Play a fantasy video game or RPG, and your character may have ranged, melee, or both weapons. Bows are good ranged weapons since you can kill foes before they reach you. Unless they have a longer-range weapon. It’s also fun to smash pixelated skulls with an axe or mace. Thunderkick’s Grand Melee online slot is our focus today. This sticky winning symbol respins slot defies the norm. Something new(ish) to try, so why not prepare for melee combat?
The Thunderkick game’s first impression was somewhat low-key. Grand Melee’s visuals and noises aren’t offensive, but it didn’t pop like a Thunderkick slot. Down below, an audience watches the event on a game grid on an elevated stage with striped pavilions and trees. A castle emerges in the background, confirming that participants have traveled to medieval Europe to play Grand Melee.
According to its manufacturer, Grand Melee is a volatile slot with a 96.17% default theoretical return to player. Its 5 reels carry 4 symbols and use an innovative connected pay ways system. Wins start on the leftmost reel and must span at least three consecutive reels, flush or corner to corner. For clarity, the paytable shows how it works.
The paytable lists the 10 regular-paying symbols’ values. For a 5 OAK win, the bottom 5 are 10-A card symbols for 1 to 1.5 times the wager, while the top 5 are characters of various colors and appearances. A victory with 5 premium symbols pays 3–10 times the stake.
Grand Melee Slot Features
Grand Melee contains a scatter and various unique symbols during respins, but no wilds. Free spins are another noteworthy feature.
Sticky Respin Function
Sticky Respin randomly shows an arbitrary symbol above the reels (not Symbol Upgrade, Symbol Expansion, or Game Area Expansion symbols). These symbols become sticky and lock into place if at least 5 land anywhere on the grid. New symbols locked in place during respin while other locations respin. The feature finishes when no new symbols hit and the sticky symbols are evaluated for wins. During respins, special symbols may land:
This symbol may emerge to upgrade all sticky symbols to more valued ones.
Symbol Expansion feature—this symbol may get sticky and extend vertically to cover the reel.
Games Area Expansion feature: This symbol can land to become sticky and add a row to the top of the grid. Grid height is limited to 7 rows.
Bonus Game
Five scatter symbols activate the bonus game. This may also happen during Sticky Respin if the scatter symbol is above the reels and sticking. Respins continue until no scatter symbols appear. Free spins are equal to the amount of scatter symbols in view when the round is initiated, and the bonus game can be retriggered. Use the bonus meter below the reels to measure progress. The meter refreshes with each spin and free spin. Although not stated in the game description, symbols are likely sticky more commonly.
Grand Melee Slot Review
Thunderkick deserves praise for trying the sticky winning symbol respin technology, but it may not appeal to everyone. Grand Melee takes more patience than NetEnt’s Jack Hammer, one of its creators. Occasionally, much more patience. These games have more dead spins than’regular’ slots since they can explode during their respin feature. Grand Melee pushed this too far and delivered several dead spins. Population, welcome to dead spin city, as Homer Simpson stated. Something like that.
Indeed, not every win activates the respins function, which players should remember before playing Grand Melee. First, let the game randomly select a symbol, then land at least five. Even so, sticky symbols don’t guarantee wins. Sticky Respins may create a lifeline that restored equilibrium, and patience may pay off if luck is on your side. Even though the game was mostly low-action, the balance stayed perky. Granted, Grand Melee may go either way. The special symbols are useful and expand the respins functionality. Strangely, free spins do not add anything to the main game. Despite this, Grand Melee may win 5,000x the bet.
Grand Melee has a unique respin capability that appears occasionally but is rarely used. After seeing how Grand Melee worked a few times, the nothing new in free spins and the pleasant yet low-key vibe didn’t make us want to play again like charging into a virtual melee with a level 9000 bastard sword.