We like how relaxed Big Time Gaming seems, as they make a simple tweak to the usual Megaways setup that has massive implications for the gameplay. Apollo Pays Megaways comes with a visually pleasing depiction of what we presume is Olympus in the background, and day turns to night when the bonus round triggers. You get a hold-and-win style Respins feature every time you win, and it sort of replaces the usual cascading wins mechanic.
This Respins feature slows down the pace significantly though, so patience is needed to get to the bonus round. There is a shortcut however, in the form of a Win Exchange/Gamble feature, but keep in mind that you can winup to 26,900x in the base game. The potential increases to a very solid116,030xwhen the unlimited win/respin multiplier comes into play in the bonus round, and the stats are overall very solid with a96.56 % RTPto top it off.
The gemstone premium symbols pay between 0.4 and 5 x your stake for 6 of a kind wins, and theApollo Wild symbolsteps in for all pay symbols to help complete winning combinations. The wild symbol does not hold any value of its own however, and it can land on reels 2 to 5 only.
Winning symbolsare not removed, like you would normally expect from this engine. Instead,they are held in place as the remaining positions respin. You get another respin if you improve the original winning combination with at least 2 new symbols. This goes on until you potentially fill the screen, or land less than 2 new winning symbols, at which time your total win is summed up and paid.Scatters also become sticky during this feature, and respins can add extra positions to the reels (up to 7 in total at the most).
The Win Exchange featureallows you to exchange a100x winfor the bonus round. If you win between 25 and 99 x your stake however, you can use that amount togamble for the bonus round. This is done by spinning a red and green segmented wheel, and green gives you the bonus round while red takes you back to the base game.
Landing3 harp scattersanywhere in view triggers the Bonus Round, and you get10 free spinsas a minimum. Landing more scatters on top of the minimum of 3 awards+2 extra spins per extra triggering scatter.A progressive win multiplierwith no upper limit comes into play, and it starts at x1 and increases by+1 per win respin. You win+4 extra spins when 3 scatters land, and+2 spinson top of thatper extra retriggering scatterabove the minimum of 3.
You get to see almost 3 minutes of the base game, with plenty of win respin triggers, before we finally trigger the bonus round at 2:51 into the 7-minute highlights video. We got the minimum of 10 free spins, and we managed to rack up an x17 multiplier in the end. See for yourself how much we got away with by hitting the play button below.
It’s interesting to see how a seemingly small tweak, like replacing the cascading wins mechanic with a win respins feature, makes such a huge difference in the way the game plays out. You can build up what looks like impressive winning combos via this feature, but the actual payout will many times disappoint due to the rather low symbol values. The feature slows down the pace significantly as well, and it can thus take a good while to get to the bonus round.
Of course, this makes the Win Exchange/Gamble feature all the more tempting, and it’s clearly been put in there for a reason. The base game potential is a solid26,900x your stakethough, and it rises to an eye-watering116,030x in the bonus round. This is due to the multiplier that increases per win respin, and you will certainly not mind the time-consuming “extra spins” you get at this stage in the game. Apollo Pays is a simple, yet potentially deadly, ancient Greece installment, and it comes with solid stats that will test your patience.
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