Red Baron is a fun and immersive slot that combines red-hot pokies action with a bit of a history lesson. But, perhaps more importantly than that, it has some hefty prizes up for grabs.

Like Pompeii, this might seem like morbid subject matter for a slots title – Manfred von Richthofen, or the Red Baron, was a member of the German Luftwaffe responsible for taking countless Allied lives.

But, if you can get past that, it's a very intriguing title thanks to an illustrious bonus round.

Red Baron features all sorts of WWI inspired icons, including warplanes, zeppelins, radios, targets and medals...as well as a German pin-up girl and a Jack Russell terrier. The latter is a bit out of place but he's got an adorable little face, so we won't hold it against him.

The theme actually ties neatly into the gameplay, with a fun "choose your mission" mini-game that sees players stepping into the boots of the Red Baron. While it's not as exciting as the mini-games featured in some modern slots, it's a nice break from spinning the reels.

With win animations and other little quirks, the game still looks pretty good even if it is getting on in years. Its visual style is not going to drop your jaw, but it won't make you screw your face up either.

Red Baron employs Aristocrat's Reel Power system in place of the traditional payline structure. This means that there are over 243 ways to win but, as a result, most wins except for those involving custom reel icons tend to be fairly low value.

There seems to be plenty of wild medals in play, and it's quite common to experience wins where these substitute for other symbols. They also substitute for target scatters, which is useful as securing three targets on reels 2, 3 and 4 will trigger a bonus round.

This bonus round is a tricky one to get your head around unless you've seen it in action. For the mission feature, players must guess how many planes they will rack up during the round of free spins in order to secure an additional bonus win.

There's no multiplier during the free spins bonus round, but any substitutions involving the wild medal symbol trigger a random multiplier of 2x, 3x, or 5x. The mission feature is a fun addition, but the lack of a guaranteed multiplier throughout the bonus round might put some players off.

It can take a while to trigger a bonus round and, when you do, you might find yourself disappointed if you overestimate the number of planes you think you'll come across during it.

History buffs will probably enjoy the references to World War One, although this alone probably isn't a solid enough base on which to build a loyal fan following. The game can be found in plenty of offline casinos however, so it's not difficult to imagine that players who've encountered it before will be thrilled to find it on the web.

Red Baron is fun to play, but there's no secret sauce to keep players coming back. At least not that we can determine anyway. It's a nice little game that's worth a try, but we doubt that too many of you will fall in love with it.

The Red Baron slot may not actually have been created during WWI, but we do have to point out that it's starting to show its age. The game is fun enough but the jackpot isn't all that high and there's no guaranteed multiplier during the bonus round. 243 ways to win mean that you'll likely experience lots of smaller wins during a session here, but it never really feels like you're on the cusp of taking home a life-changing sum of money. Red Baron is still worth playing, particularly if you're a history buff, if only to check out its fun mission feature bonus round.