When you say the name Apollo, you could be reminded of two different things. The former is the United States’ moon mission, and the latter is the Olympian god of ancient Greece and Rome. Big Time Gaming, who created the Apollo Pays Megaways online slot, went with the second interpretation. Is the studio’s reliance on a tired slot trope a sign of creative stagnation, or will BTG be able to breathe new life into a tired genre? You can only find out one way.
The ancient gods didn’t all sit around doing nothing. Apollo was worshiped as the god of medicine, creativity, music, oracles, the sun, livestock, truth, poetry, and more. According to internet sources, at least, he was also famous for his good looks and was thought to be the most Greek of the gods. BTG has designed a very enticing slot machine in which Apollo can shine. Players are treated to a bird’s-eye perspective of Mt. Olympus, complete with cascading waterfalls and Greek-inspired structures that peek out from behind the clouds. The soundtrack of Apollo Pays Megaways is soothing and relaxing, creating an upbeat atmosphere perfect for meditating to.
Everything about Apollo Pays Megaways is dreamlike, from the exterior shell to the inner nuts and bolts. This game is played on a 6-reel Megaways gaming panel, with 2-7 symbols on each reel. There are up to 117,649 possible winning combinations, depending on the symbols that are used. Apollo Pays Megaways can’t be faulted numerically, since it consistently produces a return value between 96.51% and 96.56%, however with a great deal of volatility. The potential is enormous, both in the regular game and in the bonus spins.
Regular wins pay left to right, and the game may be played for 20 cents to £/€20 every spin. There is no response mechanism, but instead a relatively new respins feature is activated. Here, the lesser value symbols are the 9 through Ace card ranks, paying out at 0.2 to 0.3x the wager for six of a kind, while the high value symbols are the four jewels, paying out at 0.4 to 5x the bet for six of a kind. The wild symbol, depicting a vibrant Apollo, appears on reels 2 through 5, and it may replace any other symbol save from the scatter.
What Sets the Apollo Pays Megaways Slot Apart
BTG hasn’t exactly taken advantage of Apollo Pays Megaways to show off their innovative feature-making skills in a big manner. The game’s enjoyment and amazing theoretical calculations come from a collection of tried-and-true additions that have been reassembled in a novel fashion.
Gain the Exchange
If a player receives a payout equal to or greater than 100 times their wager, they will be able to trade in that amount for free games. Players can also choose to risk any victory between 25 and 100 times their initial wager for a chance at 10 additional free games.
Respins
The winning symbols remain in place while the other places are respun whenever a victory occurs. A further respin is granted if 2 or more winning symbols appear during the respin. Once a respin results in either a zero or one symbol improvement, the win is paid as is. During respin rounds, scatters will remain in place, and any reel with up to seven symbols on it may receive an additional symbol.
Bonus Turns
When 3 scatters appear, you’ll win 10 free games, with an additional 2 for each scatter above 3. All wins during free spins are multiplied by x1, with the multiplier increasing by one with each respin. If a player gets three scatters, they’ll get four more free spins, and for every scatter after that, they’ll get two more.
The Final Slot Review of Apollo Pays Megaways
Apollo Pays Megaways might not appear to be a huge innovator inside BTG, but there are really a few firsts occurring. One example is including a hold & win respin function with Megaways, which adds a new dimension to the action and comes with its own set of benefits and drawbacks. One advantage is that playtime may be extended if that’s something you’re worried about. Even with slots that had a cascading function, which may appeal to certain players, batches of spins took much longer than normal. At times, the pace may be so laid down that it makes others feel like they are slogging through mud.
There was a high frequency of respin triggers, leading to amazing multi-way victories that covered the whole playing field. It came as a shock the first few times it happened since, in order to maintain a sense of equilibrium throughout respins, symbol values have suffered a significant knock. Even when a large number of potentially winning symbols align, the payoff is usually not as high as we may have hoped. There’s no denying the game’s potential, though, since certified winnings may go as high as 26,900 times the wager.
The bonus round adds even more money to the mix, with a possible payout of 116,030 times the initial wager. With the additional time owing to respins, playing Apollo Pays Megaways might feel like a very long process, similar to the difficulty of triggering free spins in a standard BTG game. The fact that it took us more than two hours to set off the first one is astounding. However, the other becomes apparent during bonus spins. The subsequent multiplication by this factor. If you’re lucky enough to activate the extra feature, it’s functionally similar to a progressive multiplier/cascade combination but unusual enough to reward exploration.
Another well-made BTG release, but with a slower pace than normal, is Apollo Pays Megaways. Put it next to something very different, like Danger! In High Voltage, for instance, gamers are exposed to a new aspect of the development team’s character. While there are some new features, they are more like improvements to the underlying technology than ground-breaking gameplay. If fast-paced action isn’t a necessary, or if you just want to test your patience, the new bits in Apollo Pays Megaways are worth checking out.