Aqua Lord

Designed by Swintt, Aqua Lord is a celebration of the God of the sea – Poseidon or Neptune (depending on your classification) as well as an exciting game with some tidy features and a great top payout. In terms of how this game is set up, it feels very classic. It has a conventional five-reel, three-row playing board with just five pay lines. Opening the game, it must be said that we weren't bowled over by the graphics or animation quality. However, something is appealing in the cartoon style of this game. Swintt is a studio that hasn't impressed in the past, so it will be interesting to see if this game raises their profile.

Aqua Lord Overview

The features here mostly revolve around the influence of the book icons. These have multiple responsibilities beginning with being the wild for this game. This means they will substitute for other regular symbols to help score more wins on the board. In addition, they will trigger the free spins round when landed in combinations of three or more simultaneously. This results in a round of ten free spins with a special expanding symbol picked at the beginning of the bonus. This symbol expands to cover the reel it sits on to help score more wins. Finally, a hold and win feature is triggered when players land three pearl icons on the board simultaneously. All bonus content will be explained in more detail later in the review.

Aqua Lord Theme and Symbols

The theme for this game is an underwater theme that revolves around the Aqua Lord himself – Poseidon. Poseidon was the God of the sea in Greek mythology. He was one of the twelve Olympian gods and the brother of Zeus and Hades. Poseidon was known for his temper and was often depicted carrying a trident. He was also the father of many famous creatures, including the Cyclopes and the Minotaur. His dominion was the sea and everything that dwelt within it. However, a lesser-known fact about Poseidon was that he was also the God of horses and earthquakes. His name, oddly enough, means "lord of the earth."

The background for this game depicts a sunken Greek paradise city. This is probably supposed to be an image of Atlantis. The lost city of Atlantis is a city that is said to have sunk into the ocean. The city was first mentioned in Plato's dialogues, which described it as a prosperous island nation that was destroyed by a natural disaster brought about by its own hubris. Some people believe that the city is real and that it is located in the Atlantic Ocean, while others believe that it is a mythical place. The playing board for this game is a golden framed rectangle with a deep blue interior.

The symbols are split into low-paying, high-paying and special symbols. The low-paying icons are the 10, J, Q, K and A in playing card royals. The A is the most valuable of these, worth 30x the stake for the top combination. The more valuable icons are the golden band, the earn, the dolphin and Poseidon himself. Poseidon is the most valuable icon, worth 1,000x the stake for the top combination. The special icons in this game are the book which acts as the scatter and wild, and the special pearl icon, which triggers the hold and win bonus.

Game Play

Aqua Lord is played on a 5-reel, 3-row machine with five fixed pay lines. To win combinations, players must land three or more matching symbols on pay lines moving from left to right, starting from the leftmost reel. The betting range for Aqua Lord is 5p to £100 per spin. To adjust their bet levels, players can toggle their stakes up and down using the tool located at the bottom left-hand side of the screen.

Further information, including a short tutorial and a display of the paytable, can be found via the menu button in the right-hand corner of the screen. The spin and auto spin buttons are located in the centre of the screen. Volatility for this slot is rated in the low range. The return to player percentage for Aqua Lord is 93.06%, which is below average. The biggest payout that players can win on one spin is 5,000x your stake.

Aqua Lord Features

The book icon in this game acts as both the wild and the free spins scatter (it is also the highest-paying icon in the game). As the wild, this icon substitutes for other icons in the game to help find more frequent wins. However, as the free spins scatter, this icon helps to trigger the free spins round when three or more are landed on the reels simultaneously. As a result, you will be granted ten free spins with one of the paying symbols chosen at random at the start of the feature to become the expanding icon. When these expanding icons land during the free spins, they grow to the size of the reel they fall on and help to pay out more wins.

Next is the Pearl feature, which is in all but name a hold and win bonus. To trigger it, players must land three or more Pearl icons on the board simultaneously. The game will then give you three re-spins. Landing any more pearl icons will reset your re-spins to three. When you have exhausted these re-spins, all of the pearls on the board will be collected, and their displayed values will be added together and paid out to you in one lump sum. A pearl can be worth anywhere from 1x to 150x your stake.

This game also offers a gambling option that gives you a chance to increase the size of your wins in a mini-card game. However, lose this card game, and your winnings for that spin will be taken away.

Conclusion

If you are into Greek mythology and like low-volatility slot machines, this might be just the game for you. Although this game doesn't seem to offer much when you first start playing, the features are actually pretty generous, and the playing experience is quite fun. However, it must be said that at 93% and lower, the RTP is woeful, so players should be wary that this game is unlikely to pay out very often. Play also Juicy Fruits without download or registration.