Amazing Aztecs

The Aztec empire is a popular thing in today’s culture. It was a powerful state born out of an alliance of three city-states, which reigned for a hundred years before European colonizers came to the continent and subjugated the locals – and the empire was no more. Still, parts of it still remain in our minds, driving our curiosity further. All we have of their culture are the massive structures they left behind, the texts we’ve managed to translate, and a lot of guess work on our part how their society worked and functioned. While their society was not as influential as ancient Egypt, they still left behind enough to drive curiosity – and that’s something Microgaming is more than happy to tap into to make a cool slot theme. Amazing Aztecs is played on a 5×3 playing field with 243 ways to win, forgoing regular paylines. Unlike a lot of other titles, however, this one only has a single special feature to draw attention to itself – coming in the shape of Giant Re-Spins. The independent gaming studio behind this release is Just For The Win.

We’re conflicted on whether or not we particularly like the art style itself. The user interface is well done, though it’s quite clearly designed with mobile first, with large buttons off to the size and the information screen very clearly being designed to be dragged up and down by a touchscreen rather than a mouse. However, you can use your scrollwheel for the first, and while the buttons are enormous, they sit off to the side, which won’t bother desktop and laptop players. The art itself is good looking, though it’s not our cup of tea. We won’t dock points there. We do find it a bit disappointing there’s not much in terms of quality animations, however – no fun screen transitions or symbols celebrating with the wins. The gameplay side of Amazing Aztecs is much easier to rate. The general idea was to take out free spins and Wilds, and instead, allow the focus to be on the Giant Re-spins. We admire the risk taken there, but in our opinion, it doesn’t really pan out that well. Wins during normal gameplay are frequent enough, but they don’t feel particularly rewarding and as every winning combination has the prospect of activating the feature, you’ll see plenty of misses in which nothing happens. Even when the bonus is activated, there’s no guarantee it will be successful, which can cause a bit of an annoyance.

You can play Amazing Aztecs for as little as $0.10 up to $100 per spin, giving a wide range of bet levels for both casual gamblers and high rollers alike. It also boasts an RTP of 96.03% and a medium volatility – all good signs. Despite this, the actual pays feel somewhat underwhelming. We assume this was done specifically as there are expectations that the mega symbols can bring some solid scores. And while the highest single win you can get is a solid 824x your wager, that’s an incredibly rare occurrence in a sea of mediocre smaller wins. One thing we can say we quite like, however, is the fact all wins are displayed as the amount you’ll receive multiplied by your wager. So, a four of a kind flower win is always 1x, no matter if you bet $0.10 or $100.

Speaking of symbols, there are plenty in this title that are worth talking about. The lower branch are entirely unique, though they don’t particularly stand out that much as they are simple, geometric shapes with a gemstone in their centre, defined by different colours. On top of them, you also have four other icons – the hunter, the shaman, the princess and the chief. The final and highest paying icon is the slot’s logo itself. There is a single special feature, and that are Giant Re-Spins. After every win, the middle reel is highlighted, and one of three symbols on it is chosen. If the chosen symbol was part of the winning combination, it activates a Giant Re-Spin made out of the chosen icon. The giant icon can be a 2×2, 3×3 or 4×4 icon.