Megasaur

A Closer Look at the Tyrannosaur Caught Mid-Lunge

Megasaur is set in prehistoric jungle with a volcano on the horizon, and the art commits to it hard enough that the tile in our lobby is recognisable at thumbnail size. Top of the paytable and top of the artwork, the same motif: a tyrannosaur caught mid-lunge. In Megasaur that motif holds both together.

The rest of the premium symbols are a triceratops, a pterodactyl, an egg and a piece of amber; the low-value positions are card ranks. Colour does a lot of the work here: jungle green, lava and bone white, held consistently across symbols, background and bonus screens.

The audio is cinematic and stays out of the way until a bonus starts, at which point it changes register entirely. On a phone held upright the grid keeps the same proportions and the jungle green survives the shrink, which is not true of every title in the lobby — some lose their backgrounds entirely at that width.

In a shelf of a hundred and forty tiles that legibility is the whole job: you should be able to tell Megasaur from its neighbours without reading the caption.

How Megasaur Is Built

Under the art, Megasaur is a straightforward 5 reels, 3 rows and 25 paylines machine. Wins are read left to right from the first reel, and only the highest combination on each line counts, so a second tyrannosaur further along the same line adds nothing. The tyrannosaur is the top symbol, a triceratops sits under it, and the card ranks below those are what most Megasaur spins return.

Megasaur Wild is the entry to read first — the dinosaur eats symbols and leaves wild positions behind — because it is what turns a near miss on Megasaur into a paid line. The ceiling of Megasaur is a progressive jackpot with no fixed ceiling. Read the meter above the reels rather than looking for a multiple in the paytable; the paytable has none.

On Megasaur one entry does the heavy lifting — Free Games: up to twenty spins under a multiplier that climbs. Practically, that means a session on Megasaur divides into two very different modes, and judging the game on the base spins alone gives you half the picture.

What a Spin Actually Costs

The stake on Megasaur is 25 lines times whatever you set per line. Playing fewer than 25 is possible but rarely sensible on Megasaur — it lowers the cost and the hit rate in the same step. Because the ceiling is a progressive pool rather than a multiple, raising your stake in Megasaur does not raise it — what the stake changes is how much of the pool your qualifying spin is playing for.

Treat Megasaur as a high-volatility game — it will do very little for a long time and then settle the whole session in one round. Be careful with any RTP figure you find for Megasaur elsewhere. RTG sets the return per operator, not per game, so Megasaur runs differently from one casino to the next. The only figure worth trusting for Megasaur is the one printed in its own paytable.

There is no reason to ladder the stake on Megasaur: each spin stands alone, and its paytable scales linearly with whatever you set. Autoplay handles the base grid of Megasaur perfectly well. Set it to stop on Megasaur Wild and you get the pace without losing the event.

The Features That Change the Session

The feature set on Megasaur runs to three rounds, and it repays reading the paytable once before you spin.

Megasaur Wild: the dinosaur eats symbols and leaves wild positions behind. In a high-volatility game like Megasaur that matters more than it sounds: Megasaur Wild is the round the quoted ceiling is calculated from.

Free Games — up to twenty spins under a multiplier that climbs, on the 5-reel grid described above. In a high-volatility game like Megasaur that matters more than it sounds: Free Games is the round the quoted ceiling is calculated from.

Progressive Jackpots (two random jackpots that can land at any stake, on the 5-reel grid described above). Progressive Jackpots does not fire often on Megasaur, and the game is built on the assumption that you are waiting for it.

Taken together the set is what separates Megasaur from the rest of its shelf. The base grid is common enough across the catalogue; Megasaur Wild is not, and it is the reason the game has its own page here.

Session Advice for the Prehistoric Jungle

On Megasaur the stake wants to be small relative to the balance: the game can go a long way without paying, and the only protection against that is spin count. Whatever balance you bring to Megasaur, decide in advance what leaves with you; the limit tools sit in the account area.

For wagering purposes Megasaur counts as a slot, which means it contributes at the full rate, and the conditions are set out on the bonus page. You can run Megasaur in practice mode first — the cheapest way to find out whether its pace suits you.

A dry stretch on Megasaur is not a signal. Megasaur Wild does not become more likely because it is overdue, and betting as though it does is the fastest way to shorten a session. The responsible gaming page collects the limit tools and the independent support contacts in one place, and they apply to Megasaur as to every other game here.

Megasaur in Short

Megasaur suits a player who wants a game that can do very little for a long time and then do a great deal at once. It sits in our lobby alongside T-Rex II, which shares the family of mechanics and differs in pace.

Try Megasaur and T-Rex II side by side in practice mode before committing a stake to either. Start with Megasaur if you are prepared to sit through the quiet. Full specifications for Megasaur — the 5 reels, 3 rows and 25 paylines, volatility, the top end (a progressive jackpot with no fixed ceiling), the feature list and the release year — are in the table at the top of this page.

T-Rex II