction, which is a series of free respins that will last until you finally land a cash prize. Winning spins with a high stake also unlock a simple double-or-nothing mini game.
When you find at least 3 bonus scatters on the reels of Ella Mental, the mini game selection stage begins. Pick phials on the shelf to determine which of the 3 exclusive mini games you get to play. Each one of them comes with its own rules. You will either have to conduct some complex experiment or stockpile uranium batteries, for example, to win extra cash prizes or multiple free spins. The possibilities are nearly endless here, and we encourage you to check out these bonus games as soon as you can in Ella Mental.
New Options to Investigate
Ella Mental has quite a few gameplay similarities with Countdown, which is a slot game from Gamesys. Both slots start off similarly, with 20 paylines and few options in the base game. Just like Ella Mental, Countdown picks up some speed as soon as the bonus features, free spins and multipliers included, are triggered.
Mad Scientist from Roundstone is a little crazier than Ella Mental when it comes to graphics and rules. With only 9 paylines and a low variance, this slot game ends up being ultra-dynamic and also quite challenging at the same time. Do check it out if you feel like putting out a few extra hours in the lab.
Some Good, and Some Bad
Ella Mental was a rather surprising slot game to test, with many ups and downs. We loved the anime-style graphics and the many bonus games, which really add a lot of depth to the basic gameplay. At the same time, Ella Mental can prove quite dull when you are unable to gather enough bonus scatters on the reels.
In a nutshell, Ella Mental has some strong arguments in its favour, and just as many that actually work against it. The best way to break the tie is to actually try out the game for yourself, which we encourage you to do nonetheless. For us, Ella Mental was a big of a mixed bag, to be perfectly honest.
