Mega Moolah vs Atlantean Treasures vs Absolootly Mad: Slot wars

We are gearing up for the imminent release of the Absolootly Mad slot, which is due to hit casinos any day now, and this has got us thinking. How do the two most recent game releases compare to the original Mega Moolah slot?

There is no doubt that the original Mega Moolah slot game remains the most popular Microgaming jackpot slot to play every month. You only need to take a look at the number of big money Mega progressive jackpot winners that have claimed their fortune on the Mega Moolah game, as opposed to other slots linked to the progressive jackpot, to realise that it is a game that retains a strong following.

So what is it about these two newer released Mega Moolah-linked slots in particular that could persuade people to give them a go alongside the original Mega Moolah? Well, the best way to do that, we thought, was to take a look at each of them and compare and contrast what they have to offer.

Our aim in this article is not to produce a definitive 'this is the best Mega Moolah-linked slot' answer. Rather, we simply want to point out the different key aspects each slot has and how that compares across the three games. We will leave it to you, conscientious reader, to decide which of the games is best suited to how you want to play for the Mega Moolah top jackpot prize.

To do that, we are going to break each game down into some of its most important constituent parts, such as the minimum cost to play per spin, the size of the jackpot that you can win on each in the base game, how you can win the Mega Moolah progressive jackpot and whether the game is low, medium or higher variance.

So, let's begin by taking a look at how the three games compare in one of the key areas for any slots player, minimum price per spin.

No of Pay Lines/Ways to Win

• Mega Moolah - up to 25 pay lines
• Atlantean Treasures - 10 non-selectable pay lines
• Absolootly Mad - 243 Ways to Win

As you can see, Mega Moolah is the only game that offers selectable lines, although this is a moot point as if you want to play for the progressive jackpot, you need to play all 25 lines on the game (so almost all players will play maximum lines). The other games offer a very different approach to the game.

With Atlantean Treasures, there may just be 10 pay lines in play but you can win both ways across the reels, from left to right as standard, but also from right to left. This gives you essentially 20 different pay lines in the game and you pay for just 10 of those, which makes it a good value game to play.

The same can be said for Absolootly Mad, which offers 243 Ways to Win across the reels. This means every possible combination of the same symbols across the reels from left to right will offer you a pay out. Incredibly, you can play this game for just 0.20 per spin,

Minimum Bet per Spin

• Mega Moolah - 0.25 per spin
• Atlantean Treasures - 0.10 per spin
• Absolootly Mad - 0.20 per spin

Of real interest to lower stakes players is what the minimum bet levels are for a progressive jackpot slot. As you can see here, the Atlantean Treasures slot can be played for just 0.10 per spin, which makes it by far the cheapest option, with the new Absolootly Mad slot being just 0.20 per spin and Mega Moolah still playable from 0.25 per spin.

So a clear win here for Atlantean Treasures you would say, but things are a little more complicated than that.

What really should be noted that only one of these slots will give you a chance to trigger the Jackpot Bonus Game in each round and land a shot at the Mega Moolah progressive prize, and that is the Mega Moolah slot. That is because in the Mega Moolah slot the Jackpot Bonus Game is triggered randomly.

In the other two games, in order for your spin to have a chance of triggering a chance of landing the progressive jackpot game, you need to have something else happen. In Atlantean Treasures, you need to land a special overlaid symbol on the reel, in Absolootly Mad, you need to collect Wild Coins and then trigger a Rolling Reels bonus by landing a winning line on a spin.

Now while both these things occur relatively frequently in both Atlantean Treasures and Absolootly Mad, it does not occur on every spin, so not every spin you make on these games has a chance of triggering the Mega Moolah progressive jackpot game.

Maximum Bet Per Spin

• Mega Moolah - 6.25 per spin
• Atlantean Treasures - 200.00 per spin
• Absolootly Mad - 50.00 per spin

At the other end of the scale, and something that isn't paid a great deal of attention to, is the cost of the highest possible bet per spin. As you can see, here Atlantean Treasures comes out on top at 200.00 per spin, while Absolootly Mad offers 50.00 per spin and Mega Moolah just 6.25 per spin.

The reason we have put this information on here is that not only do higher rollers like to know this information, but in all Mega Moolah games, the amount you bet on a spin influences your chances of triggering the Jackpot Bonus Game. The more you bet, the more chance you have of triggering the bonus.

So, if you maximise out your Atlantean Treasures bet at 200.00 per spin, then if you can trigger the Jackpot Bonus Game, then you will have a much greater chance of triggering it than on other games. However, all things are relative, and it should be noted that this does not mean that this would guarantee you a trigger of the game. Even if you bet a huge amount such as 200.00 per spin, you still need a healthy slice of luck to get a shot at the four progressive jackpot prizes, whatever game you play.

