When I was growing up, the fantasy I was exposed to wasn’t the old-school world of stoic heroes and earnest, straight-faced storytelling. Instead, that version was already being gleefully subverted by films like The Princess Bride and Robin Hood: Men in Tights.

It left me with a slightly warped relationship with the genre, where I half-expect epic quests to pause for sarcasm, romance to come with punchlines, and at least one character to look directly at the audience and admit the whole thing is a bit ridiculous.

As a result, it’s still a little jarring when a game like the Once Again Upon a Time – Hold & Win slot from Betsoft comes along and I find myself patiently waiting for the fourth wall to break, the hero to crack a joke, or someone to turn up in suspiciously tight medieval trousers.

Again with the once upon a time

The Once Again Upon A Time – Hold & Win slot features 25 paylines spread across a fairly typical 5 x 3 reel grid. The slot is a sequel to Betsoft’s original Once Upon a Time slot, released in August 2012. While the slot features significant upgrades to the graphics, the illustrations retain that early-2010s aesthetic, which does date it a bit.

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Betting on the slot starts from just $0.25 a spin and tops out at $30 a spin. If you’re betting at the top end of the limit, you’ll have a shot at up to $368,550 in winnings. However, thanks to the slot’s 12,285x max multiplier, even betting at the minimum will give you a shot at some big wins.

The slot features high volatility, meaning there is little in the way of smaller, consistent wins as you chase big multipliers. The slot offers a possible RTP of 96.11%.

Any six gold coin symbols will trigger the slot’s title Hold & Win feature. The feature can also be triggered with five gold coin symbols and one dragon boost symbol.

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Once a round of the Hold & Win feature is triggered, the triggering gold coins will be locked in place, and you’ll get three spins to add additional gold coin symbols to the reels. If you manage it, your spins will be reset. If three consecutive spins go by and you haven’t added a new symbol, your round will be over.

The values of each gold coin symbol will then be added together, and the total will be awarded.

In addition to the standard gold coin symbols, you also have a chance to grab mystery symbols during a round of the Hold & Win feature. When it appears, the mystery symbol will morph into the mini, minor, major, or mega jackpot amount, or a boost symbol. The boost symbol will boost all the values of the coins on the reels, except for a mega jackpot amount.

A round of the slot’s free spins feature is triggered with three scatter symbols, which only appear on reels two, three, and four. The feature awards eight free spins, and during your round, all low-paying symbols are removed from the reels.

The Once Again Upon a Time – Hold & Win slot does feature a bonus buy feature. However, the feature only gives you a chance to purchase a round of the Hold & Win feature and not a round of free spins.

Is the Once Again Upon a Time – Hold & Win slot worthy?

Maybe it is my internalised cynicism of the genre, but this one just didn’t do it for me. The graphics are dated, and the slot just doesn’t feel like somewhere I want to return to. That said, if you’re not a fantasy cynic like me, the bonus features are solid and plentiful, and with a great max multiplier, there’s definitely something to be gained.

I give the Once Again Upon a Time – Hold & Win slot a seven out of ten.

If you’re looking for a few interesting slots from Betsoft, I would recommend The King of Social Media – Hold & Win and April Fury And The Chamber Of Scarabs.