Dracula's Castle Slots
Ever inspiring, Dracula - the Romanian "king" of all vampires - has found his way in one form or another into plenty of slot games throughout the years, including several popular online pokies. The Dracula's Castle video slot is one of the latest products to bring the Dracula name to online casinos, including mobile-optimized platforms for playing on the move. Designed and released by the Cyprus-based, classic game makers Wazdan Holdings Limited, the Dracula’s Castle is a spine-shivering slot that wasn’t built for the faint-hearted.
The obvious source of inspiration for this game is the myth of Dracula, or more precisely, the Bram Stoker version of the vampire and not the Romanian prince that inspired the legend. The slot's 5 reels and 3 rows of symbols are fit inside a stone gate which overlooks Dracula's castle on a full moon night. As you press the spin button, you see ghost skulls and bats fly by in the background while sounds of footsteps, human cries, screeches, crows, and faint heartbeats echo from left to right, giving you chills when you pump the volume up and fully concentrate on the game.
But for much of its captivating presentation, the slot features only a limited number of bonuses that will warm up your playing sessions. Yet, that doesn't mean there isn't much to be found across its 5 paylines as this slot comes with expanding wilds and win multipliers, which together with its gamble feature can bring decent payouts during your sessions. And, just like a number of Wazdan slots, this online slot will let you choose whether you want to play with low, medium, or high volatility by using the volatility switch on your control dashboard.
Meet Vlad the Wild
Being a slot game built for recreational slot players, Dracula's Castle offers only low-limit betting. When you start playing, you can either set up your bet size according to the value of your coins or according to how many coins you want to bet. In either case, the payout and value of your total bet will be the same. The minimum stake in the game is 0.01 credits while the highest you can bet is 10 credits on each spin. Choosing the smallest bet size will bring you smaller rewards but choosing the maximum stake will give you payouts that are 10x higher.
To win a payout, you will have to collect a combination of 2-5 of the same symbols on a payline, starting with the leftmost reel and following the payline’s direction to the right. Apart from the Dracula wild symbol, the most valuable symbols in the game are the two female vampires, which can pay 20x or 40x your coin value (max bet) when you collect 2 identical symbols or 1,250x and 2,500x when you collect all 5 of them. Other symbols worth collecting are the castle and tombstone, which offer payouts that start with 50x your coin value and end at 400x. The lowest-paying symbols are the 6 card symbols which are grouped into 3 groups of 2 symbols that offer the same payouts, the lowest being 10x your coin value.
If you want to claim the ultimate prize in this slot, you will have to collect 5 Dracula wild symbols. The Dracula wild can replace any other symbols in the game to bring a winning combination. If it can't contribute to a win, it will preserve its regular 1x1 shape. But if it can bring you a win, it will expand to multiple positions on the reels or the entire screen. If the expansion leads to a combination of 5 of the wild symbols lining up on a payline, the slot will pay out its jackpot prize of 1 million coins, or 10,000x your coin value (when playing with the highest possible bet).
Another special feature in the game is triggered when you get a "wall" of 3, 4, or 5 columns filled with Q, J, 10, and 9 symbols. Depending on how many columns you end up receiving, the slow will award a different multiplier to any win you make with those columns. The smallest multiplier is 3x your win for 3 columns of the target symbols while the highest is 5x your win for filling up all 5 reels with the symbols.
No matter whether you win a big payout or a small one, the slot will let you take a 50/50 gamble on it when you press the "Gamble" button after a win. This gamble feature will take you to an animated picture of a saucy female vampire who holds two cups in her hands. If you guess which cup holds the blood, you'll get to collect double your stake. If not, you'll lose it all. You can have up to 7 tries to increase your winnings multiple times.
Can I Get a Free Blood Sample?
If you haven't tried any slots that have gamble buttons before, it might be a good idea to test this slot game first before playing it for real cash. To play for free, you can use the free Dracula's Castle slot machine on our page here. There is no difference between our free demo and the slot you'll play for real money except for the virtual balance. A free game demo can also be found in almost any casino that offers Wazdan online casino games, where you can likewise play for real money whenever you want.
However, not every online casino is worth signing up nor can every casino offer you the same online experience. First and foremost, any respectable operator should hold a license from a trusted gaming licensing body as well as provide a safe online platform that's encrypted with an SSL-protection. A reliable operator should also be able to provide you with good payment options and a payout policy that comes without any unfair limits or high fees. Another thing worth considering is the selection of games you have at your disposal but also the player rewards and bonuses the casino offers to any loyal/new users. If you find a site that scores well on all of these criteria, you've found an operator that bears all the marks of a quality online casino.
Vampire or a Truck Driver?
The Dracula's Castle, although offering an interesting new take on the vampire legend, is not one of Wazdan's most original products. Namely, this slot is a clone of an older Wazdan slot called Highway to Hell which is inspired by truck drivers instead of the proto-vampire. Like the Dracula's Castle, Highway to Hell offers 5 paylines and the same betting limits, as well as the column win multiplier and the 50/50 gamble feature.
You can also find similarities between the Dracula's Castle and another Halloween/horror slot game called After Dark, which was made by eGaming. The After Dark also has 5 reels, 3 rows of symbols, and 5 paylines. And like the Dracula's Castle, it has an expanding wild and a win multiplier feature that is triggered when you collect 3-5 columns of various symbols. The only thing missing, in fact, is a gamble function.
Give In to the Darkness
In a nutshell, Dracula's Castle doesn't bring anything new and revolutionary to the table but that doesn't mean it's a game you should discard easily. When you set aside its chilling presentation, you get a traditional slot machine with simple and rewarding bonuses and small betting limits. Take that and combine it with the option to switch the game’s volatility and its overall entertainment value, and you get an online game that takes classic slot play to a whole different level.
