Snake Arena 2

Snake Arena 2: Slot Overview

Software provider Relax Gaming conducted an exploration of our scaly, slithering friends in 2019 with the release of Snake Arena, an online slot which echoed the classic mobile phone game Snake. Its meagre (by modern hungry gambling standards) winning potential received a significant boost when it was wired into the studio's Dream Drop jackpot network three years later, and now gamblers are set to meet a full-blown sequel. Snake Arena 2 returns the battling Snake and Knights (now called Slayers) in a game that sees a significant expansion of features, like a giant python slowly digesting a hyena.

As part of the sequel rebuild, Snake Arena 2 swaps the medieval, fantasy atmosphere of Snake Arena for a more futuristic setting. The multi-towered castle of the original has been replaced with a circular, blue glowing arena, as if located at the bottom of a deep well, with the gaming area placed upon a sandy floor. The Snake has been metalized, too, so it looks more robotic than a flesh-and-blood serpent, and it is joined by a host of robot critters on the reels. The new optics might not look quite as cute as the original's, but everything is neatly arranged to the point that Snake Arena harkens back to peak Relax Gaming days, with a hint of Money Train 4.

The main game is played on a 6x4 grid laid on the bottom of the arena, coated in 14 winning lines. A handful of Upgrade Spins and bonus buys are available, while the base bet selection ranges from $/€0.10 to $/€20 per spin. With a theoretical RTP of 96.1%, Snake Arena 2 is a highly volatile game with greatly expanded winning potential.

Snake Arena 2's regular pay symbols consist of the four playing card suits and four robotic creepy crawlies. A payout of 5x the bet is made when 6 matching suits hit, or 10x to 20x when lines of 6 matching robot symbols land. Wilds are also present on all reels. They replace any regular pay symbol and have the same value as the highest symbols when a line of 6 wilds land.

Snake Arena 2: Slot Features

Snake Arena 2's features are the Wild Chase, Slayer Free Spins, Arena Spins, super versions of both, and feature buys.

Wild Chase

The Snake above the reels can awaken at the start of any spin. Each spin, 1-5 Slayers appear at the bottom, each with a multiplier from x2 to x1,000. When a wild lands above a Slayer, its multiplier applies to all wins through that wild. If the Snake awakens and targets a reel with a Slayer, they clash - turning the entire reel wild and adding the Slayer's multiplier. The Wild Chase continues until all Slayers are defeated or the Snake attacks an empty reel. Multiple wild reels combine their multipliers.

Pick Mode

Scatters are present on all reels and act as wilds when part of a win. Landing 3 or 4 scatters triggers pick mode. Players may choose between Slayer Free Spins or Arena Spins when 3 scatters hit, or Super Slayer Free Spins or Super Arena Spins when 4 scatters trigger the pick.

Slayer Free Spins and Super Slayer Free Spins

This feature awards 5 free spins, with the Snake always awake and hunting Slayers as in the Wild Chase. Landing 3 scatters adds +5 spins, while 4 scatters add +5 spins and upgrade the round to Super Slayer Free Spins. In Super Slayer Free Spins, defeated reels stay wild with their multiplier for the rest of the bonus. If the Snake attacks a Slayer on a wild reel, the multiplier increases. Landing 3 scatters adds +5 more spins. After the feature ends, players may buy extra spins if the cost is below their remaining winnings or under 100x, up to a maximum of 10,000x.

Arena Spins and Super Arena Spins

This feature also awards 5 free spins and plays on a 6x6 grid that can expand to 8x8. Rows 1 and 8 start locked, so symbols there are inactive. Each spin has two phases: feature symbols and Snake Eggs drop first, then the Snake and Slayer are placed on empty spots. Super Slayers can appear instead of regular ones, carrying multipliers from x2 to x5, which apply when the Snake reaches them. The Snake moves toward the Slayer, collecting and removing all symbols in its path, adding their values to the win. After each spin, the Snake and Slayer are removed, but uncollected feature symbols and Snake Eggs remain. In Super Arena Spins, rows 1 and 8 unlock. Feature symbols become sticky, staying active and reusable across spins, while letters are removed since they're no longer needed. When the round ends, players may have the option to buy extra spins.

