Champions of Rome

Meet the superstars of ancient Rome on the slot from Yggdrasil Gaming. The fearless gladiators were treated like celebrities in those times, expecially by the lower classes as the shows in the Colosseum were often the only entertainment they had. Yggdrasil is bringing that legacy to a set of slot reels with three unique gladiator features and a free spins round that can lead to wins of up to 4,800 times your stake.

Slot Details

Champions of Rome is a video slot with five reels, three rows and 20 fixed pay lines. Entering the Colosseum on mobile or desktop will cost you from 0.10 to 100 credits per spin. The RTP of this medium variance game is set at 96.40%. The Yggdrasil Autoplay function allows you to set up 10 to infinite consecutive spins to be played without interruption.

Graphics and Visuals

Open the game to find yourself in the midst of the amphiteatre with the crowds cheering their favourite gladiators. As usual with slots from Yggdrasil, the graphics and animations are authentic and simply stunning. The game window is flanked by marble columns crowned by the Roman Aquila, while the sun is throwing its light on it from a distant background. Three of the mightiest warriors reign the reels while a heroic soundtrack creates an air of suspense.

Pay Symbols

Yggdrasil is known to execute a theme to the smallest detail. On Champions of Rome it continues with the pay symbols. At the low end are three Roman coins in metal, bronze and gold as well as three stone gargoyles. The premium symbols are a trio of gladiators in full battle gear with a green, blue and red background on their tile. The latter is the most valuable, playing 60x your bet when five land on a pay line. A golden eagle in a wreath of laurel is the wild symbol. An intricate bust of a gladiator underlined with the words ‘free spins’ is the scatter on this slot.

The Gladiator Wild Features

The action on the reels starts in the base game when only two scatters land on a spin. We call this usually a ‘teaser spin’ but Yggdrasil has turned it into a chance to hit a big win. Each reel modifier is associated to the weapon of choice of the three gladiators and adds four wilds to the reels in distinct patterns.

• The Sword: a 1×2 and a 2×1 Red Gladiator wild are placed on random reel positions.
• The Mace: a 2×2 Blue Gladiator wild is added to a random reel position.
• The Trident: Four Green Gladiator wilds are placed on random reel positions.

The Champions of Rome Free Spins

It wouldn’t be Yggdrasil if there is no choice or twist in the free spins round that can deliver mega wins. On Champions of Rome they included two options for the free spins – Training Free Spins and Deathmatch Free Spins – while the latter has itself three choices for different amounts of free spins and multipliers. Three to five scatters will trigger the free spins feature and award a coin win of 1x, 15x and 600x your bet.

The two types of free spins represent an increasing volatility for the bonus round. Play the standard as the safe option or pick one of the three options with different win multipliers but less free spins. One gladiator is randomly chosen and will replace all other gladiator symbols during the free spins. The associated gladiator wild feature will triggered on every spin, applying the respective wild pattern of four wilds.

• Training Free Spins: Eight free spins are triggered with no multiplier
• Deathmatch Free Spins: You can pick 7 free spins with an x2, 6 free spins with an x3 or 5 free spins with an x4 multiplier. The twist is though that you need to reach a target of 450 coins or 22.5x your bet in wins to have the associated multiplier applied to the winnings from the round. Failing to reach the target will forfeit the winnings and will award a consolation prize. This can be either a coin win from 2x to 10x your bet or five Training Free Spins.

The scatter symbol is replaced with a beast symbol, that can appear on reels two, three and four only. On each occasion when a gladiator wild hits the beast symbol, the game awards +1 free spin and that indefinitely. Only one beast symbol can land on a free spin.

Hitting a full screen of the red gladiator or in combination with wild symbols will pay 1,200x your bet, while in the level three Deathmatch Free Spins it would be multiplied by x4 leading to the maximum win potential in a single spin.

The Bonus Buy Feature

A feature-bue option seems to be the latest ‘must have’ thing among game providers. Yggdrasil is introducing it on this slot with a price tag of 50x your bet. It will take you directly to the free spins round where you can make your selections as usual.

Final Verdict

Visually, Champions of the Rome is a feast for the eye. The two scatters seem to land rather often to trigger the gladiator features while the Bonus Buy option offers a quick way to the free spins for those impatient among us. We did not like that the maximum win potential on a single spin is available on the top level of the Deathmatch Free Spins only. That puts undue pressure onto players to select the most volatile option of the three choices, which is not really in the spirit of slot playing.

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