Aztec Tower

Aztec Tower: Slot Overview

Since we reviewed the buzz, buzz, buzzing around in the off-world bee-themed online slot Buzz Thrill, software provider DreamSpin has been added to the growing list of YGG Masters partners. The first release to come our way from the partnership is Aztec Tower, a scatter pays slot which dresses its gameplay up in the popular Central American culture. While the theme might be old hat, several of the technical aspects could be of interest to fans of all things scatter, including a noticeably low number of symbols required to create a winning combination, and a set of enhancer features which trigger on every single winning cascade, also working hand in hand with a progressive win multiplier.

To take on Aztec Tower, gamblers have to trek deep into the jungle, where it is said 'vast rewards await those bold enough to climb.' The studio's words there. In practice, this means a base game lingering in a dim, densely forested area, while free spins ascend skyward as the bonus round progresses. Aztec Tower has an interesting look, which might not be incredibly striking, but it has a clean, pleasant appearance all the same. There's a sort of Gonzo's Quest meets Coba thing going on, not to the same visual heights either of those slots achieve, but as stated, a clean look sets the scene without being overly extravagant.

Aztec Tower is a 5x5 game that needs 5 or more matching symbols to land anywhere to form a winning combination. Symbols part of a win are removed from the grid, causing symbols to drop down and refill the reels. Cascading repeats as long as winning combinations appear. On each spin in the base game, up to 10 positions may be filled with Blocker symbols, which are valueless symbols that can be removed by the Remove Blocker Enhancer. Powered by a highly volatile math model, Aztec Tower's max RTP is 96%, and gamblers are able to stake $/€0.20 to $/€20.

From the bottom of the paytable to the top are Water, Sun, Leaf, Flame, Chalice, Necklace, Dagger, Eagle, Snake, and Jaguar pay symbols. Landing 10+ matching animal symbols pays 11x to 15x the stake, while the remaining pay symbols award up to 2x to 9x the bet. Hitting 5 OAK pays 0.1x to 0.8x. When wilds are present, they substitute for anything except the scatter.

Aztec Tower: Slot Features

Aztec Tower's special bits are its Enhancers, a global multiplier, free spins, a gamble, DreamBet, and bonus buy.

Enhancers

Each time a winning cascade occurs, one random Enhancer is triggered. Only one may trigger per cascade in the base game or free spins, regardless of how many winning combinations occurred on the cascade.

• Wild Add: Adds a wild symbol to the grid.
• Remove Blocker: Removes one Blocker symbol in view.
• Multi Boost: Increases the global multiplier by one level.
• Scatter Add: Adds a scatter symbol to the grid.

Multiplier Wheel

The global multiplier is represented by the multiplier wheel, which starts at x1 and increases in levels up to x250. Each time a winning cascade occurs, the global multiplier increases by +1 level. The multiplier applies to all winning combinations. On any base game spin, Temple Ascension may randomly boost the multiplier before symbols land.

Free Spins

Landing 3 scatters triggers 8 free spins with a starting multiplier of x1. During the bonus round, the global multiplier does not reset between spins. Also, the max number of Blocker symbols is decreased to 5. Each scatter that lands during the feature awards an extra free spin.

Free Spins Gamble

Before the free spins round begins, players have the chance to gamble for a higher starting multiplier or collect what they have. It is possible to gamble up to an x50 multiplier, though any losing gamble loses the entire feature.

DreamBet & Bonus Buy

Activating the DreamBet increases the stake by 50% to increase the chance of triggering free spins. At a cost of 90x the bet, players can buy 8 free spins. The free spins gamble is available when buying the feature this way.

Aztec Tower: Slot Verdict

Aztec Tower delivers a mixed but fairly well put together scatter pays slot that should pique the interest of fans of this style. While the Aztec setting is familiar and doesn't break wild new ground artistically, the clean presentation and smooth animations make it easy to settle into a session of hacking through the jungle. The scrolling into the sky effect helps give the bonus round individuality, sparking memories of ReelPlay's El Dorado Infinity Reels, though with vertical rather than horizontal movement. So, while Aztec Tower might not win fashion awards, it has a certain optical appeal that is easy on the eyes.

One of the first technical aspects that stood out was the low number of matching symbols needed to make a win. Generally speaking, in a scatter pays slot, 8 seems to be the minimum go-to number in a lot of games that use this system, such as Shady Lady's Suck, Pragmatic Play's Gates of Olympus 1000, and Nolimit City's Duck Hunters. Here, just five are needed, anywhere on the grid, and voila, a winning combination. However, to counterbalance this diminished requirement, Blocker symbols are included, which changes things up. Having up to 10 of them in the base game can cancel out much of the grid, though this significantly decreases when the bonus round is active. Not sure how players will react to the Blocker concept. Some may find them annoying, others may enjoy the shifting dynamics of play. Either way, at the very least, DreamSpin gains a few cool points for trying something different rather than whacking out a Gates copy.

Manage to drag yourself to the top of the tower, and what lies in wait for lucky punters there is sizable winning potential of 16,118.75x the bet. Aztec Tower might lack the same level of x-factor as the rockstars of the scatter pays world, but it's a neatly-made, cleanly presented addition to the genre that does things in such a manner as to make it worth a trek through the bush for.