- Joined
- Mar 25, 2012
- Location
- IOM
No one could accuse 3Dice of churning out new slots at a dizzying rate of knots, so here we are, some four months after the release of their previous game, Cannonball, with their latest new release titled, 'AZTEC GOLD'. It's not a very imaginative name for a slot, I'll grant you that.
The better news is that once we're past the title, this is actually a very good game. It has the same fundamental hook as Dead Or Alive - sticky wilds in free spins, but it does it, dare I say, better.
Cannonball documented here -
AZTEC GOLD KEY STATS -
RTP - 95.1%
WINLINES - 10
REEL SETUP - 5x3 (Both basegame and feature, fixed layout.)
FEATURE - Three scatters that only appear on Reels 1, 3 and 5 (Two scatters pay 2x)
FEATURE FREQUENCY - My best guess on this, based on 13,000 spins played so far, is in the 1/140-150 ballpark
VOLATILITY - 3Dice peg it at three chillies, which is their highest 'normal' volatility, below the 'gold' category
(My personal take on the volatility profile is that it's quite a 'soft' three chillies, thanks to the high feature frequency and reasonably solid basegame.)
AESTHETICS -
Looks really nice, very easy slot to 'read' with super clear symbols that stand out clearly, all runs smoothly with nice animations throughout. The sound package is solid although you'll probably want to turn off the music before too long, and also the incessant drumming, leaving just the SFX remaining. (The music and drums have their own volume sliders.)
The transition animation to the feature is pleasingly attractive, big wins deliver impressive 'sunburst' effects, and so on. Very much like 3Dice's other recent releases, I'd say this slot is up there with some of the best in terms of its looks and sounds.
It also runs super smoothly and if you put it into 'fast' autoplay mode, it gets through the spins at a decent rate of knots.
BASEGAME -
This is pretty simple, there are no 'mini features' or other random style events on this slot, it's literally just a case of waiting for a feature and hoping that the basegame will keep your head above water in the meantime.
The symbol pays range from the usual piddly stuff for the card equivalent symbols, up to 100/150/200x for the biggies, and 500x for five wilds. It can and does drop in some decent wins on a reasonably regular basis, so your balance can hold up pretty well between features.
That said, if it decides it wants a few hundred spins for a feature, and the basegame decides to go through ones of its miserly phases, it can chew through a balance fairly quickly.
FEATURE -
So imagine Dead or Alive, but with ten winlines, and instead of being fixed at 12 spins unless you get a retrigger/wildline, you get 5 'win spins' and the feature lasts for as long as it takes to get those 5 win spins. Also, if once you've reached 5 win spins, your feature total is under 10x, you get an additional 3 win spins for a total of 8. (No retriggers are possible beyond 8, so features are either 5 or 8 win spins.)
Speaking as someone who's been absolutely twatted chasing a wildline on Who's The Bride:
documented here - Who's The Bride (Dead Or Alive) - Who's the robbing bandit, more like - Casinomeister Forum
and endured more miserable features on that than I can possibly begin to comprehend, including those amazing examples where not a single fucking wild lands, I can honestly say that this slot is like revelation in comparison.
Specifically when we're talking about the feature, it fixes all the problems with Dead or Alive:
Dead spins? No problem! The feature will just keep on trucking.
Wilds landing all on the centre/right reels? Cool! That's where we want them, get them stacked ready for the wins to start landing!
All the wins are crappy 3OAKs on shit symbols? Don't sweat it! The feature will retrigger and give another 3 win spins.
That's not to say the feature can't pay badly, and I've had many where it's just about crawled over the 10x minimum to deny the retrigger, but the overall feature profile is far more balanced than the preposterously lumpy Dead Or Alive monstrosity. Potential wise we'll have to see where Aztec Gold lands in terms of its max pays by keeping an eye on the Zeitgeist page, but it's already racked up a 1653x.
I haven't had an actual wildline yet, but you don't need one to get a decent feature pay, and I feel far, far more optimistic about getting a wildline on this than I do in Dead Or Alive. Yes your wildline here 'only' pays 500x, but given the absolute butchering that Who's The Bride has delivered to deposit after deposit without even a retrigger (on the full fat 96% maths model!), let alone a wildline, I'll take the far more sensible implementation of the feature hook that 3Dice have gone for here.
Aztec Gold is really going to struggle to deliver the ~3000x wins that Dead or Alive is famous for, although it is theoretically capable of doing it (I'd be very interested to know what it maxed out at in testing), but in my world, where they feel entirely fictional anyway, who gives a shit? Give me a more balanced game like that this can do solid, midrange features on a far more regular basis.
CONCLUSION -
I really like this one, hits all the notes I look for in an online slot with decent playtime, regular features, and the capability of delivering satisfying wins in that solid midrange sort of category. Watching the wilds build up on a good feature is exciting, and then hoping for the top tier symbols to fill in the gaps on the winlines, or for more wilds to land.
-------------
Here are some of the reel configurations I've managed up to now, note no complete wildlines, but lots of decent pays!
