The Lost Boys

Theme and Design

Maybe there are a few elder millennials in the Blueprint Gaming ideas department, but this is one of a handful of 80’s movie inspired slots to be released as of late. The Lost Boys told the story of a group of boys who set out on a vampire killing mission. It’s a great premise for a slot game, giving the graphics department ample opportunity to let their imaginations run riot, reimagining a cult classic film. But, that didn’t exactly happen. 

The graphics aren’t bad, they capture something of the film, but it doesn’t feel as good as it could have done. The slot is set in the amusement park of Santa Carla, with a full moon beaming down overhead. The symbols include the boys themselves, and vampires too. But, it feels a little less like a passion project than The Goonies and the Beavis and Butthead slots did.

RTP and Variance

The Lost Boys has medium to high volatility and a default RTP of 95%. However, it’s also available with RTPs of 93%, and 92%, which are definitely far too low. Overall, the relatively low RTP and pretty high variance suggest this slot is probably not going to offer the best payouts.

If you’re looking for a slightly friendlier RTP and volatility then The Goonies Return by Blueprint Gaming offers both of these things, all wrapped up in a similarly 80s package.

Maximum Win

There’s no point beating around the bush, a top payout of 1,000x your stake is low. However, The Lost Boys is part of Blueprint Gaming’s Rapid Fire Jackpots network, meaning there is a chance of striking a progressive jackpot - and a pretty decent chance too. This network has been designed to offer smaller prizes, but more frequently than most other progressive networks. Prizes range from £250 to £7,500, which isn’t a life changing sum, but would sure make a slot gaming session a whole lot more enjoyable!

Symbols and Paytable

The Lost Boys is played on 5 reels and 3 rows with 10 paylines. Wins are achieved by landing 3 or more identical symbols on adjacent reels starting from the leftmost reel. 

The game features 8 pay symbols plus a wild. The low-value symbols are J, Q, K, and A, paying between 5x and 7.5x the bet for 5 of a kind. The premium symbols include Sam, Edgar, Michael, and the "The Lost Boys" logo, which pay between 10x and 100x the bet for 5 of a kind. 

The wild symbol, represented by a Chinese takeaway box, substitutes for all regular symbols and appears on all reels except the leftmost one.

Features and Gameplay

As well as the Rapid Fire Jackpots round, there are some other interesting mechanics at play in The Lost Boys. Let’s take a look at how all of the features work.

Random Modifiers Including Extra Wilds

At any point in normal gameplay a modifier can be triggered. Below are how each of the modifiers works: 

• High Stakes: adds a random number of cash symbols to the reels.
• Bonus Boost: adds a random number of scatters to the reels.
• Blood Lust: adds a random number of wilds to the reels.
• One Of Us: removes symbols from the grid and drops in new ones to make a win. 

Cash Collect

Cash symbols can land at any time on the reels, but they require other symbols to land for them to be of benefit. If a collect symbol lands on the rightmost reel and there are any cash symbols, then the Cash Collect feature begins, with the collect symbol expanding to fill the whole right hand reel. There are four types of collect symbol:

• Collect: collects the values shown on the cash symbols.
• Respin Collect: collects the cash values shown, before remaining in place while the first four reels are spun again. Then collects any new cash symbols.
• Boost Collect: collects the cash symbols, also multiplying them by up to 5x the bet.
• Super Collect: collects the cash symbols up to five times.

Free Spins

If you land three scatter symbols on the central three reels then it triggers the free spins round with 10 free spins. The cash collect feature works like normal, but collect symbols are collected and exchanged for free spins. 3, 6, 9, or 12 collect symbols gives 5 additional free spins, with a x2, x3, x5, or x10 multiplier respectively. 

Rapid Fire Jackpot

If you land 5 Rapid Fire logos that appear overlaid on standard symbols, then this triggers the Rapid Fire Jackpots feature. A wheel appears and spins awarding you one of a selection of prizes. You can win either 5x to 1,000x your stake, or the Mini, Minor, Major, Master, or Mega King jackpot, ranging from £250 up to £7,500.