Maradona El Pibe Oro

Maradona El Pibe De Oro: Slot Overview

We've said it before, and we'll probably say it again, but few studios squeeze as much mileage out of a concept as Blueprint Gaming can. This time, the developer has squeezed a certain Argentinian football legend to make the branded online slot Maradona El Pibe De Oro (Maradona The Golden Boy). Okay, so this is only like the second slot starring the famous athlete from BP, following on from D10S Maradona, yet what makes it a classic Blueprint Gaming release is the fact they've basically reskinned Napoleon: Rise of an Empire to make it. Talk about chopping and changing. Anyway, enough of that. If you thought Maradona was the bee's knees on the pitch, or you'd like to sample the features of the older Napoleon game in a completely different setting, here is Maradona El Pibe De Oro.

A different setting perhaps, but people have for a long time drawn links between war and competitive sport. Indeed, George Orwell, the English author of '1984' and 'Animal Farm' famously wrote that sport was 'war minus the shooting'. Perhaps one day, when humanity says no to violence, disputes between nations or conflicting groups will literally be decided on the pitch rather than the battlefield. Or imagine virtual battles being held in the metaverse to resolve disputes. Ah well, back to Maradona El Pibe De Or. It's a pretty plain-looking game, where a set of reels hovers above a football pitch in a crowded stadium. Much-needed life is injected by a soundtrack evoking a sultry South American spirit. Still, the game looks dated already.

To join the Argentinian sports star requires picking a stake of 20 c to $/€40 and deciding whether to place wagers on individual spins or go straight to the free spins bonus round by buying it for 60x the bet. The RTP varies from the regular figure of 96.04% to 96.05% when buying free spins. Volatility is high, and the gaming occurs on a 5-reel, 3-row screen with 20 paylines.

When inspecting the symbols, Maradona El Pibe De Oro has 10 regular pays, a wild and a scatter. The low-value pay symbols are 9-A card ranks, awarding 4 to 16 times the bet for a 5-of-a-kind hit, while the high pays are jerseys that Maradona wore during his career, such as Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli, and the Argentina national team. A 5 OAK high pay win awards 24 to 200 times the bet.

Maradona El Pibe De Oro: Slot Features

Maradona El Pibe De Oro's features are multiplying Maradona wild symbols, random modifiers, and free spins with D10S Streak.

Wilds

Maradona appears on the wild symbols, which are active on all reels. Wilds substitute for any pay symbol and are worth 5,000x the bet for a 5 wild winning line. Wilds are also win multipliers. When 1, 2, 3, or 4 wilds substitute in a win, the payout is multiplied by x2, x4, x8, or x16, respectively.

Modifiers

During any spin, Maradona may appear to trigger one of two modifiers. In one, scatter symbols are added to the reels, increasing the odds of landing scatter symbols. The other adds wilds to the reels, increasing the odds of landing wild symbols.

Free Spins

Landing 3 scatter symbols on reels 2, 3, and 4 awards 10 free spins. During free spins, any win triggers the D10S Streak. All winning symbols are locked in place, and the reels respin. The reels will keep respinning again and again until no more winning symbols land in view. Free spins can be retriggered while they are active. When buying free spins, any wilds that land may reveal an x2 or x3 multiplier, with the same value shown on each wild in view.

Maradona El Pibe De Oro: Slot Verdict

Maradona might have dazzled on the pitch, but Maradona El Pibe De Oro failed to shine so brightly. No doubt it is technically capable of glorious moments; check out the value of a 5 wild winning line, for example, yet it was tough going, bordering on cruel at times, and zero return bonus buys weren't uncommon. There was a notably high number of dead free spins, to the point where the game felt broken, which got tedious. Maybe luck just wasn't going our way during testing, and others will fare better, but bonus rounds felt like a tight game played by two equally matched teams with a lot of back and forth, though little in the way of scoring.

The reason may have to do with the D10S Streak part of free spins and the fairly decent symbol values. Hit even the smallest win on a free spin, and the lock and respin feature kicks into life, and already potent wild symbols may land with x2 or x3 multipliers when the bonus is bought. Not meaning to give a slot an emotional inner life, but Maradona El Pibe De Oro seemed worried that the slightest hit might kick off a respin run and result in a major result (it didn't, at least during the review). Some might appreciate the way Maradona El Pibe De Oro functions, though, not to mention its 20,000x the bet win cap.

Gamblers intrigued by the features here but would prefer extra innovation or something more modern might do well to check out Napoleon 2 FatStacks from Lucksome. If that sounds like a random recommendation, Napoleon 2 FatStacks follows on from Napoleon: Rise of an Empire, so the features are similar, except there is a lot more going on, and the game felt like it had a better balance. Hey, some may prefer the apparent all-or-nothing nature of Maradona El Pibe De Oro and the older vibes it gives off. If so, great. Otherwise, it's a game which came across as old before its time and just not very fun to play.