All About John Hunter and the Mayan Gods Slot Review
John Hunter returns to the Mayan civilization after visiting Egypt and the Aztecs. Of course, Pragmatic Play isn’t the first to attempt this, but they do it better than others with great graphics and a fun gameplay. Fans of Play’n Go’s awesome Book of Dead will recognize the star of this fourth installment. It has all the elements of a top extremely volatile slot with action deep in the free spins round led by expanding wilds and a progressive bonus round that may swiftly skyrocket rewards.
The scene is an old Mayan temple in the background, overrun by wild vegetation that have replaced the Mayan civilization. A strong soundtrack appears to be played on local instruments. Quite atmospheric, and sets us up for some great slots action.
RTP, Variance, and Highest Payout
This is undeniably a high volatility game. So you could have to wait a long time with little or no wins before getting to the bonus round and accumulating growing wilds and additional spins. Remember that this is rare, so don’t chase your losses if things don’t work out. The greatest payoff is 2,500x, while most of us will only get payments of 100x to 500x. The RTP is 96.51 percent, which is typical for Pragamatic’s high volatility series.
SYMBOLS AND PAYTABLE
In this case, the low-value symbols are the playing card icons: spades. A five of a type pays up to 10x. The premium symbols are the tribe chief, Quetzalcoatl, the ring, the knife, and the golden goblet. John Hunter is the highest value icon, paying 50x for five in a line.
Watch out for the Golden Statue, which is the Wild and will substitute for all other symbols except the scatter. The ancient temple scatter triggers the free spins round.
Gameplay and Specs
John Hunter and the Mayan Gods has a unique collection of qualities. If you get the correct mix of them, you can win big. How they work:
Expanding Wilds
Wilds are vital in both the base and free spins games. The Golden Statue only appears on reels 2, 3 and 4, the middle three reels. If a wild is part of a winning line, it expands to fill the full reel. So we can win more.
Bonus Spins
So, the free spins round is where the action is. To activate the bonus, you need three scatters on a single spin. The scatters are Temples, and the round contains six levels and limitless free spins.
It starts with 12 spins, and every time a Wild appears, you get an extra free spin and level up. On a single spin, two or three Wilds trigger two or three levels of gameplay and extra free spins.
The paytable improves with each level because low value symbols are enhanced. Like this:
Level 2: All goblets become knives
Level 3: Knives become rings
Level 4: Quetzalcoatl rings
Level 5: Serpents become tribe leaders.
Level 6: Only John Hunter symbols emerge.
Three or more Scatters on the reels will always retrigger the feature.
As you can see, re-trigger the free spins and upgrade symbols to increase prizes. A screen of John Hunters is unlikely to materialize soon, if ever, but we can all dream!
Verdict
The Mayan Gods slot from the John Hunter series looks fascinating and has a spectacular bonus round. This slot will appeal to high variance players. It doesn’t have as many features as other volatile games on the market, but it still gives great fun if you can get those free spins. In Pink Elephants by Thunderkick, Pragmatic Play has taken things a step further by making this an infinite bonus round with the opportunity to finish with all high paying premium symbols on the reels. Expect thrills, spills, and frustration. We like it that way!
