African Legends Wowpot Major slot: What are the key features?

Back in February 2020, Microgaming announced that they were set to release their latest revamped progressive jackpot slot. They had taken their old Wowpot slot game, which offered only a very small progressive jackpot prize, and give it a brand-new look.

Now the Wowpot progressive boasted four prizes, Mini, Minor, Major and the Wowpot itself which was seeded at 2 million and which, at the time of writing, still remains to be won as the jackpot climbs towards the 8 million mark.

The first game to showcase this new progressive system was the Wheel of Wishes slot and this was followed in September by the Book of Atem Wowpot slot, a reworking of the Book of Atem slot release to incorporate the new progressive jackpot prizes and then a few weeks later came the release of the Sisters of Oz Wowpot slot too.

All three of those slots offered a chance to win any of the four progressive Wowpot prizes, but Microgaming then threw us a curbed ball by announcing that coming in October would be the African Legends slot which offered players a chance to win just one of the Wowpot jackpot prizes; the Major jackpot.

Now the Major jackpot has been won several times by players (see winners on WheelofWishes.net) since the game began and it is a not inconsiderable prize at a minimum value of 50,000 (and often the prizes have been worth several hundreds of thousands when triggered). As such, it is a jackpot that players would dearly like to win, but the question is whether they are happy to play a game that only offers a chance at this jackpot prize, and not all four of the Wowpot progressives.

That is going to be the issue that defines the success of the African Legends slot and it is going to be interesting to see how players warm to the game or not over the coming months. So with that in mind, let's take a closer look at the main features of the game.

Game parameters

African Legends is based, as the name suggests, on an African Savannah theme but its main distinguishing feature is that it is a 243 Ways to Win slot that offers Rolling Reels and Multiplier Trails as an integral part of the game. Indeed, all the main bonus features, which we have looked at in more detail below, all spring from this particular feature of the slot including the Progressive Jackpot trigger and the four different Free Spins games.

Spins start at 0.25 per spin and can be increased up to 25.00 per spin. The stated variance for the slot is medium as you win roughly once every three spins according to the information on the game, however I would also add that there are times when the slot can play very tight indeed and you should be prepared for a game that offers really variable game-play.

Symbols are displayed singly on the reels, which does make hitting wins tougher than on games where they can be stacked and also means that triggering those crucial Rolling Reels wins is tougher than on other games that have the feature.

There is one randomly triggered bonus feature on the slot which can really benefit you when it lands and that is the Wild Blast feature.

• Wild Blast feature

There is one randomly triggered bonus feature in the base game of the African Legends slot and that is the Wild Blast Feature. This feature is entirely random and can be triggered frequently, or not so frequently, depending on how the game is playing out for you.

With Wild Blast, what happens is relatively simple. When you hit the Spin button the bonus will trigger and as the reels spin, up to five Wild symbols will be added to random positions on the reels. When the reels then resolve themselves, you can then see if the Wilds have helped you land a win.

With the game being a 243-ways to win slot, if you land Wilds on the first two reels, then you are at least guaranteed a win. The same is true if you are fortunate enough to land Wilds on the first three, four or even five reels (although this does not happen very often at all).

It is fair to say that the position of the Wilds, rather than the number you land on the reels, is the key factor in triggering wins and if you can land these extra Wilds with the Wild Stack on the middle reel (see below), then your chances of a bigger value win increase.

Base Game symbols & Wilds

With this being a 5x3 reel, 243 Ways to Win game, African Legends only has nine standard symbols on the reels, plus one Wild symbol. There is no Scatter required for this game (all the main bonus features spring from the Rolling Reels element of the game, or in the case of the Wild Blast feature, are triggered at random).

One thing to note about the symbols below is that other than the Wild Stack on the middle reel, none of the symbols are stacked on the reels and the fact that each symbol is a single one, does make putting together those Rolling Reels win somewhat difficult and you do require great patience to get the most out of the slot.

