100 spins playthrough on the Atlantean Treasures progressive slot

Welcome to the third article in our series where we run through our accompanying video of playing through around 100 spins (or thereabouts!) on one of the Mega Moolah-linked progressive jackpot games.

This time around it is the Atlantean Treasures slot, which is somewhat interesting seeing as this game paid out its first ever Mega Moolah top progressive jackpot prize of over NZ$13 million just a few days ago.

Since that win the jackpot has climbed back up to just over the 9 million mark and I felt that it was as good a time as any to play through our spins on the game and take a closer look at the game play, its main bonus features and how the slot generally plays.

Of course, as with all these articles, we are hoping to trigger the Jackpot Bonus game too, but once again that eluded us in this session.

If you tune in to the video, which is available in the link, you can also hear my commentary on aspects of the slot as I play along. For this game, we played at Captain Cook's Casino, which is part of the Casino Rewards network and we started off with just over £60 in cash and bonuses in the account (although we would end up with a surprisingly different amount at the end of the video).

How does Atlantean Treasures work?

The first thing to note on this game is that Atlantean Treasures is a 10-pay line slot. That is significantly fewer than in other Mega Moolah games. The upshot of this is that you can play this game for as little as 0.10 per spin.

Now, we know in other Mega Moolah games that the minimum qualifying bet is 0.25, so how does Atlantean Treasures calculate your chances of the jackpot bonus wheel trigger? Well to do that, there are a number of golden pearl symbols, which are overlaid across other symbols in the game at random on each spin.

On every spin you collect one of these overlaid symbols, you have a chance of triggering the jackpot bonus wheel. The more of these pearls you can collect on a spin, and the higher your bet, the more chance you have of triggering the bonus.

That means on every spin you don't collect a gold pearl you don't have a chance of triggering the jackpot bonus game.

This is similar to the Absolootly Mad slot, which also only has jackpot triggers when you trigger a win (and kick off Rolling Reels), but different to Mega Moolah and Mega Vault Millionaire, where each spin of 0.25 or greater could be a winner.

It is up to the individual to decide which type of game suits them best.

In terms of the actual game-play on Atlantean Treasures, the first thing to note is that while you only have 10 pay lines in play, you can win both ways across the reels. This is a huge bonus for the player as it effectively doubles the amount of pay lines you have in play, as well as making each spin last a bit longer (as if you don't land a win on the first three reels, you could when the fourth and fifth reels land).

The game also features only one main bonus feature and that is the Expanding Wilds, which is the Mermaid symbol. This can be landed on the middle three reels either singly, or with other Expanding Wilds. Each time you land an Expanding Wild, you respin the other reels and if you can land another Expanding Wild on the respin, you will get to respin the reels a second time with both Wilds held. Land the third and you get one final respin with all three reels turned Wild and the chance of some very big wins.

The theme of the slot, is Atlantis and items under the sea and symbols like fish and anemone are on the reels, but the two biggest earning symbols are the Lucky Seven and the Bar and as you can see in the video, both of these play a role in the better value wins I landed in my session.

No jackpot bonus game trigger... again!

This is the third video in the series and once again, we didn't quite manage to hit the Jackpot Bonus Wheel game once again. I have to reiterate here that this is not unusual. Microgaming keep your chances of triggering the bonus a well-guarded secret but it is only a very slight chance even when you land a gold pearl symbol and are betting perhaps the full amount you can on the slot.

Your chances therefore when you are playing for just 0.30 per spin are even less and as such, I wasn't surprised that we didn't trigger the bonus.

I also mention in the video that I have triggered the bonus wheel just twice and that occurred in the very same session, just a few spins apart. First I won the Minor jackpot prize for just over £100, and then I won the Mini jackpot for around £9. Those two triggers, which landed literally within about 20 spins of each other in a single session, remain the only two times I have triggered the bonus in all the sessions I have played.

Those triggers, just for further information came when playing the original Mega Moolah slot for 0.50 per spin.

Here's our 100 Spins on the Atlantean Treasures video:

Video game-play and key points

• 10 Pay Line, Win Both Ways slots are fun to play!

A couple of years ago now, I wrote an article wondering what the future of Mega Moolah would look like and this was long before the arrival of Mega Vault Millionaire, Atlantean Treasures or Absolootly Mad. Even back then, I suggested that a 10 pay line slot with win both ways and Expanding Wilds would be a good move.

Therefore, I wasn't surprised to see the Atlantean Treasure slot be set up this way, indeed I was delighted as even though there are no Free Spins bonuses to play for, or any real bonus games of note, these types of slots are still great fun to play.

The Expanding Wild symbols trigger frequently enough in the game to always keep you interested and the mix of wins you can get with them is excellent. They can really come into their own when you land two, or even all three of the Expanded Wilds together. Two Expanded Wilds tend to pay better when landed in successive reels (so reel 2 or 3, or reels 3 and 4) rather than reels 2 and 4. If you can hit all three Expanded Wilds, then you should be in for a very decent payout.

With regular wins, as is evidenced in the video, you can see that this is very much a lower variance game and it is that, plus the mix of wins which range from the very small, to the sizeable, which makes this such an enjoyable slot to play.

• The Lucky 7 and Bar symbols are key to the big wins

As is the case on some other popular win both ways, 10 pay line slots, the Bar symbol is the highest paying symbol followed by the Lucky 7 and these two tend to pay considerably more across the reels than the other standard symbols.

As such, if you can land those symbols stacked on the reels together, or better still, with Expanded Wilds in play, then the wins can go from the decent to the very large. I didn't quite hit a mega win in the session I played in the video, but I did win with a couple of 7 symbols and once or twice with Bar symbols and even though these wins were not super-massive, they still effectively turned what would have been a break-even session, into one that saw me make a £15 profit.

It is very difficult to land blocks of Bars and 7s together, which is where the Expanding Wilds can come to be so useful. However, it can be annoying to land a full stack of Bars of 7s next to an Expanding Wild only for them to disappear on the respin.

• Another profitable session!

I started this session with just over £60 in my balance and in truth, I don't think I dipped too much below that amount at any point during the 20-odd minutes that I played the Atlantean Treasures slot. By the end of the session, I had amassed around £75, and I could have stopped playing a little sooner when I reached almost £80, but I wanted to try just a couple more spins to see if we could trigger the Jackpot Bonus Wheel on video for you.

Even so, this is the third time in a row that I have played a Mega Moolah slot and earned a profit. I played Absolootly Mad and earned a small profit, then Mega Moolah, which took me up to £60+ and now after playing this I am at £75+.

I do have to stress here though that this is not a trend. It just so happens that I have played the three games and got a bit of luck playing each (a fact which came home to roost when I played Mega Vault Millionaire a short time after this and made a £30 loss on the session!).

However, what this does show is that if you play the right bet for the size of your casino balance, then you can enjoy a very decent session on these games without it costing you the earth and it is worth remembering that on Atlantean Treasures, any time you land a Gold Pearl, you have a chance at landing one of those four progressive jackpot prizes, if you can trigger the Jackpot Bonus.

Having paid out its first Mega Moolah multi-millionaire back on May 8^th, Atlantean Treasures is going to get plenty of interest in the coming weeks and it deserves to as I think it is a cracking slot, that genuinely offers great value for money. Some people may prefer the games which offer a chance at the jackpot on every spin and that is their right, but I must admit I do have a real soft spot for this game and if I was going to pick one to play right now, Atlantean Treasures would be my go to game.