It's one of the biggest movie franchises in the world and, thanks to the cinematic success of Batman, the winged superhero is now cast in a string of highly acclaimed online pokies. The Dark Knight Rises free pokies game, and its real money counterpart, are two of the latest versions of the popular series and both contain a wealth of impressive features. Indeed, throughout our review of The Dark Knight Rises slot machine we've teased out the most important aspects of the game that we think will help boost your bankroll.

If you've played The Dark Knight, this will all feel very familiar. Like in the first game, there are video clips, sound effects and animated reels taken from the movie of the same name.

The visual style is very much the same too, with gritty images of a moonlit Gotham City serving as the backdrop for the game, and it still looks great. One key difference is that characters featured prominently in The Dark Knight Rises movie – like Talia Al Ghul, Catwoman and Bane – have replaced The Joker and Harvey Dent on the reels.

The music and sounds are almost exactly the same as the original game, so we probably wouldn't recommend following up a lengthy session playing The Dark Knight with a round of The Dark Knight Rises (unless you're keen to compare the two directly) as it might get a bit samey.

Like in The Dark Knight, there are 243 ways to win plus expanding wilds and a free spins bonus round. Fans of the original game might be disappointed to learn that the progressive wheel of fortune has gone, but there's still an element of the game that feels progressive...

At its core the game contains five reels and 243 ways to win. On top of this there are three coin options to choose from - 0.01, 0.02 and 0.05 - and you can wager between one and five coins per spin (creating a maximum bet per spin of 150 coins).

Payouts in this game range from 25 coins to 7,500, but through a combination of free spins and multipliers you can win up to 1,780,000 coins from a single spin. Indeed, if there's any reason to play this game (aside from its fantastic design and plethora of features) it's this impressive payout potential.

When you're in standard play, Batman and Bane will occasionally fight their way across your screen adding extra free spins and multipliers to their respective sections at the top of the screen.

When you do eventually win some free spins you choose between Batman and Bane (depending on whether you prefer more spins or a higher multiplier), each of whom have unique features like rolling reels and extra wild blasts to add to the mix.

In standard play, you'll enjoy regular wins but it's very rare that these add up to much; The Dark Knight Rises is really all about the bonus round.

When you're playing pokies, it's not often that you want to avoid the bonus round for as long as possible. But, because of the way multipliers build up the longer you're playing, that actually is the case with The Dark Knight Rises.

Obviously, players have no control over when the bonus round will be triggered, so you really just need to hope that you have a decent number of free spins and a nice multiplier lined up for when it does happen.

If you hit the bonus round earlier, when there are only 10 or so free spins with a 1x multiplier, you probably won't feel inclined to stick with the game for long afterwards.

Batman fans will probably enjoy this as much as the original but, if it's life-changing sums of money you're after, everyone else will probably prefer The Dark Knight.

It may not have such a big jackpot as the original The Dark Knight slot – TDKR has no progressive prize available, with only a middling standard jackpot to play for – but the game does still have some redeeming qualities. For example, a delayed bonus round can result in many more free spins than the average bonus feature with some great multipliers to boot. The longer you play, the better the bonus round will be when it finally does trigger. The visuals are still outstanding, and Batman fans will love this just as much as the first slot in the series, but whether you prefer this or the original really comes down to what sort of variance you prefer in a slot.