Medusa Megaways Slot by Light & Wonder

The multiplier in free games is the whole appeal here. It starts at the bottom and steps up with every cascade, and crucially it never resets for the rest of the round. String together a long chain of avalanche wins and the same drop can pay at a far higher rate by the end than it did at the start, which is how this version reaches its 20,000x top end where the older 5x3 Medusa games topped out near 1,000x.

Six reels each show two to seven symbols, shifting the ways-to-win count every spin up to a maximum of 117,649. Winning combinations clear out and new symbols drop into the gaps, so a single paid spin can keep cascading as long as fresh wins land. The Wild appears on reels two through six and stands in for everything except the Medusa scatter, which is what opens the free games when three or more show up.

This is the polished modern remake of the gorgon theme rather than the early-2010s original. Medusa is rendered in detailed 3D against a Greek temple lit with dark, dramatic shadows, with Perseus, Pegasus, and a bronze shield as the premium symbols and card royals filling the rest. An ante-bet style boost is available to raise the odds of triggering the bonus.

It's a clear step up in both math and presentation from the rest of the Medusa line, and the cascading-plus-progressive-multiplier engine puts it alongside the better entries in the wider Megaways catalogue.