Arena of Gold slot: A Roman adventure with Golden Respins

The Romans have been the inspiration for a number of top slot games over the years and they provide the backdrop for All41 Studios latest offering as part of their agreement with Microgaming in the new Arena of Gold slot.

Based on a gladiator arena, the slot looks great and for a change, it is a more medium variance slot with a tendency towards lower variance as wins come along pretty often in the game. As such, this is a more player friendly slot than some of the other more higher variance releases from the company in recent times.

The game also boasts three jackpots, the largest of which is 1000x your bet as well as Wild and Scatter symbols each of which have their own bonuses. So is this gladiatorial slot going to sweep all before it, or will it be a thumbs down from me? We decided to take a look and find out.

Overview

• Game: Arena of Gold
• Developer: All41 Studios (for Microgaming)
• Reels: 5x3
• Pay Lines: 25 (non-selectable)
• Minimum Bet: 0.10
• Maximum Bet: 50.00
• Jackpot: 2,500x
• Free Spins Bonus: Yes
• Other Bonuses: Yes
• Progressive: No but there are three in game jackpots Mini, Mega and Maxi
• Volatility: Medium

Presentation

The Estonian-based All41 Studios have produced some of the more eclectic slots for Microgaming since signing up to a partnership with the Isle of Man-based slots giant. Games like Le Kaffee Bar, Magic of Sahara, Lock a Luck and Book of Atem have proved popular with players but they are somewhat different to the norm and Arena of Gold definitely continues in that vein.

The slot is set inside the famous Coliseum, the eponymous Arena of Gold, where gladiators could battle for favour and life, or infamy and death. The reels are superimposed over the scene and at the top of the reels are the three jackpot prizes you can land in one of the bonus features of the slot, Mini, Mega and Maxi jackpots.

The sound is quite rousing and dramatic and tries to convey the power and might of the Roman Empire, which it kind of does, however to be honest the sound is a bit of a mishmash and for me, it isn't one of the better soundtracks to play along with on a slot. In terms of visuals and animations though, the slot looks fine.

What is on the reels?

There are eleven symbols in total on the reels in the base game. These start with the lower value symbols, which are the playing card symbols from the Jack through to the Ace. Wins on these symbols start at 0.3x your bet and increase up to 3x your bet.

There are four higher value standard symbols on the reels too, all male Roman gladiators who are wearing different coloured robes to make them easier to differentiate. They increase in value from the orange, green, blue to red and gold gladiator and offer prizes ranging from 0.5x your bet up to the biggest single line base game win of 20x your bet.

The other three symbols on the standard reels in the main game are the Wild, Coin symbol and Scatter symbol and all of these symbols are linked in with the main features of the slot.

Wild features

Perhaps unsurprisingly, a Roman Emperor is the main Wild symbol in the game. This serves two purposes. Firstly, you can use it as a substitute with any of the standard symbols listed above to create winning lines in the game. Secondly, it can be landed on any of the five reels which means you can land winning pay lines. Wins range from 1x your bet for three Wilds from left to right on a pay line up to 20x your bet for landing all five Wilds across a single pay line.

However, the Wild does not have any multipliers attached which is a little disappointing and it cannot substitute for the Scatter symbol or the

Free Spins features

There are two bonus features to do with Free Spins or Respins on the Arena of Gold slot. The first of these is the Free Spins bonus and this is triggered in the usual way by landing three or more of the Scatter symbols across the reels. When you do, you will receive an initial 5 Free Spins, but you can also earn more Free Spins by landing 3 Scatters during the bonus round.

During the Free Spins, the middle three reels all combine into one large reel and the symbols on that single middle reel combine together to form symbols that are the size of nine symbols in the base game, potentially able to cover all spots on the middle reel in full.

While big symbols count as nine symbols, if you land a big scatter symbol, this only counts as one, which is a little disappointing truth be told.

The second spins bonus is the Golden Re-Spins bonus game, which is triggered using the coin symbols that have a cash value attached to them that you will see appear on the reels frequently during the base game.

This is the way you can land a shot of landing one of the three jackpot prizes in the game and to trigger the action, you need to land six coins or more anywhere across the reels on a single spin. This can happen in the base game or Free Spins parts of the slot.

You begin with three Re-Spins of the reels, during which the six or more coins you landed initially will be held in position on the reels. For the re-spins, all other symbols are replaced with blanks, so you only have coin symbols or blanks on the reels for your re-spins. The aim of the game is to fill up the reels with coins. Each additional coin you add to the six or more you landed to start the bonus will also remain locked in place and reset your re-spin total back to three.

Each coin you land has a cash prize, which will be awarded at the end of the round, but coins can also have other bonuses including a multiplier amount or a chance to win two of the three jackpots in the game, the Mini or Mega jackpot prizes.

To win the largest Maxi jackpot prize of 1,000x your bet, you need to cover all 15 positions on the reels with coins to trigger the top jackpot prize, plus you will also earn the value of each of your coins too.

Best feature of the Arena of Gold slot

There's no doubt for me that the Golden Respins bonus is the best feature of the Arena of Gold slot but it does come with an annoying caveat and that is for the vast majority of non-triggering spins, the coins you land simply serve as a blocking symbol on the reels, which is a bit frustrating especially when you land four or five coins symbols on a spin. That seems to be unduly punitive to the player to me. The other bonus feature, Free Spins, is also excellent but I think lacks the fun of the re-spins bonus and I think five initial spins is a little miserly as the bonus isn't that easy to trigger.

Conclusion

Arena of Gold is another slot that has all the hallmarks of an All41 Studios game. It has a somewhat awkward title, looks great, but is notably different to the standard output from Microgaming. That's not a bad thing as offering players a wider choice of games with different features and bonuses is exactly what Microgaming would have wanted from their deal with the company. This is a decent slot but to be honest, I don't think it has quite the appeal of some of the company's other releases although as a medium variance slot, it isn't going to be a huge danger to your bankroll as you do win pretty frequently.

You can play the Arena of Gold slot at any of the Mega Moolah casinos.