Non-Progressive Bonus Features

• Mega Moolah - Wild Symbol (with multiplier), Free Spins
• Atlantean Treasures - Expanding Wilds, Respins
• Absolootly Mad - Wild Symbol, Rolling Reels with Multiplier Trail, Free Spins with Enhanced Multiplier Trail

In terms of the bonus features, each game offers a Wild symbol of sorts. In Mega Moolah it is a Lion Wild which comes with a 2x multiplier on any win it is part of, and there is a chance to win 15 Free Spins in the bonus game by landing three or more Scatters across the reels.

There's also a Free Spins bonus round in the Absolootly Mad slot, also landed by hitting three or more Scatter symbols, but also in this game is a Wild symbol and the Rolling Reels feature, which means any single winning spin can produce additional wins once the Rolling Reels bonus kicks in. Successive wins will trigger the Multiplier Trail which in the base game goes from 1x to 5x the standard win and which can massively increase the value of the wins.

The Rolling Reels bonus is also available in Free Spins but is increased by 3x the standard amount, which is why the Free Spins bonus round is where the largest prizes can be won on the Absolootly Mad slot.

The Atlantean Treasures slot does not have a dedicated Free Spins round but instead it has Expanding Wilds on the middle three reels, which if landed will also trigger a free respin of the other reels. If you can land another Wild, you will earn another respin and a third Wild landed will land the maximum third respin of the reels. Each respin can be a winner in its own right, as well as awarding an additional respin.

Size of the Maximum Standard Game Wins

• Mega Moolah - 225,000 coins (9,000x your bet)
• Atlantean Treasures - 500x your bet
• Absolootly Mad - 2,343x your bet

The first thing to note here is that Mega Moolah reports its top standard jackpot prize in coins. This is 75,000 coins in the base game but that increases to 225,000 coins in Free Spins, which is the amount we have used here.

With each bet on the slot costing 25 coins, this translates into an amount of 9,000x your total bet, which is still a considerable amount of money and far more than you get on the other two slot games, with Absolootly Mad offering 2,343x your bet and Atlantean Treasures a smaller 500x your bet.

However, these amounts only really mean something when we translate them into actual cash amounts using the minimum and maximum bet sizes for each game. So with that in mind, let's do precisely that for each of the three games. For convenience sake, we are going to use British Pounds as the currency for this example, but the amounts would be the same regardless of which currency you play the game.

As you can see, thanks to their much higher maximum bet values, you could win considerably more on the two newer slots in the base game (and bonus rounds) than you would on the original Mega Moolah. However, on Mega Moolah, the maximum amount you can win with your minimum bet in the base game and bonus games is over 4 times higher than you would be able to achieve on the other games with their minimum bet levels.

Progressive Jackpot Trigger & Game

• Mega Moolah - Triggers on any spin with all 25 pay lines in play and the game is a Jackpot Bonus Wheel.
• Atlantean Treasures - A special overlaid symbol (the Progressive Trigger Scatter) needs to land on the middle three reels to trigger a chance at launching the Jackpot Bonus Wheel.
• Absolootly Mad - Collect Wild Coins (from Wild symbols) in the base game and the more coins you collect before triggering a win and the Rolling Reels bonus, then the more chance you have of triggering the Jackpot Bonus Wheel at the end of the Rolling Reels bonus.

The first thing to note here is that while each game has a different progressive trigger as we have outlined above, each game also operates under some similarities too. Firstly, the chance to win the top progressive jackpot prize is the same on all three games (and all Mega Moolah-linked slots) and secondly, the more you place as your stake on the triggering bet then the more that increases your chances of triggering a shot at the progressive prizes too.

Of the big difference, one is key and that is every Mega Moolah spin (that has all 25 pay lines in play) offers you a chance at launching the jackpot bonus game. That is not the case on either of the other two slots (which only offer chances when certain events in the game are triggered).

Game Volatility

• Mega Moolah - Low to Medium
• Atlantean Treasures - Low to Medium
• Absolootly Mad - Low to Medium

The final thing we are going to compare is how volatile each game is and this is an area of some consternation. If you read many reviews of these games, the default understanding seems to be that as they are progressive jackpot slots, then they will be higher variance games.

However, in playing the games, that is not what I have personally experienced. On all three games, wins come relatively frequently, much more in line with a lower variance slot, as they are all relatively small in value with some slightly higher wins thrown in from time to time and then the occasional big win too.

In my view, there is little between the slots in terms of variance and as such, it is down to the individual items for each game that we have listed here that you should use to determine which of the the three slots you feel would be most appealing to play.

If you are interested to see how the Casino Rewards' Mega Vault Millionaire and Wheel of Wishes compares with Mega Moolah, read our article: Wheel of Wishes vs Mega Moolah vs Mega Vault Millionaire: Comparison