Le Zeus: Slot Overview
Bonjour players, software provider Hacksaw Gaming has persuaded that rascally raccoon, Smokey Le Bandit, to take a break from whatever dubious activity he was engaged in to feature in a new ‘Le’ slot. This one is Le Zeus, a vaguely distant relative of Ze Zeus, perhaps, and sees the French raccoon ascend Mt Olympus in order to engage in some ‘divine chaos’. Not only does this give players a chance to see a raccoon rock a toga, but it also sees significant changes to the Golden Squares concept, now renamed the Mystery Reveal. Let’s find out if change is as good as a holiday, or if it’ll have fans pining, weepy-eyed for the good old days.
Smokey has come a long way since skulking the Parisian back alleys of Le Bandit (2023). Since then, Monsieur Le Bandit has hit a couple of the planet’s hotspots and is currently residing in Mount Olympus, the home of the ancient Greek gods. This time, the feisty wee raccoon has swapped his crowbar for a lightning bolt, his floppy hat and boots for toga and sandals. He looks as grumpy as ever, though his range of facial expressions provides amusing comedic relief. The rest of the landscape has been nicely designed too, bursting with clouds, columns, statues, the full Greek god experience.
Joining Smokey on Mt Olympus means picking a stake of 10c to $/€50, with four feature buys at hand for players who like to hurry the action along. The math model is a medium volatile one, and of the four RTP models available, the highest return value being 96.26%. Each spin sees symbols land on a 6×5 matrix with 19 paylines evaluating winning combinations.
The pay symbols are four lower-value Greek letters, then higher-value pipes, pillars, swords, masks, wings, and helms. A 6 OAK low pay combination awards 3x the bet, while a 6 OAK high pay win is worth 5x to 100x the bet. Wilds hit anywhere, substitute regular pay symbols and are worth 200x for 6 OAK.
Le Zeus: Slot Features
Le Zeus changes the flow by using Mystery symbols to trigger the reveal feature that powers these Le games. There are also three bonus games, one hidden, and a handful of feature buys.
Mystery Reveal
Mystery symbols reveal high pays, wilds, or Mystery Reels. In normal play, they land on reels 2-5. If revealed high pay or wilds are part of a win, a respin is triggered, where revealed symbols revert back to Mystery symbols and are sticky for the respin. Respins continue until no wins are awarded with the revealed Mystery symbols or a Mystery Reel is revealed.
Mystery Reels are formed when one or more Mystery symbols land on the same reel. In practice, this means they sort of just appear at random. Mystery Reels spin to reveal Coins, Diamonds, Clovers, or Pots of Gold symbols. Bronze, Silver, or Gold coins reveal a prize of 0.2x-4x, 5x-20x, or 25x-100x, respectively. Diamonds reveal 150x-500x.
Clover symbols activate after Coin and Diamonds have been revealed, multiplying all Coins or Pots of Gold on adjacent squares by x2 to x20. Gold Clovers multiply all Coins or existing Pots of Gold on the grid by x2 to x20. When Clovers have applied their multipliers, Pots of Gold symbols activate, collecting the values of all Coins, Diamonds, and other Pots of Gold on the grid, storing their value. After this collection, all other symbols in Mystery Reels except the Pot of Gold will spin again, repeating the process.
Bolt & Run
Hitting 3 scatters in the base game triggers 8 free Bolt & Run spins. Bolt & Run keeps the base game mechanics, plus all Mystery symbols are sticky and remain in the same position throughout the bonus. The minimum Coin value is 1x.
Myth-Taken Identity
This round is triggered by landing 4 scatters in the base game, and 8 free spins are awarded, which keep the mechanics of the base game. In addition, a Mystery Meter is displayed beside the grid. Each time a Mystery symbol lands, the meter increases by +1 step. It is filled by landing 25 Mystery symbols. When the meter is full, a reward spin is triggered after the current free spin.
On a reward spin, every position is covered by a Mystery Reel which only reveals Coins, Diamonds, Clovers, or Pots of Gold. During the first reward spin, all Coin types may land with Bronze as the minimum. On each subsequent reward spin, the minimum Coin type increases by one step, removing the lower value Coin type each time. The minimum Coin value is 1x. When the reward spin is complete, the grid resets and the Mystery Meter resets to zero, allowing more collection.
Gods Just Wanna Have Fun – Hidden Bonus
Hitting 5 scatters in the base game triggers this feature, awarding 8 free spins. It has the same mechanics as Bolt & Run, plus reels 2-5 are filled with Mystery symbols from the start, low-paying symbols cannot land, and the minimum Coin value is 5x.
Feature Buy
The feature buy has BonusHunt FeatureSpins at 3x the bet, making each spin 5 times more likely to trigger a bonus, and Le God Mode FeatureSpins for 50x to guarantee at least 6 Mystery symbols land. Bolt & Run costs 80x to buy or Myth-Taken Identity for 300x.
Le Zeus: Slot Verdict
Hacksaw Gaming struck moustachioed paydirt with the release of Le Bandit and the excellent follow-ups it has backed up with, arguably climaxing with Le King. It’s unclear if Le Zeus has the goods to outdo the King, and some may rightly disagree, but Mystery Reveals didn’t come across as an outright improvement on Golden Squares. Still, the trigger method might have changed, but the aim of getting Coins, Clovers, and Pots of Gold onto the screen remains the same, and fans of the series owe it to themselves to experiment with the new mechanical changes.
What hurts a little, sometimes a lot, is that none of Le Zeus’ bonus rounds can be retriggered (not counting reward spins). You get your allocated batch of free spins, and that’s it; no more can be awarded. The pain isn’t so great in Bolt & Run, but Myth-Taken Identity often needs time to collect 25 Mystery symbols. Getting one reward spin happened fairly regularly. But getting a second or third, where lower-value Coins are removed, might be tough when just 8 free spins are in hand. Reward spins could be massive, though. You literally get the entire grid covered with at least Coins, maybe Clovers and Pots as well if you’re lucky, which is where the magic may happen. Picturing a situation where lower Coins have been removed and only Diamonds land on a reward spin is pretty intoxicating. That’s when Le Zeus’ 20,000x max win starts feeling like a possibility, a small one, but still.
Swapping Golden Squares for Mystery Reveals and an absence of free spins retriggers made Le Zeus seem like a volatile, challenging proposal. It might be hard to get going, but when Smokey’s throwing goodness at the reels instead of devastating bolts of lightning, Le Zeus can really pop, and its mechanical refresh is essential viewing for players who got a kick out of previous Le slots.
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