Ancient Eclipse

Overview Ancient Eclipse

With their newest release titled Ancient Eclipse, Bang Bang Games revisit one of the most popular themes currently doing the rounds in the online slot industry. That theme is Meso-American tribes, that of the Inca and Aztec civilisations and their cultures. However, Bang Bang has chosen to take this theme to the extreme by not only setting the game within a fiery cave but by making everything from the symbols to the music as intense as possible. This one assumes is an attempt to differentiate their game from any other of similar thematic persuasion.

The key to the bonus action for this game is the Sun Frames feature. This feature is active both whilst playing the base game and the bonus free spins round. Briefly, landing moon symbols on a position frames that position in gold. If you then land a subsequent moon symbol in any gold frame, all of the gold frame positions on the board turn wild. This is what the game calls the Eclipse feature. This is accompanied by a proportionate multiplier to the number of frames you have on the board.
Crazy tribal music, mad symbols and exciting wild wins await any players who are intrigued by this tremendously energetic game.

Theme and Symbols

As we have discussed in the introduction, Mayan/Aztec themes are very popular these days. However, it must be said that Bang Bang has done a good job with their attempt. The graphics, background, symbols and animations are all crisp and look inviting.
The background for the base game looks like a cave entrance with rock walls covered in vines dominating the setting to the left and right of the reels. There are a few clues to the cave being inhabited, with two or three spears lurking around too. Everything changes when you move into the free spins round though, where the cave’s torches are lit and the whole board is cast into a hellish fiery hue.

The board itself looks like a highly decorated entrance to one of the great temples of the Mayan civilisation. Bang Bang has achieved this effect by making the columns to the left and right of the symbols look like totem poles made of separate large blocks. The whole thing is constructed of heavy-looking stone and changes colour to reflect the lighting change when you enter the free spins round. There is a heavy tribal beat going on throughout the game as an audio accompaniment, with a lot of digeridoo. Although sonically effective, Bang Bang might have mixed up their cultures here, with the digeridoo coming traditionally from Australia and not middle-America.

When it comes to symbols for Ancient Eclipse, the lowest value symbols are playing card symbols. Up from these in the rankings are a crocodile, a tiger or panther and an eagle. Even more valuable than these are the two god face tablets. The red God is the most valuable of these 2 paying 5x your stake for 5 on a pay line. The gold coin represents the wild for this game. In addition to its normal substitution role, it is also the most valuable symbol in the game, paying up to 10x your stake.
The man in the headdress peaking into his position is the scatter symbol.

Game Play

Ancient Eclipse is played on a 5-reel, 4-row board with 1,204 pay lines available. To score wins in this game, players must land 3 or more matching symbols or special symbols on the reels in a paying formation from left to right.

The betting range for Ancient Eclipse is 20p to £100 per spin. To change your current bet level, you can use the tool at the bottom right-hand side of the screen. The spins and auto spins buttons for this game are located on the right-hand side of the reels. For the full menu, including the paytable, players need to click on the three stripes logo on the right-hand side of the screen.
The return to payer percentage for Ancient Eclipse is 96.53%, a little better than average. The volatility for this slot is rated at around the medium level. The top payout for Ancient Eclipse is 4,595 x your stake for one spin.

Features

The first feature to be aware of as mentioned in the introduction is the Sun Frames feature. Every time that players land a moon symbol on the reels, this frames the position on which it lands in gold – a Sun Frame.
Landing a moon symbol in one of these sun frames turns all of the sun framed positions on the reels into wilds. This is what is then called the Eclipse feature. When this happens, a multiplier equal to the number of frames on the board is applied to the win that you trigger.

The second feature is the free spins round. To trigger this bonus, players need to land 3 or more of the scatter symbols on the reels at once. Activating the round will give players 10 free spins. All of the special golden frames that you have accrued in the base game are also carried over to the bonus round.

Any wild that lands in the bonus round will create a sun frame on the same position for the following spin. All sun frames remain on the reels for the duration of the bonus round. If a moon symbol lands and does not trigger the special Eclipse feature, it will add an extra spin to your total. The main difference for the free spins round is that the Sun Frames don’t reset at all for the duration of the feature.

Conclusion

Ancient Eclipse is nothing revolutionary but due to the clever design, fun soundtrack and laidback playing experience, players will enjoy plenty of spins. The gold frames are also an easy and rewarding bonus mechanic to get your head around. If nothing else, the chance to win that substantial 4,595 x your total stake payout will keep players engaged.