Snake Arena Feature Symbols

Snake Egg symbols carry a bet multiplier value. Bronze eggs are worth 1x-19x, silver eggs are worth 20x-99x, while golden eggs are worth 100x upwards.

• Green feature symbol - collects all visible values that are in play from the arena.
• Red feature symbol - reveals a value and adds it to all other in-play symbols in the arena.
• Red and green feature symbol - collects and combines all values in play from the arena, then pays the new total value back to all collected symbols.
• Gold feature symbol - the current win amount is paid to all in-play symbols in the arena.
• Red and green triangular symbol - reveals at least 10x and adds its value to all in-play symbols in the arena. New values are collected from all symbols in play and added to its own. The new combined total is paid to all symbols involved in the sequence.
• SNAKE - collecting all letter symbols to spell SNAKE instantly upgrades to the Super Snake Arena. An instant upgrade can be obtained via the loot box.
• Blue or gold symbols - increase the available rows during Arena Spins, top, bottom, or both.
• +2 - adds the number of free spins to the remaining total.
• Lock symbols - only available from a loot box and will add x2 to x5 to the Slayer's shield and cause him to jump one reel to the right. The total single round win will be multiplied by x5 when the round ends.
• Loot Box - triggering this grants one of the above awards. Snake Eggs awarded from a Loot Box are worth at least 50x.

In Arena Spins, activated feature symbols are removed from the grid. In Super Arena Spins, they behave the same way but remain on the grid, allowing multiple activations per round. Snake Eggs are always collected and removed in both versions. The maximum multiplier a Super Slayer can hold is x10.

Upgrade Spins & Bonus Buy

There are three Slayer Spins options to choose from. They are a spin with 5 Slayers and 2, 3, or 4 Wild Chase connections costing 50x, 150x, or 350x the bet, respectively. Bonus Reels can be engaged for 10x per spin to increase the chance of triggering free spins as only scatter symbols or blanks land, or Enhanced Spins for 2x to double the chance of the Wild Chase activating and scatter symbols landing. It is also possible to buy a regular bonus round trigger for 100x or the super bonus version for 500x the bet.

Snake Arena 2: Slot Verdict

Snake Arena 2 is an expansive, futuristic reimagining of its 2019 predecessor, which gives fans a taste of the original's mechanics while also drastically evolving them. The thematic shift brought to mind the change that occurred between Relax Gaming's Money Train and Money Train 2, maybe even Money Train 3, as it moves from past to future. As well as the skin change, the studio has severely loaded up on features. The Wild Chase gets another outing, and is this time boosted by multiplier values, though the growing eating itself wild snake free spins feature from Snake Arena part one has been shed like old skin and replaced with Slayer Free Spins.

Personal preference, of course, but Arena Spins were the more entertaining of the two bonus round types. Obviously, Super Arena Spins are even better, but they require collecting all five SNAKE letters to upgrade, or laying out 500x to buy. Not saying that Arena Spins were more likely to produce bigger winning totals than Slayer Spins, both features seemed capable in that department. But rather, Slayer Free Spins are basically the main game+, whereas Arena Spins reawakened those Snake video game memories, and it was a lot of fun watching the Snake slither about the screen collecting and activating stuff before eventually reaching the Slayer. Super Arena Spins are a whole different ball game, since feature symbols lock in place, crowding up the screen for possible future activations. Still, Super Arena Spins do produce sticky wild multiplier reels, which might be fruitful, despite there being just 14 paylines.

Within this system, there are copious opportunities for the game to produce screen-punching missed chances, riotous victories, and plenty in between. Furthermore, Snake Arena 2's impressive 50,000x max win cap should silence those who scoffed at the original Snake Arena's 2,758x figure. So, where the original was a charming, fun-to-play slot that had links to a classic mobile phone game, Snake Arena 2 blasts into the present, eating and absorbing its older sibling to become a much bulkier proposal.