Atlantis Rising Slot Demo

Atlantis Rising Slot Review

Atlantis Rising from Spin Play Games via MGS is an epic tale of mythology and romance, immortalised by Plato. Bubbles rising from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean become WILD before you and perhaps reveal ancient multipliers to boost your wins. What untold fortunes will the depths unfold?

Read on for the full review.

SLOT FEATURES	Rising Wilds, Expanding Wilds, Multipliers, Free Games
RELEASE DATE	11th May 2021
GAME PROVIDER	Spin Play Games via MGS
SLOT TYPE	Video Slot
THEME	Mythology
REELS, ROWS, PAYLINES	5 reels, 4 rows, 25 Paylines
BET LEVELS	£0.20 – 1000.00
MAXIMUM WIN	250,000.00
SCATTER SYMBOL	Yes: TRIDENT
WILD SYMBOL	Yes: WILD
BONUS GAME	No
FREE SPINS	Yes
RESPINS	No
MULTIPLIERS	Yes
JACKPOT	No
RETURN TO PLAYER	96.20%
VOLATILITY	Medium – Low

Features

Base Game:

• RISING WILDs (Bubbles) are randomly placed in the reels on any spin and move up by one position with each spin.
• x2 RISING WILDs may be revealed and multiply wins by 2.
• If a COMPASS symbol lands behind a RISING WILD, all adjacent positions are turned into WILD or x2 WILD.

Free Games:

• WIN 10, 15 or 20 Free Games with any 3, 4, or 5 BONUS symbols respectively.
• Pick BUBBLES to reveal Free Games or extra BUBBLES.
• Each BUBBLE may award 1 – 3 Free Games or 2 – 3 BUBBLE PICKS.
• Feature can be re-triggered.

Paytable Review

Guardian of Athens has 78% of prizes at-or-below bet. Individually, payouts are quite low and you’re depending on those Bubbles to form coinciding wins.

Atlantis Rising has a nice mild set of symbols to match the lower volatility math model. There are 3 High, 3 Mid and 3 Low tier symbols, plus a WILD and SCATTER. The Bubbles can float over any symbol.

Playability

Atlantis Rising is kind of fun in a low key, slightly sleepy way. A colourful blend of imagery with floating bubbles, coupled with orchestral tunes, portrays a somewhat dreamlike and slightly hypnotic environment. It’s quite nice to zone into and become immersed in its presence.

The core focus of the game is the Bubbles and there’s loads of those to keep you busy. As expected from a lower volatility game, big wins are few and far between. There’s an occasional spike of 10-25x your bet, when a few bubbles appear together and a group of stacked COMPASS symbols land.

Please Note: Lower volatility does not mean there are no big wins. It means a higher proportion of its pays are distributed in smaller, more frequent wins.

• WIN HIT: 1 in 2.5 spins (estimated)
• FEATURE HIT: 1 in 200 spins (estimated)

The feature is a basic Free Game builder where you could win ‘over’ 100 Free Games. Win a base number of free games from the trigger and then pop bubbles to win more. The developer has taken the mathematical average number of Free Games, awarding some by default and the remainder by the bubble pick feature. The absolute minimum number of Free Games won from 3 SCATTERS then becomes 20 (10 from the trigger and 1 each per Bubble pick). This is a nice way to involve players and create some deeper immersion.

A retrigger pauses the free games, and you re-enter the Bubble Pick feature to increase your number of Free Games. This is a proper retrigger, as some developers of similar games merely repeat the current number of free games awarded.

25 paylines is low for a 4-row game, where you should expect to have 40 paylines or more. Having 25 paylines with such a diminished paytable suggests the mathematicians struggled implementing the design and were forced to reduce something to make it all fit. Considering the prizes are already quite low, the mathematicians were left with little option but to reduce the number of wins per spin by reducing the available paylines.

It would have been good for the designers to include something of value to chase in the Free Games, rather than it being just a free set of the Base Game spins. With no additional multipliers and no additional Bubbles, the Free Game feature seems a little empty of character and void of appeal. It is becoming increasingly apparent how much RTP those Bubbles consume.

Although the estimated win hit rate of 2.5 spins is where you’d expect a lower volatility game to be, it feels much higher when there’s the occasional run of 10 or more dead spins. This is due to the placement of the Bubbles. If the Bubbles appear together on reels 1 and 2, 1 and 3, or 2 and 3, then each spin for the next four spins will pay, effectively making the hit rate for those spins 1.0, bringing the overall down to its theoretical average. If Bubbles appear scattered or on different rows, wins are dependent on symbols aligning between them, which does not always happen. The cost of grouping Bubbles, and awarding frequent pays, is the resultant number of dead spins. The Bubbles hence become a mini feature in themselves.

The Glory Spin

The max win is quite low at 250x, which explains the high max bet. What you are looking for is BUBBLE symbols close together and COMPASS symbols landing stacked, revealing a screen full of x2 WILDS paying 10x per line on 25 paylines.

Delights and Surprises

• High frequency of Bubbles appearing,
• A group of Bubbles moving together.

Shortcomings

• Nothing special in the Free Games,
• Relatively high number of dead spins for such a game type,
• 25 paylines is low for a 4-row reel layout.

Conclusion

With better than average visuals and unobtrusive audio, Atlantis Rising is a fun game to play. Although there is nothing special about the slot features (the Bubble feature is heavily inspired by IGT’s Bubble Blast), the features and theme marry well together. There’s plenty of action from the constant flow of Bubbles rising up each spin. Be aware though: Bubbles are bet dependant and will clear if your bet changes.

Although it’s fun to pop bubbles and see your Free Games count increase, I wonder if the Bubble pick feature is necessary. How relevant must the added Free Games from the Bubble Pick have been in the designer’s vision to have sacrificed a Free Game multiplier or other delight for additional Free Games? After all, 10, 15 or 20 Free Games alone with a x2 or x3, or even a variable multiplier sounds like a more intriguing proposition.

Atlantis Rising gets 68 Spins out of 100 based on the following ratings:

PLAYABILITY	75
ORIGINALITY	25
BUILD QUALITY	80
MARRIAGE	90
IMMERSION	85
RUN FOR MONEY	40
INTEGRITY	80
TOTAL	68