Here's how the main symbols on the game payout starting with the lowest to the highest value:

Club

• 3 Symbols - 0.12x
• 4 Symbols - 0.4x
• 5 Symbols - 1x

Diamond

• 3 Symbols - 0.12x
• 4 Symbols - 0.4x
• 5 Symbols - 1.2x

Heart

• 3 Symbols - 0.16x
• 4 Symbols - 0.48x
• 5 Symbols - 1.6x

Spade

• 3 Symbols - 0.2x
• 4 Symbols - 0.56x
• 5 Symbols - 2x

Boar

• 3 Symbols - 0.4x
• 4 Symbols - 1x
• 5 Symbols - 3x

Hippopotamus

• 3 Symbols - 0.4x
• 4 Symbols - 1.12x
• 5 Symbols - 3.6x

Rhinoceros

• 3 Symbols - 0.44x
• 4 Symbols - 1.2x
• 5 Symbols - 4x

Elephant

• 3 Symbols - 0.56x
• 4 Symbols - 1.4x
• 5 Symbols - 4.8x

Lion

• 3 Symbols - 0.72x
• 4 Symbols - 1.6x
• 5 Symbols - 6x

Gold Facemask Wild

• 3 Symbols - 1x
• 4 Symbols - 2x
• 5 Symbols - 10x

Stacked Wilds on the Middle Reel

Alongside the standard Wilds on the reels and the Wild Blast feature outlined above, one thing to note is that on the third reel of the African Legends slot, there is a large stack of Wilds, rather than just single symbols.

This large stack can be crucial when trying to put together successive Rolling Reels wins, as with no symbols stacked on the reels, doing so without the help of a Wild can be tricky. The fact that the Wild is stacked means that even if you see all three Wilds disappear on the first Rolling Reels win, three more Wilds may drop down onto the reels to replace them (depending where on the stack landed on the reel for that spin, the nearer the bottom of the stack the better for the player).

While the feature offers no guarantee of a win, it is a big help in offering you a better chance of landing a win when you can land that stack on the third reel.

Free Spins Bonus Games

Unlike many other slot games that use Scatter symbols as triggers for their Free Spins bonus game, the African Legends slot has been designed to take a different approach and instead it uses the Rolling Reels feature as its main trigger for the bonus.

As you will be aware, Rolling Reels wins can trigger successive wins from the same spin and if you can land four or more of these wins in succession, then you will trigger the Free Spins bonus round in the slot.

What is nice about this is that the more successive wins you land in the Rolling Reels feature, the greater the number of Free Spins and associated Multiplier attached to the wins in the Free Spins bonus round, you will receive.

The full list of Free Spins rounds and multipliers are listed below together with how many Rolling Reels wins are required to trigger the bonus:

• 4 Successive Wins - 12 Free Spins with 5x multiplier
• 5 Successive Wins - 15 Free Spins with a 6x multiplier
• 6 Successive Wins - 18 Free Spins with an 8x multiplier
• 7 Successive Wins - 20 Free Spins with a 10x multiplier

A word of warning here to players though is that it is incredibly difficult to trigger the Free Spins bonus round in the game, indeed it is relatively rare to hit three Rolling Reels wins in succession, so you will need a longer term plan to get the most out of this slot.

African Legends: Wowpot Major Jackpot Trigger

In the other Wowpot-linked slots, there is a progressive jackpot wheel game where you spin the wheel to decide which of the four progressives you will win. However, with the African Legends slot offering just one progressive jackpot prize, to do this would be pointless as there would only be one possible outcome on any spin.

Therefore, the trigger for the jackpot prize on the African Legends slot is linked in with the Rolling Reels feature. To win the Wowpot Major jackpot prize, you need to trigger eight successive Rolling Reels wins, one after the other, and the jackpot prize will be yours.

There are a number of positives to this. Firstly, it does make the progressive jackpot prize seem more attainable when it can be accessed in this way, as you will trigger the Rolling Reels feature and the associated Multiplier Trail, whenever you land a base game win on the African Legends slot. So in effect, each time you land a win could be the start of a journey to the progressive jackpot prize.

Of course, it is not very easy to win the progressive jackpot on the slot though, indeed it is not particularly easy to trigger the Free Spins bonus games to be honest, but the fact that every spin could see you land a win does give the game extra appeal.

So in a nutshell, that is the African Legends slot game. It's a bold move from Microgaming to offer a game that only has one of the four Wowpot progressive jackpot prizes available to be won, and not even the largest prize at that. The question is, will that fact help or hinder this game, and will its popularity thrive or diminish as a result of that? There's only one way to tell and that is to check back in a few months after release to see how popular the game has been with Mega Moolah casino customers.