In a Nutshell
The Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland was a notoriously bad-tempered individual, continually demanding ‘off with their heads’.
Fortunately though you needn’t lose your head after encountering this version of the character, and may come away with some nice winnings instead! Read on to see how…
A Closer Look
Queen of Hearts is a 5-reel, 9-payline slot from Novomatic, the online slots arm of Austrian slot manufacturer Novoline.
It’s a classic, fairy-tale design with the usual features of most Novomatic games but with some twists all of its own as well.
The symbols include 9s through to Kings (as in card values, though it doesn’t state if they’re hearts or any other suit), rings, crowns and castles. The top paying symbol is the heart itself, paying out a whopping 30,000 if you should manage to line up 5 of those on any payline.
Like many Novomatic games, Queen of Hearts is high variance, meaning that payouts don’t come very often, but when they do they tend to be on the large side.
The heart symbol has some extra value as it is also the Wild symbol on this game, substituting for any symbol on a payline except the Scatter (see below).
There’s a payline selector and a bet selector (both can be increased or decreased by increments) and a max bet function too.
Free Spin Features
If you get 3, 4 or 5 Scatter symbols (an almost Diana-like Queen of Hearts) on any reel you’ll be awarded with 8, 15 or 20 Free Spins respectively.
You can retrigger the free spins (ie. get more free spins by getting the same numbers of Scatter symbols during free spins themselves).
Bonus Features
At the end of every free spin and with great fanfare, a little cherub will fly across the screen depositing hearts, which as we have seen are the Wild, as he (or is it she?) goes.
This can net you a lot more money, as the Wilds make up winning combinations on the paylines you have put in effect or even go together to make winning lines themselves.
Special Features
Like all Novomatic games, Queen of Hearts has the signature ‘gamble or collect’ feature. This is triggered every time you have a win in regular play, where you get the ‘take or risk’ option, which, if you take it, opens up a video poker type screen, where you can double your winning on the last spin if you beat the dealer’s card from one of the remaining 4.
You can continue to double up each time for as long as you like unless you either lose to the dealer or decide to claim your winnings. You then go back to the main screen.
There is a Queen of Hearts Deluxe version available too, with somewhat superior graphics and sound but it’s essentially the same game.