Pragmatic Play’s Spartan King slot machine transports players back in time to the era of Leonidas and his renowned Spartan 300. Even though NextGen’s 300 Shields and 300 Shields Extreme slots don’t directly reference the film/graphic novel 300, it’s hard not to think about the movie/graphic novel when playing these games. The two games may seem identical at first look. However, as you activate the spin, they begin to separate, which is bad news for Spartan King.
When the main menu starts, players are greeted by the sunlit shores of the Peloponnesus and a livid looking warrior screaming out from behind his plumed helm, likely the Spartan King. You can see right away that Pragmatic Play was going for a gritty, hard-man aesthetic. The purple, wavy Mediterranean Sea, farmland, waterfalls, and mountains provide the backdrop of the 5×4 grid with 40 paylines.
It’s a lovely picture, and it makes you wonder why the Spartans didn’t spend more time here instead of practicing for battle. Since positive thinking wouldn’t have helped much against the Thermopylae’s 100,000 invaders, that’s probably for the best. The Persian march was blocked not just by solid bronze and ripped muscle, but also by passion, some of which was crammed into the film’s music by Pragmatic Play.
You may play Spartan King on any of your devices, and the coin sizes range from 20 p/c to $100/€100 every spin. The game is powered by a very unpredictable mathematical model that received a perfect score (5/5 stars) from Pragmatic Play. Surprisingly, the test run resulted in a high frequency of free spins, but only middling rewards. The standard return to player (RTP) of 96.6% is also pleasantly high, although it may be difficult to find in some markets in this day and age. A strong collection of numbers is topped off with a decent victory potential (on paper at least), but the gameplay doesn’t live up to the numbers.
There are eight different pay symbols available, all of which are appropriate to the theme. The royals on the J through A cards aren’t done in the angular Greek typeface typical of such games, but the gold detailing isn’t terrible. The next four premiums are a warrior mid-sword hack, a sword, a helm, and a ship. If you get five of them on a payline, you’ll win between four and seven and a half times your wager. The Spartan King wild, which is 1×1 and can replace any pay symbol save for the scatter, may increase your winnings by as much as 20 times your wager for five of a kind. The 2, 4, and 5th reels are where this wild appears.
Contents: Spartan King Slot Machine
Features-wise, Spartan King is quite barebones, much like its namesake. Everything hinges on a unique multiplicator wild. The Shield Wild is shaped like a shield and may appear on reels 2, 3, and 4 to replace regular symbols and trigger an additional feature during free games.
With one key exception, the free spins round plays out much like the main game. Scatter wins are triggered when three or more of the red flag symbols appear anywhere on the reels. If you get 3, 4, or 5 scatters in view, you’ll receive 8, 10, or 12 free spins, plus 1, 5, or 20 times your initial wager. The 2×2 wild shield can appear at any time during free spins and act as a substitute, just like it does in the main game. The difference now is that any wins are multiplied by a random quantity of x2, x3, x5, x10, or x25 whenever one or more touch the screen.
Judgement of the Slot Machine King, Sparta
Spartan King includes features that gamers who like games with an Ancient Greece theme can like. It has a decent appearance, for one thing, and it adds some Mediterranean flavor to the reels for a fun diversion. The concept, too, has been executed competently. Sparta is not a novel concept in the slot world, or indeed any other universe. Old warrior culture, whose tales have been repeated in various forms for than 2,500 years, touches a raw nerve. Since the 300 have been embedded in the consciousness of Southern Europeans, this trend shows no signs of abating.
After a time of hitting spin, enthusiasm begins to wane, just like Xerxes’ expectations. Although enjoyable, playing Spartan King fails to inspire as much as the topic it depicts. The 2×2 wild shields are the main attraction. Although landing all three at once is extremely unlikely, it did happen once in the original game, leading to a nice victory. Naturally, shield wilds shine during free spins when they conjure up a respectable multiplier. The multiplier animation plays constantly regardless of whether or not there is a win, which may be quite annoying. While it’s true that a couple of those shield multipliers may help you win more than 7,480x your original wager, prior experience has shown us that such claims are generally over exaggerated by Pragmatic Play in their slot machines.
Overall, Spartan King isn’t the most riveting release from this developer. The primary drawbacks are the indistinguishability of the game phases and the dullness of a 5×4 grid with only 40 paylines unless some novel mechanic is included. Simply said, Spartan King lacks it. There’s also the nagging feeling that the Spartans have been given more favorable treatment in slots in the past.
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