About Ancient Eclipse Slot
Yggdrasil’s partnership with Bang Bang Games is bearing fruit again with this marvelous-looking Mayan slot which is vaguely reminiscent of NetEnt’s awesome grid game, Gonzo’s Quest. The Mayan culture is a Central American one and has been the inspiration for many slick-looking new slots. It speaks of temples and lush jungles which is what you get here. They Mayan’s believed the eclipse to be a dangerous thing that could cause great destruction to their civilization. According to their tradition, star demons were eating the sun and moon and were so powerful that they could destroy earth. Fortunately for all of us, and the entire human civilization, Bang Bang Games and Yggdrasil do not share the opinion of Mayans! But they do build it into a pretty tasty narrative for this game however.
The backdrop to this 5 reel slot is the entrance to an ancient Mayan temple, and the game comes with 50 fixed paylines active on every spin. Players need to land 3 or more identical symbols on paylines from left to right to trigger wins.Â
RTP, Variance and Top Payout Â
Thanks to medium volatility, the payouts will be fairly evenly distributed in Ancient Eclipse, so this slot should appeal to a wider audience than some of Yggdrasil’s more wild and scary high volatility rides from 2020.  The RTP is set at a reasonable 96.53%, and the top payout is advertised as 4,595x bet in a single spin. Bear in mind for most of us a win like that will be as rare as a solar eclipse – more likely you’ll see top payouts in the region of 500x to 1,000x.
Symbols and Paytable
The entire reel grid here is made of Mayan stone, beautifully illustrated by the Bang Bang design team, with thick jungle vines growing around the outside. In the background you will hear the sounds of tribal beats. Low value icons are represented by the card suits, clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. Symbols carrying crocodiles, eagles, and tigers, as well as two different gods, are the premium icons. The god with a ruby eye will deliver 5x bet for five of a kind.
Look out as well for the Gold Sun which is the Wild that substitutes for all regular icons and pays 10x bet for the maximum combination, and the feathered crown which represents the Scatter that triggers the free spins. Finally, you should also look for the Moon symbol which is needed to set up the Eclipse feature where the bigger wins are possible.
Gameplay and Features
There are a couple of interesting additional features on the offer in Ancient Eclipse. This is not the feature-packed stuff we’ve seen from other recent Yggdrasil releases, but Bang Bang have done some clever work to weave the idea of an eclipse in with the gameplay to keep you on your toes. Here is how that works:
Eclipse Feature
Every time a Moon scatter appears on the reels, it will leave a golden Sun frame behind. The frame remains on the reels until the Moon icon lands on that particular position again. When we have a Moon in the Sun frame, the Eclipse feature is triggered. All cells on the reels that include Sun frames and Moon Scatters will immediately turn into Wilds.
If the feature is triggered with more than one Moon landing in a Sun frame, a multiplier will be added. If, for example, three Moons triggered the feature, all wins will be tripled, and so on. Once the Wild is used in a win, it is removed from the reels and you need to start over again.
Locked Frames Free Spins Feature
Feathered crown Scatters appear only on the three central reels. Once all three of them are on the screen, players will be rewarded with 12 free spins. Every time a Wild lands on the reels during the feature, you are rewarded with one Sticky Sun frame, which remains active until the feature is over. The Eclipse feature is also active during freebies, but if the Moon appears on the reels but does not activate the Eclipse feature, players get an additional free spin.
Our Verdict
Ancient Eclipse might split opinion a little in the slot community. It has some obvious strong points – namely a stunning visual impact when you first load it up. Slot developers these days must be on the money with design to compete in the current market, and Bang Bang have certainly done that. What is a little disappointing is the gameplay – things move along very slowly generally in the base game, and it looks like waiting for an Eclipse Feature might just be like waiting for the real thing. Nevertheless, once you’re in there, the opportunities presented by big sequences of wilds are worth the wait. This is where you’ll fill your boots in Ancient Eclipse slot. How you rate this one may just depend on how quickly you unlock that eclipse the first time you play. But however it goes, at least enjoy scenery!
