Apollo’s Rings

Apollo's Rings : Slot Overview

Ready to have your minds warped players? If so, you've come to the right spot. For now, we delve into the world of Crazy Tooth Studios in the online slot Apollo's Rings . One thing about Crazy Tooth slots, even if they're not great, they just about all take you somewhere new, bend your mind while there, then have you craving the most basic 3x3 fruit slot afterwards as a palate cleanser, a way to implant your feet back on planet Earth. Apollo's Rings is no exception, and after reading the rules, demoing it for a bit, crossing checking the rules a couple of times and demoing it some more, bafflement levels are likely to be still quite high. If you're ready, prepare your psychic defences and let's do it.

Apollo's Rings takes place in a cloudy scene, maybe a heavenly one, since we're dealing with Apollo, who was the god of a lot of things, including the sun, music, truth, archery, healing, and prophecy. He's here, standing next to the reels, all bulging muscles and glowing eyes. A bit intimidating to be entering his realm, but Apollo only ever adds a beneficial touch to Apollo's Rings . One way is via the Apollo Prize, which is listed above the reels. The reels, then, and yeah, they're different, alright. The grid's default resting state is 2 groups of 5 horizontal symbols. When a win occurs, the grid grows, the precise details of which we'll look at later. For now, let's bask in Apollo's Rings celestial brilliance before diving into the nuts and bolts.

On the back end, Apollo's Rings runs with the aid of a medium volatile math model pushing out three different RTP configurations. The highest is 96.14%, before dropping to 94.12%, then 92.19%, depending on the market. At the default level, Apollo's Rings has a theoretical hit rate of 27.92% whilst allowing players to select stakes of 25 p/c to $/€50 per spin.

Nine regular paying symbols may land on the board, and due to the way payouts are calculated, symbols have individual values. For instance, the lower value symbols are a shooting star, a sun, a planet, a star, and a moon, each worth 0.08x the bet. Next are the higher-value symbols, a cat, a ram, an owl, and a sun with a face on it. These ones are worth 0.12x the bet each. Wild symbols are able to replace any regular pay symbol and land in four forms – a regular wild, an x2 wild, an x3 wild, and an x4 wild. Wild multipliers apply their value to any combination they are part of. Wilds only land on Halo Reels - more on that below.

Apollo's Rings : Slot Features

Figuring out how Apollo's Rings awards symbol wins is a bit of a head-scratcher. For example, if matching symbols in the same group land horizontally adjacent to each other on the initial spin, this is not a win. However, when a right angle connects matching symbols in different groups (i.e. above and below each other), this is a win. It might not make sense, but it should be clearer after a few spins.

Halo Reels

When a win occurs, the grid expands by adding an outer ring of symbols (called a Halo Reel) on the top, bottom, and sides of the original rows. Symbols spin around the added reel in what is called a Halo Round. If new matching symbols land at right angles to the winning symbols, they add the appropriate values to the win, and the process repeats for up to 3 Halo Rounds. The Halo Reels feature ends after the third Round or if matching symbols are not added to a win in a Halo Round.

Above the main grid is a row of Halo Round Awards. On this can land multipliers of x2 to x10, blanks, and is where the Apollo Prize is displayed. When wins occur on any of the Halo Rounds, the associated multiplier (if one landed) is applied to the win. Landing the Apollo Prize Award awards the Apollo Prize. Landing a Bow symbol in an initial symbol group increases the Apollo Prize by 0.04 to 1.2x the bet. After winning the Apollo Prize, it may drop in value.

Apollo's Rings Bonus

Scatters may land in the initial symbol groups. Landing 2 scatter symbols triggers the Apollo's Rings Bonus with 5 bonus spins. At the start of each spin, bonus boost symbols may be added to the board. These could be Multiplier Increase Awards and Retrigger Awards. Bonus boost symbols persist until they are awarded or until bonus spins are complete. Any bonus boost symbol included in a win is awarded and replaced by a wild symbol.

When awarded, Multiplier Increase Awards increase the Halo Round Multiplier Awarded for the associated Halo Round. Halo Round Awards persist until the feature is complete while Retrigger Awards grant additional bonus spins. The Apollo Prize is not available during the Apollo's Rings Bonus.

Apollo's Rings : Slot Verdict

Better be in a Chuck Yeager mood to take this one on, folks, because Crazy Tooth Studio has (once again) gotten all experimental. Really there are few developers that push the envelope quite like this one, which can be good from a review perspective because there is no guessing where the team is going to lead us next. Apollo's Rings is a textbook example. It's one of those games which utterly refuses to follow the herd, preferring to roam the wildlands on the edges of convention, where only the brave or the foolish dare tread.

Asking if Apollo's Rings is any good is like asking if Marmite is a good spread to put on toast. People either love the stuff or despise it. Likely the same will go for Apollo's Rings as well. It's full of Crazy Tooth Studio quirks, like strangely low symbol values, oddly meagre values from the Apollo's Prize feature, and a totally bizarre way of forging wins in the first place. It may take time and patience to piece together the words from the paytable with the action taking place before your very eyes before the game starts to make sense. One of the main mental hurdles was accepting that adjacent matching symbols don't necessarily pay anything unless there's some sort of right-angle connection thing going on. Clock that and the rest of Apollo's Rings flows into place. Sort of. Anyway, worth a look if you're interested in something brand-spanking new. It's pretty averagely pitched for a Crazy Tooth Studio game in terms of winning potential, too, at 3,559.2x the bet.

Few outfits go against the grain quite like Crazy Tooth Studio consistently does. Creatively, Apollo's Rings gets a gold star or two because there is simply nothing else like this available. But, as can sometimes be the case, getting all experimental means some players will willingly follow the lead, while others drop off when bewilderment and the need for familiar ground outweigh the desire for extreme novelty. In the words of punk rock band NOFX, 'That's me in the street with a violin under my chin, playing with a grin, singing gibberish.' You dig it, or you don't.