Arizona James and the Lost Relics

Arizona James and the Lost Relics: Slot Overview

Isn't it interesting when someone with big ambitions starts out all scrappy, wanting to be scandalous, and shock the establishment… then they get big and basically become the establishment? Every so often, software provider Hacksaw Gaming drifts into this trap, and while the studio still has more than enough of the right stuff to be scandalous and shocking, it occasionally exhibits behaviours which would have been completely anathema to its younger, scrappier self, back when it was busy rattling the industry's cage. Case in point is Arizona James and the Lost Relics, an online slot that not only takes thematic inspiration from a certain whip-cracking archaeologist, but also borrows its mechanics from a certain pistol-twirling raccoon.

The actual Arizona James character plays an integral cosmetic role in the game's shootin' mechanic, but at the start, players meet the intrepid adventurer standing guard by the gaming area, gun in hand, ready to blast mummies, symbols, or whatever else gets in his way. A crumbling, ancient kingdom in a wild jungle is where the treasure lies in wait, but James will have to get past all manner of dangers, pistols blazing, if he wants to get to it. The visuals are accompanied by a sweeping tune that sounds closer to Star Wars or Superman than Indiana Jones, whether by accident or design, as if Gen AI was fed a list of John Williams tracks and asked to come up with something. The overall audiovisuals are quite good, even if Arizona James and the Lost Relics at times felt like a cheap knock-off rather than a deep homage.

A 6x5 gaming area plays host to this cluster pays game, which creates wins when 5 or more matching symbols are adjacent to each other on the grid. Players may stake $/€0.05 to $/€40 in this medium-volatile slot, where the greatest RTP value is 96.28%, though three lower return models have also been designed.

The regular paying symbols are 10-A royals, scorpions, snakes, and three character type symbols. Five-of-a-kind clusters pay 0.2x-1x the bet, increasing to 50x-200x for a 14+ OAK hit. Wilds substitute all regular paying symbols and are also linked to one of the game's main features.

Arizona James and the Lost Relics: Slot Features

As for features, players can look forward to super cascades, a Pistol Reveals sequence, three bonus rounds - Cursed Temple, Tomb of Gold, and The Crystal Caverns, plus feature buys.

Super Cascades

When a winning cluster occurs, all regular paying symbols of the type that formed the winning combination are removed from the reels, causing symbols to cascade down to refill the grid.

Pistol Reveals

When a winning cluster forms with a wild symbol, the wild will transform into a Pistol Cylinder symbol with 2-6 shots. When cascades end, James shoots the grid with as many shots as the Pistol Cylinder has, creating Coins, Amulets, Sacred Relics and Reload symbols in the hit positions. If there is more than one Pistol Cylinder on the reels, they activate top to bottom, left to right. The same positions can be hit more than once, though not Diamonds, Gold Amulets, Sacred Relics, or Reloads. After the shots have been fired, if there is a Reload symbol, it reloads the Pistol Cylinder with 2-6 extra shots. There can only be one Reload symbol on the grid at a time.

Coins come in Bronze (1x-4x), Silver (5x-20x), Gold (25x-100x) and Diamond (150x-500x). If Coins are shot again, they are upgraded to the next Coin type. After Coins are revealed, Amulets activate. Emerald Amulets multiply Coins and Sacred Relics on adjacent positions by x2 to x20. If Emerald Amulets are shot, they upgrade to Gold Amulets. Gold Amulets multiply all Coins and Sacred Relics by x2 to x20.

Next in the process is Sacred Relics, which collects the values of all Coins and other activated Sacred Relics, storing their total. When Sacred Relics have been activated, Amulet and Reload symbols vanish, and all shot positions activate again, revealing new Coin, Amulet or Sacred Relic symbols, repeating the process. When all the shooting and revealing is complete, the on-screen prizes pay out.

Cursed Temple Bonus Game

The Cursed Temple bonus round's 10 free spins are awarded by landing 3 scatters in the base game. Before the round starts, players can gamble once or continue. Gambling will award a cash prize of 1x to 100x the bet, and the feature ends there, or an upgrade to the Tomb of Gold bonus. During the Cursed Temple, there is an increased chance of triggering Pistol Cylinders. In this feature and Tomb of Gold, landing 2 or 3 scatters grants a further +2 or +4 free spins, respectively.

Tomb of Gold Bonus Game

Landing 4 scatters triggers 10 free spins in the Tomb of Gold bonus. Players may continue or gamble once before this feature, as well, where the gamble awards either an upgrade to The Crystal Caverns hidden bonus or a payout of 5x to 500x the bet and the feature ends. Tomb of Gold uses the mechanics of Cursed Temple, plus a Bullet Collector appears by the reels. Each regular win adds 1 bullet to the Bullet Collector. The Bullet Collector activates at the end of the final spin, where James shoots all of the bullets at the grid, triggering the Pistol Reveals sequence. Scatters cannot land when the Bullet Collector triggers.

The Crystal Caverns Hidden Epic Bonus

Hitting 5 scatters in the main game triggers 10 free spins in The Crystal Caverns round. This bonus keeps the mechanics of Tomb of Gold, except the Bullet Collector starts at 5, and it triggers at the end of each free spin. After the Bullet Collector activates, it resets to the last collected value it had before triggering. Also, Silver Coins are the lowest type of Coin that can appear.

Feature Buys

Arizona James and the Lost Relics' feature buys include BonusHunt FeatureSpins, making each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus game for 3x, or Into the Wild FeatureSpins for 75x to guarantee at least 2 wilds land on each spin. The Cursed Temple bonus costs 65x to activate, while Tomb of Gold costs 250x to buy.

Arizona James and the Lost Relics: Slot Verdict

Hope you liked Le Cowboy, because Arizona James and the Lost Relics practically follows the same blueprint to the letter. Hacksaw Gaming has exchanged the Wild West for a jungle adventure and a raccoon cowboy for a human explorer, which is a significant thematic shift. However, the skin the studio has picked to wrap around the mechanics has something of a copycat whiff to it, which might not have been so noticeable if the features weren't a complete repeat. Still, there is a fun spirit to this Indiana Jones homage, and the rugged adventurer ties in nicely with the Pistol Reveal feature.

As for Arizona James and the Lost Relics' gameplay, it sits on about a par with Le Cowboy, maybe a couple of notches down since nothing happens here that has not been witnessed before. The Le formula is a winning one, though, no doubts there, and a good chunk of gamblers have been enraptured by the famous coin, multiply, collect, reveal sequence in the past, so much so that Hacksaw Gaming continues to produce these sorts of slots at a prodigious rate. Le Cowboy successfully spun the franchise in a new direction through its Revolver Reveals twist, and also by some excellent bonus game progression, where each free spins round is just that much better than the last, climaxing in a hidden bonus shooting off bullets on every spin. Arizona James and the Lost Relics has all this, plus the steep 25,000x win cap, and some gamblers may prefer a human protagonist to a grumpy raccoon.

In short, Arizona James and the Lost Relics has the technical capabilities to entertain players who enjoy coin reveal action, and the accompanying bonus rounds, bonus gamble, as well as the shoot 'em up delivery system are still top notch. At the same time, it's hard not to imagine some Le enthusiasts being a little disappointed to see nothing new brought to the table. As a standalone, Arizona James and the Lost Relics is an entertaining game, but in the broader scheme of things, it may end up fuelling the fire of those who see a studio that was once all innovative, now occasionally weighed down by its position as a pillar of the online slot establishment.