Mayan Rush

Overview of Mayan Rush slot

Mayan Rush is the latest slot to be released by Stakelogic, and it would be fair to say that it is almost identical to the slot Valley of the Gods from Yggdrasil apart from the Central American makeover that it has been given. Mayan Rush has almost everything that you can find in Valley of the Gods even down to the blocker tile removal element/mechanic and this is coupled with a Super Stake option which is rather debateable and something that you may want to think about before you commit yourself to playing it.

Design and Symbols

As stated above the action for this slot takes place in Central America and the developers have added a heap of personality by including an Indiana Jones lookalike and his partner or vice versa. You will not be able to work out whether these characters are related, colleagues or romantically involved, you can make your mind up on that one. Mayan Rush wins the spot of best slot when compared with Valley of the Gods as the look is more defined as you would probably expect as it has been a few years since the other slot was released.

When it comes to the symbols there are 6 lower paying gold jewelled symbols of various animals whilst the higher payers are the two Mayan people as in the male and female adventurers. If you land a combination of five of the premium symbols you will be rewarded with 10x – 20x your bet. There is no wild symbol.

Time to Play

If you are au fait with Valley of the Gods or the follow up Valley of the Gods 2 the overall view of Mayan Rush will be familiar when it loads on your screen. There is a 1-3-5-3-1 arrangement on the reels with the remaining positions on the 5-reel grid being blocked to start with. The aim of the player is to remove the blockers by landing winning combinations, therefore increasing the initial default 45 pay lines up to 3,125 when the whole grid is in play.

The bet range for this Mayan adventure starts from just 25p per spin to a maximum of £25 per spin at the base level and the slot can be played on all devices. If you decide to activate the Super Stake feature the cost increases but you will be rewarded with some benefits which we will look at further down. It is unknown whether the return to player changes when the Super Stake is activated whilst the default return to player stands at a respectable 96.05%. The slot has been rated as having a high volatility which did make the slot blow both hot and cold when I was testing it. I found that I endured a long time of block bashing in the base game with the odd Rush Mode interlude when the blocks were removed.

Bonus Features

Most of the time in Mayan Rush is spent in the base game removing the blockers from the reels and when you do remove then all in sequence you enter the Rush Mode where the symbols go either to the left or right. The left-hand side houses the multiplier totem whilst on the right-hand side there is the life totem. It is the colour that sets the symbols apart, with the multiplier totem starting with 2x and the life totem just 1x. When you land winning combinations the winning symbols that are part of this fill the associated totem meter. Collecting five symbols increases the respective totem value whereas losing spins deduct one from the life totem. Until the life totem stands at zero re-spins are awarded and when the totem is at zero the Rush Mode comes to an end.
The other feature on offer is the Super Stake which is an addition that you will find in the majority of Stakelogic slots and this does provide players with a unique benefit although this is at a cost.

In this slot the activating Super Stake doubles the base bet. For this increase in price on a losing spin you can be awarded 3 re-spins. At the start of the re-spins a symbol of a coin is placed in the middle of the centre reel. The coin symbols remove the blocking tiles that are situated above and below them. Every time you land a coin symbol, the re-spins get reset and go back to three. If you manage to remove all the blocking symbols the value of the coin symbols are multiplied by x2. If you land 25-coin symbols in view, their values are then multiplied by x5. The feature comes to an end when the reels are completely full of coins or you have run out of re-spins.

Finally, you may also be able to get access to the gamble feature. This is either a standard pick-the-colour of card suit to double or quadruple your winnings.

Conclusion

Mayan Rush is not dissimilar to other slots and it would be fair to initially think this must be a small unknown design team trying to ride on someone else’s glory or those who simply cannot come up with their own ideas. Stakelogic cannot be accused of being either of these which makes this even more of a nominally from such a well-established studio.

The slot has both its ups and downs, I will not pretend that the blocking mechanic is not frustrating, but it can also be exhilarating. Frustrating because you get close and don’t quite get there, or you activate the Rush Mode, just to have them come to nothing after a couple of spins. But there are times when it all comes together and the momentum gathers during the bonus, and it is here where the big wins are possible.

It is the Super Stake feature that provides an interesting element, but it is something that you must pay for and being expected to double the bet is a bit high. Usually when this type of feature is added to a slot it is used to enhance what is already there such as making the free spins easier. I did feel it was a little off having to pay double the stake for a feature you would not get to play otherwise. It could be a hit, but it is a rather costly charge to see whether there is a win at the end.