Atlantean Treasures Mega Moolah

Atlantean Treasures Mega Moolah: Overview

Microgaming partners Neon Valley Studios has the task of designing the latest slot to be part of the Mega Moolah progressive jackpot network. This juggernaut of a franchise is one of the most popular jackpot networks online, and when you look at the numbers, it’s not hard to detect why. With payouts so far totaling around €1 billion, scores of instant millionaires and jackpots that regularly exceed €10 million, the appeal is obvious. It might seem that whatever slot is hooked up to the machine cranking out those results wouldn’t really matter. That might be true up to a point. Most players still want to spin something half decent while having a crack at the mega jackpots on offer. After all, not everyone can win the top prize. Neon Valley’s latest has washed up on shore to offer players a new opportunity to take on the jackpot. Let’s knife it open like an oyster and find out if a pearl resides within.

No doubt the first thing that draws the eye when Atlantean Treasures Mega Moolah loads is the jackpot amounts on the side of the screen. There are 4 whose values vary wildly, but all constant tick upwards. That is until lucky punters win them and they are reset to their seed value and begin the climb again. This being an Atlantean adventure, the game is located at the bottom of the seafloor, amid murky ruins of the old city. Despite the name, this is another one of those legends no one can agree on. Some say the city was in the Atlantic, some in the Mediterranean near Greece or Spain. Others think it was as far away as Antarctica. Not that that has any bearing on the game, but it is kind of interesting.

So, Neon Valley has chosen to keep things simple by incorporating 5 reels, 3 rows, and 10 paylines. Players can stake from 10 p/c to $/€200 per spin, bearing in mind that the chances of triggering the bonus wheel increase the larger the bet size. Leaving aside the progressive, the volatility of the game is on a medium setting, with a hit rate of 21.69%. The RTP, meanwhile, as you would imagine, is far lower than usual on 92.08%, but still significantly better than the original. Considering the size of the jackpots that are possible and how frequently they trigger (relatively speaking), such a low RTP sort of makes sense.

The base game is easy - just match three or more symbols for a payout. One thing to note is that the game has bi-directional paylines. So it pays both ways – left to right, and right to left, effectively doubling the win ways. The paytable is comprised of mainly new symbols, with a couple of classics at the high end. These are the BAR and ‘7’ symbols which are worth 25x and 12x the stake for five of a kind. The rest of the symbols in descending order are a pink fish, purple koi, seahorse, fluffy seaweed, and an orange starfish. Quite an eclectic bunch of symbols right helped out by the multirole wild.

Atlantean Treasures Mega Moolah: Features

The ultimate goal of Atlantean Treasures Mega Moolah is triggering the Jackpot Wheel for a chance of landing the big one. To do so, players collect pearls which are called Progressive Trigger Symbols. These pearls land at random on top of any symbol (except the wild) on reels 2, 3, and 4. When they appear, they are picked up and stored in the giant clam that sits next to the reels. Collect enough of these pearls and you will eventually trigger a chance to spin the Progressive Wheel. There is no mention of how many pearls need to be collected to do so, and chances are affected by the size of the bet.

Once triggered, the Progressive Wheel guarantees a prize – one of the four progressive jackpots. There is no telling what the amount will be at the time, but here are the seed values.

• The Mini starts at 10.
• The Minor starts at 100.
• The Major starts at 10,000
• The Mega starts at 1,000,000

While waiting for that to (hopefully) happen, the base game also has another feature to stir in a thrill or two. This feature is based on the flowing pink-haired mermaid wild. The wild’s most basic function is to substitute for any other symbol in the game except the Progressive Jackpot Symbol. If the wild appears on reels 2, 3, or 4, then it also Expands to fill the whole reel. Once line wins have been calculated, a Respin is then triggered. During this re-spin, the expanded wild is locked while the remaining reels spin for another chance to win. If another wild lands on the middle three reels it triggers another respin, and up to three successive respins are possible.

Atlantean Treasures Mega Moolah: Verdict

As far as slots associated with the Mega Moolah jackpot are concerned, Atlantean Treasures holds its own to an extent. It’s not as fun as the original Mega Moolah slot was but offers a new fresh alternative for those who get tired of chasing that dream hit playing the original. Mathematically, there are a couple of things to consider when comparing the two games. The RTP of the original is 4% lower, which is a significant number that will have a huge impact on your session. However, the potential is also far greater (excluding the jackpot) so at least it has that going for it.

Would you play Atlantean Treasures Mega Moolah if it wasn’t part of the jackpot network? Absolutely not. The game is extremely dull and little effort has been invested into the regular gameplay. Sure, there are a few nice touches. Symbols appear in bubbles, and when they form a winning combination, there is a pleasing little animation as they are popped. Overall, it's not the most fun jackpot slot we've played, but being connected to the Moolah network and carried by Microgaming does save the day.