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Medusa's Gaze
Introduction
If this isn't the most bizarre, unconventional, and mortifying casino game I've ever seen, then I can't think of what is. To begin, the game centers around the monster of Greek mythology, Medusa. A character so hideous that if she looks at anyone they are immediately turned into stone. In this game, only her head is seen. Based on her angry hissing demeanor in this game, I think she is still harboring a grudge for Perseus cutting off her head. At least she has never looked directly at me while I played. Yet.
How would you spin her into a casino game, you might ask? You surround her with randomly placed colored tiles and if there are three or more of the same color Medusa turns them to stone, they fall off, and new tiles squeeze in to replace them. The player is paid according to the color, the number of consecutive tiles, and a multiplier. All due credit for creativity to Playtech, the makers of the game.
Rules
- Play starts, as usual, with the player making a bet.
- After clicking Play, Medussa's hideous head will be surrounded by rings of colored tiles. To be specific, four rings of eight tiles. There are actually more in each ring, but only eight are within the range of Medussa's field of vision, and thus eligible for scoring. You would think she could turn her head 360 degrees, like the girl in the Exorcist, but what do I know?
- With every bet, the rings spin so fast they appear to blur. When they stop, a new arrangement of tiles appears. So every game is independent of the last one (sorry slot vultures).
- If there are at least three tiles of the same color in any ring or row, then Medusa will stare at them, turning them to stone.
- Sometimes the same tile will be part of two scores. Both ways will be turned to stone and the player getting credit both ways.
- As Medusa turns tiles to stone, the player will win according to the color and quantity of each set consecutive set of tiles as well as a multiplier.
- The white tile is wild and can substitute for any color.
- In the unlikely event the player gets three or more consecutive white tiles, they do not pay as white tiles. I assume they will be combined with whatever colored tiles result in the greatest win.
- After all eligible tiles have been turned to stone, they will fall off under their own weight.
- The game starts with a multiplier of 1x. Each time a group of tiles falls off the multiplier will be incremented by 1.
- The pay table is shown below.
Pay Table
| Color | Gold | Dark purple |
Yellow | Pink | Blue | Bright purple |
Green | Brown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | 10,000 | 7,500 | 5,000 | 2,000 | 1,000 | 500 | 250 | 150 |
| 7 | 7,500 | 2,500 | 1,500 | 800 | 400 | 200 | 100 | 50 |
| 6 | 2,500 | 250 | 150 | 100 | 20 | 15 | 10 | 5 |
| 5 | 500 | 150 | 75 | 25 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 1 |
| 4 | 40 | 15 | 8 | 4 | 1.5 | 1 | 0.5 | 0.2 |
| 3 | 4 | 2 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.1 |
Analysis
Sorry, the game rules don't state the probability of each tile color so I don't have enough information to calculate the return. I'm not sure I would consider it a good use of time anyway. Most of the Playtech Arcade Games, which Medusa's Gaze can be found under, return 97%.
Warning
Play this game at your own risk. Don't blame me if you get nightmares.
External Links
Discussion about Medusa's Gaze in my forum at Wizard of Vegas.