Aztec Powernudge Slot Review

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Our experts at JohnSlots have years of experience in assessing video slots and we’ve come up with a fantastic method to review games.

We start by looking at an online slot’s features, scrutinizing their mechanics and making sure they work well together to create a solid experience. We also assess the game’s math model, paying close attention to its volatility, RTP, bet levels and max win cap. Lastly, we focus on the game’s visuals and sound, criticising the theme and how it is executed through graphics, sounds and animations.

We also want to make sure that you play safe and fair games, which is why all the games we recommend come from trusted and secure providers.

Pros Tips

As this is a highly volatile slot, I recommend you stick to a low bet level that can buy you enough time to access the free spins bonus several times. It took me over 100 spins to get my first trigger, so consider using the bonus buy option too if it’s available in your region.

Aztec Powernudge Slot Bonus Features

While exploring these majestic ruins, you’ll be playing across a grid made up of six reels and six rows. Thanks to the scatter pay mechanic, there are no traditional paylines. Instead, wins are put together when you land a minimum of eight identical symbols, anywhere on the reels. These don’t need to be adjacent to one another, so although the required number of symbols is higher, their positioning doesn’t matter.

The low-paying symbols are coloured, rough gemstones showing royal card symbols from J to A. These tokens can get you wins as small as 0.25x your stake and cap at 1.5x your bet if you land 12 or more A symbols.

Higher-paying tokens look like more refined versions of their low-paying counterparts and there are five tokens in total with purple, green, yellow, blue and red versions to look out for. They score wins from 0.40x your stake to 15x your stake for 12 or more red gem symbols.

Aztec Powernudge also adds some very helpful quality-of-life features which include an autoplay function with up to 1,000 automatic spins. You can also activate the quick spin and turbo mode options which speed up each round and the battery saver mode which cuts down on animations to save your device’s power.

These are the basic symbols and functions in the online slot, setting the foundations for the special features to follow.

Wilds

Because of the video slot’s scatter pays system, there is effectively no need for wild symbols to land and so these are completely omitted from the game.

Power Nudge

The video slot’s biggest mechanic is power nudge. This is present throughout the game, activating whenever you land a winning combination. Whenever this happens, the reels with winning symbols on them are nudged down a row, with the bottom row disappearing and a new set of symbols appearing at the top.

You can land fresh wins with these new symbols, which in turn triggers the power nudge once more. The power nudge feature ends once there are no more wins on the grid. It also combines with the multiplier symbols, as you’ll discover below.

Multiplier Symbols

Glowing blue gems are the game’s multiplier symbols, landing in both the base game and free spins. They have no payout value but come with a random win multiplier that can be as high as 100x your stake. You can even land multiple win multiplier symbols in a single spin and their values are collected and added together for one big boost.

Once the nudge feature ends and there are no more wins on screen, the combined win multiplier is applied to that round’s entire win. If you land a win multiplier but no winning combinations during a spin, that multiplier value isn’t collected and the game simply moves on to the next round.

Scatter Symbol

Getting to the free spins requires a minimum of four scatter symbols which can land on any of the six reels. Every scatter that lands is collected in a meter on the right-hand side of the grid and you can get even more scatter symbols through the power nudge feature. Scoring four, five, six seven or eight scatter symbols awards you with 15, 20, 25, 30 or 35 free spins, respectively.

They also land during free spins and if you get another three symbols you add five more free spins to your tally. Scatter symbols have no payout value and they aren’t affected by win multipliers.

Free Spins

Nothing much changes in terms of gameplay during the free spin rounds, except for the fact that win multiplier symbols get a huge upgrade. These go from having a maximum value of 100x to a whopping 1,000x.

The bonus also guarantees a minimum win of 15x and if you don’t hit that mark by the time the bonus is over, the game gives you more free spins to make sure you get there.

You also get a bonus buy option worth 100x your stake, which immediately delivers a minimum of four scatter symbols, allowing you access to the free spins mode.

Aztec Powernudge Slot on Mobile

I fired the game up on my Android phone, through a Chrome browser and was pleased to see that it lives up to the mobile standard that Pragmatic Play has set. The game runs incredibly well and has even had its interface optimised to play in both portrait and landscape modes.

It comes with all the same visuals, features and win potential you find on the desktop version, so the experience is seamless across all devices. You can also play on iOS smartphones and tablets, as long as they run modern browsers like Safari, Chrome and Opera.

My Ending Thoughts

I’m a big fan of mechanics like the power nudge which can make even regular spins feel exciting and full of potential. But these mechanics need to be layered with more meaningful features to truly stand out. Unfortunately, this is where Aztec Powernudge fails to deliver.

The win multipliers can go a long way in making this more worthwhile and although it certainly makes for a fun base game, the free spins bonus feels very lacklustre. Other than the boost win multipliers get, the gameplay loop remains the same, with no sense of progression at all.

The math model itself is quite even with a very high level of volatility and a range of RTP values that cap at 97.57%, but the maximum win cap is relatively low at just 5,000x. On the other hand, the visuals are as stunning as ever, with high-quality designs and eye-popping animations. You even get a fun tune throughout the game.

So, while Aztec Powernudge sports great visuals, a balanced math model and lucrative win multipliers, it fails to leave a lasting impression.