The first one that you can see here is what you really want, use the non winning spins to get the wilds stacked up on 3-4-5, and then start to thread wins through one 1 and 2.
The better news is that once we're past the title, this is actually a very good game. It has the same fundamental hook as Dead Or Alive - sticky wilds in free spins, but it does it, dare I say, better.
Cannonball documented here -
AZTEC GOLD KEY STATS -
RTP - 95.1%
WINLINES - 10
REEL SETUP - 5x3 (Both basegame and feature, fixed layout.)
FEATURE - Three scatters that only appear on Reels 1, 3 and 5 (Two scatters pay 2x)
FEATURE FREQUENCY - My best guess on this, based on 13,000 spins played so far, is in the 1/140-150 ballpark
VOLATILITY - 3Dice peg it at three chillies, which is their highest 'normal' volatility, below the 'gold' category
(My personal take on the volatility profile is that it's quite a 'soft' three chillies, thanks to the high feature frequency and reasonably solid basegame.)
AESTHETICS -
Looks really nice, very easy slot to 'read' with super clear symbols that stand out clearly, all runs smoothly with nice animations throughout. The sound package is solid although you'll probably want to turn off the music before too long, and also the incessant drumming, leaving just the SFX remaining. (The music and drums have their own volume sliders.)
The transition animation to the feature is pleasingly attractive, big wins deliver impressive 'sunburst' effects, and so on. Very much like 3Dice's other recent releases, I'd say this slot is up there with some of the best in terms of its looks and sounds.
It also runs super smoothly and if you put it into 'fast' autoplay mode, it gets through the spins at a decent rate of knots.
BASEGAME -
This is pretty simple, there are no 'mini features' or other random style events on this slot, it's literally just a case of waiting for a feature and hoping that the basegame will keep your head above water in the meantime.
The symbol pays range from the usual piddly stuff for the card equivalent symbols, up to 100/150/200x for the biggies, and 500x for five wilds. It can and does drop in some decent wins on a reasonably regular basis, so your balance can hold up pretty well between features.
That said, if it decides it wants a few hundred spins for a feature, and the basegame decides to go through ones of its miserly phases, it can chew through a balance fairly quickly.
FEATURE -
So imagine Dead or Alive, but with ten winlines, and instead of being fixed at 12 spins unless you get a retrigger/wildline, you get 5 'win spins' and the feature lasts for as long as it takes to get those 5 win spins. Also, if once you've reached 5 win spins, your feature total is under 10x, you get an additional 3 win spins for a total of 8. (No retriggers are possible beyond 8, so features are either 5 or 8 win spins.)
Speaking as someone who's been absolutely twatted chasing a wildline on Who's The Bride:
documented here - Who's The Bride (Dead Or Alive) - Who's the robbing bandit, more like - Casinomeister Forum
and endured more miserable features on that than I can possibly begin to comprehend, including those amazing examples where not a single fucking wild lands, I can honestly say that this slot is like revelation in comparison.
Specifically when we're talking about the feature, it fixes all the problems with Dead or Alive:
Dead spins? No problem! The feature will just keep on trucking.
Wilds landing all on the centre/right reels? Cool! That's where we want them, get them stacked ready for the wins to start landing!
All the wins are crappy 3OAKs on shit symbols? Don't sweat it! The feature will retrigger and give another 3 win spins.
That's not to say the feature can't pay badly, and I've had many where it's just about crawled over the 10x minimum to deny the retrigger, but the overall feature profile is far more balanced than the preposterously lumpy Dead Or Alive monstrosity. Potential wise we'll have to see where Aztec Gold lands in terms of its max pays by keeping an eye on the Zeitgeist page, but it's already racked up a 1653x.
I haven't had an actual wildline yet, but you don't need one to get a decent feature pay, and I feel far, far more optimistic about getting a wildline on this than I do in Dead Or Alive. Yes your wildline here 'only' pays 500x, but given the absolute butchering that Who's The Bride has delivered to deposit after deposit without even a retrigger (on the full fat 96% maths model!), let alone a wildline, I'll take the far more sensible implementation of the feature hook that 3Dice have gone for here.
Aztec Gold is really going to struggle to deliver the ~3000x wins that Dead or Alive is famous for, although it is theoretically capable of doing it (I'd be very interested to know what it maxed out at in testing), but in my world, where they feel entirely fictional anyway, who gives a shit? Give me a more balanced game like that this can do solid, midrange features on a far more regular basis.
CONCLUSION -
I really like this one, hits all the notes I look for in an online slot with decent playtime, regular features, and the capability of delivering satisfying wins in that solid midrange sort of category. Watching the wilds build up on a good feature is exciting, and then hoping for the top tier symbols to fill in the gaps on the winlines, or for more wilds to land.
-------------
Here are some of the reel configurations I've managed up to now, note no complete wildlines, but lots of decent pays!
The first one that you can see here is what you really want, use the non winning spins to get the wilds stacked up on 3-4-5, and then start to thread wins through one 1 and 2.
I haven't had it retrigger twice yet but it's nice to know that extra protection is there if it goes for a real shitter.
