The Great Chicken Escape

Get ready for a hilarious barn brawl as the 1963 blockbuster POW movie is reenacted on the slot from Pragmatic Play. Four brave chicken and a rooster are the heroes on The Great Chicken Escape as they have to get past the fierce guard dogs to make their lucky getaway from the prison camp. Watch them as they send the dogs into a dizzying spin on the reels with three random modifiers and no less than five bonus features for wins of up to 500 times your bet on every single spin or 5,500x in the top bonus feature.

After entering Megaways territory and doing a “Monty” on John Hunter and the Aztec Treasure where they took inspiration from reel and pay mechanics from Big Time Gaming and WMS, the studio is taking on the next gaming giant with this creation. Slot fans will easily recognize similarities with Blueprint’s feature-laden games such as Beavis and Butt-Head or Thundercats Reels of Thundera. Time will tell if the strategy pays off when the slot is released at the end of August 2019.

Slot Details

The Great Chicken Escape is a video slot with five reels, three rows and 20 fixed pay lines. Wins are awarded for two to five matching symbols on a line from left to right only. You barn adventure starts at 0.20 credits and peaks at 100 credits per spin. The game has medium volatility (3.5/5) with an RTP of 96.50%. Some operators can choose a lower RTP setting, make sure to read the help files to find out which version you will be playing.

The design is reminiscent of the POW camps in the 1963 movie “The Great Escape” with Steve McQueen, James Garner and Richard Attenborough in the lead roles. Fittingly, a prison camp with hen houses and guard towers can be seen in the background of the game window. The five chicken protagonists planning the escape feature prominently on the reels while the guard dog makes his appearance in one of the features where he is sent into a dizzying spin to add random wilds to the screen. A triumphant soundtrack together with frequent chicken cries is the main audio during the gameplay.

The pay symbols start at the low end with the card royals from J through to A, awarding wins between 4x and 5x your bet for a single five of a kind. They are followed by four cartoon-style chickens wearing military hats and the slot logo. The latter is the only symbol appearing super-stacked at all times. Hit five on a line to win 10x to 25x your stake.

The rooster with a red hat named Coo is the leader of the chicken gang and the wild symbol, substituting for all regular pay symbols and paying also 25x your bet for a 5OAK. A scroll with the escape plan marked with the word “Bonus” acts as the scatter symbol.

The Great Chicken Escape Slot Features

Prepare for a funny barn brawl on a set of slot reels as Pragmatic Play added three random modifiers and five bonus features to the gameplay. The three random modifiers can be triggered while a spin is in progress in the base game only.

• Guard Dog Wilds: The chicken will send the guard dog into a dizzying spin and he will spread 4 to 9 random wilds as he loses orientation. The wilds will be removed before the next spin starts.
• Chicken Run Wilds: Coo will make a run for freedom and leave 2 to 4 random wild reels in his wake.
• Care Package: Up to 100 golden eggs are added to the reel strips and all landing in view on the spin will unveil a common pay symbol, except wilds or scatters.

Operation plans are completed and ready to be unleashed in five bonus features with increasing win potential. Hitting three or four scatters on a spin will trigger one of the features at random while five scatters will take you directly to the top feature.

You will enter the briefing room of the chicken gang where they present you with five plans for their escape, each hiding one of the five bonus features. Pick one to unveil which feature you have won.

The features have an increasing win potential and any lower-value feature can be risked in the Chicken Pie Gamble to try and win a better one. You can gamble repeatedly until you either hit collect, reach the top feature or lost the gamble, the latter awarding a consolation prize of 5x to 20x your total bet. We list them below in ascending order of their win potential.

• Secret Tunnel Pick-Me Bonus Game: Pick from three chests to reveal a random coin win (max 50x bet), Mystery Tunnel or Collect. Picking Mystery Tunnel will present you with four tunnel entrances. You can now choose again one to win either one of the other four features or Collect. Revealing Collect at either of the two stages will end the bonus game.
• Poultry in Motion Bonus Game: Select one of five golden eggs to reveal 1 to 5 steps for advancing on the bet multiplier trail. Unveiling Collect will end the game while reaching the end will take you to the Big Money Bonus Game.
• Get Clucky Free Spins: Awards 10 free spins which cannot be retriggered. Random wilds can appear on the reels, increasing the win multiplier by x1 for each occurrence.
• To The Other Side Free Spins: Awards 10 free spins which cannot be retriggered. Random wilds can appear on the reels and are collected in a counter for the first 9 free spins. All will be added to random positions on the final spin.
• Big Money Bonus Game: A carousel with 12 barrels appears, each marked with a bet multiplier ranging from 10x to 500x the total bet. After the first spin, you need to pick one of 10 golden eggs to reveal either Respin or Collect. Every respin will award a further bet multiplier which is added to the existing win and you can pick another egg. The total is paid when you reveal Collect. We scored a cool 1,000x bet in our first feature during our test runs.

Final Verdict

It will be interesting to see how the player community and Blueprint will react to this slot from Pragmatic Play. Cloning or lets call it taking inspiration from others is not new in the industry and not always a bad thing, but it is often frowned upon as we as players expect a developer to be creative and come out with their own ideas on how to make entertaining games. Overall, the Great Chicken Escape is a decent game that will be loved by those who like a flurry of features in their gaming session, while hardcore slotters might not be enticed to add it instantly to their favourites list.

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