Ancient Warriors slot features See-Thru Reels and Any Adjacent Paylines

Do you remember the excitement when the Terracotta Army was discovered in China all those years ago? Well, they remain a very popular tourist attraction in China, as well as some examples being sent on tour around the world for people to see that can't visit the Far East.

Well, we are kind of celebrating those old-fashioned warriors in the brand-new Crazy Tooth Studio slot, created as part of their agreement with Microgaming. It is called Ancient Warriors, and it has a rather unusual set up compared to most other games.

As well as Any Adjacent Pays and See Through Reels, we also have a 4x6 reel set up, 50 pay lines in play and just eight standard symbols on the reels. We also have a number of different Wild bonuses and a Free Spins round. It all sounds rather exciting, but how have Crazy Tooth Studios designed this slot?

Have they fallen into the same trap many do when creating an Asian themed slot and fall into rather overdone stereotypes, or have they produced something a little different and a bit more imaginative? Let's take a closer look and find out.

Overview

• Game: Ancient Warriors
• Developer: Crazy Tooth Studio (for Microgaming)
• Reels: 4x6
• Pay Lines: 50 (non-selectable) Any Adjacent Pays in Play
• Minimum Bet: 0.20
• Maximum Bet: 115.00
• Jackpot: 1,807x
• Free Spins Bonus: Yes
• Other Bonuses: Yes
• Progressive: No
• Volatility: High

Presentation

The presentation of the Ancient Warriors slot harks back to ancient Chinese culture and this is reflected in how the game looks and sounds. Rather pleasingly, Crazy Tooth have not gone for the typical Chinese-style mandolin music for this game but have gone for a more futuristic sound which complements nicely the rather eye-catching graphics.

Speaking of which, the reels are set against a rather pleasant cartoon-style mountain backdrop, which is lit up by thousands of what I assume to be fireflies. The reels are set in a pagoda and are lit by lanterns either side of the reels, which are nicely animated, What is unusual though is the reel set up as you have four reels, but six symbols in play on each and a total of 50 pay lines in the game. There is also the Any Adjacent Pays system in play which means any three of the same symbols anywhere adjacent to each other on the reels, will offer you a win.

Overall, the different thematic elements of the slot combine very nicely, and the effect is very pleasing on the eye and ear.

What is on the reels?

There are eight standard symbols on the reels and these are the four playing card symbols, Jack, Queen King and Ace, all of which offer wins of 0.15x and 0.35x your bet for three or four of them across the reels on a single pay line.

The higher value symbols are the different creatures in the game and although they are not the easiest to recognise I believe they are a snake, a tiger, a lion and a dragon. These four symbols pay between 0.25x and 0.75x your bet for three or four in a pay line.

Now at this point, you may feel that these wins do not sound awfully high. However, the Any Adjacent Pays feature means that you can win with any three symbols anywhere on the reels, which increases your chances of a win markedly. Furthermore, these and the feature symbols (which we will move onto below) are also stacked on the reels, so it is possible and even likely that you will win multiple times across different pay lines when you do trigger a win.

The one negative thing on the slot is the Feature Symbol, which despite sounding like a benefit to the player, simply does not pay anything when landed and can often block winning lines. However, there are some other symbols which are much more beneficial for players.

Wild features

There are a couple of Wild features you need to know about on the Ancient Warriors slot. The Yin and Yang symbol is the Wild symbol in the base game and it can substitute for any of the other standard symbols in the game to help create winning lines.

In addition to this, we have Wild Multiplier Symbols, which range from 2x your bet to 10x your bet and these can land on the reels and award higher value wins thanks to the multipliers attached to them, however none of the Wild symbols listed above substitute for Scatter symbols.

Alongside these features in the base game there is also a Wild Transformation Feature which is triggered when you land one or two Feature Symbols together in the third, fourth or fifth rows on a reel.

When this occurs, this transforms those symbols, which are otherwise blockers, into Wilds and this can be extremely beneficial when it lands during the base game.

If you can land a Feature symbol on the third, fourth and fifth rows together on a single spin, then you trigger the Stacked Multipliers Feature. This will turn all the Feature symbols on the reels into a Multiplier Wild of between 2x and 10x the standard win amount.

Neither the Wild Transformation or Stacked Multipliers Features can be triggered in the Free Spins bonus round.

Free Spins features

The Free Spins game is called the Ancient Warriors Bonus Spins round and this is triggered when you land three or more the Scatter symbol, which is the blue symbol with Chinese symbols on, anywhere across the reels.

For this you receive 5 bonus spins and each time you land a Feature Symbol, these will be locked on the reels in rows 3, 4 or 5 for the duration of the bonus round. If you can land one or two of these symbols, these will be transformed into Wilds, while landing three of the symbols will turn the symbols into Wild multipliers.

Furthermore, if you can land one Scatter symbol on the reels during the Bonus Spins, you will earn one more additional Free Spin, up to a maximum of 10 Free Spins.

The Ancient Warriors slot also has a Feature Tracker Achievement table which highlights all the different features that you have unlocked in the game since you started playing it.

Best feature of the Ancient Warriors slot

I have to say that the Ancient Warriors slot is a little more complicated and unusual compared to the standard slot, but if you persevere with it and have a read of the pay table information before you start, then you will get to grips with how the game works pretty quickly. For me, while the Free Spins bonus is attractive, the way the Feature Symbol changes from being a blocker in the base game (and somewhat annoying) to being a key part of landing extra Wild and Wild Multiplier symbols is the best aspect of the slot and it really gives the game an added dimension. I also feel the presentation of this slot is also superb too.

Conclusion

If you are someone who doesn't stray too far from the standard 5x3 reel set up for slots, then Ancient Warriors may be a bit of a change for you. The slot looks fantastic and once you understand the game dynamics and how it works, it all does begin to make sense and you will find your enjoyment of the slot increases as you play and get to grips with it more. I think this is a fabulous, imaginative and unusual game that will have huge appeal despite its relatively small jackpot prize and the fact that most single pay line wins are very small. However, the factors in play in the game to increase those wins do work and as such, the game is great fun to play.

Where to play the Ancient Warriors slot?

You can play the Ancient Warriors slot at any of the Mega Moolah casinos on the Where to Play page, Bonus page, Rewards page or Country page.