Mayan Mystery Slot
Ancient civilisations seem to be a popular set of themes for gaming and online gaming alike; just look at Las Vegas, it’s full of Greek and Roman themed casinos and arcades. The civilisation of choice here is the Mayans; a mysterious South American jungle civilisation about which we know very little about beyond the amazing stone temples and buildings they left behind.
Being in the thick of the South American jungle, many of the remains and artefacts of the Mayans have been left incredibly well preserved. The Mayan’s occupied Southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and parts of Honduras and El Salvador though unlike the Greeks and Romans, they didn’t travel further afield or conquer any other territories. They went back as far as 8000 BC. In terms of symbolism, they’re famous for their temples, hieroglyphics and grotesque masks.
This is not the only slot game to feature Mayan imagery, with Mayan Treasures by Bally and Mayan Riches from IGT being the most well known. Here, Cayetano have produced a 5 reel, 10 payline game with a top prize of 500 coins.
Discover the Mysteries of the Mayans
With a Mayan theme you expect three main things; the jungle, temples and masks. Cayetano have given us two out of three here, with a misty jungle backdrop to the reels and several mask symbols. The masks are differentiated by the colours of their eyes, which are made to look like precious stones or in one case, closed eyes but a purple nose. There’s also a gold necklace symbol and a special Mystery Symbol of a gold Mayan coin.
The other symbols are generic characters such as K and 10, though at least they have been decked out in an appropriate Mayan style font.
While we don’t have any atmospheric background music, which we think would have worked here considering it’s a ‘Mystery’ game we do have appropriate jungle instrument sounds when we spin the reels and an extended musical sound when you land a winning combination. Overall, the theme is apparent but hasn’t been exploited to its full capability, which is a pity.
Top Prize Is 500
This is a 5 reel game, with 10 fixed paylines and a top prize of 500 coins. The coin values range from a tiny .10 to 100.00 maximum bet, giving a top jackpot of $/£/€50,000 should you wager the highest value stakes. It has a total of 10 symbols, with prizes ranging from 10 coins to the 500 coin jackpot.
The only symbol which has any additional function is the Mystery Symbol of a gold Mayan coin, which when it appears spins to reveal one of the other symbols. We’re not entirely sure what the point of this is, apart from making you wait a couple more seconds to see all the symbols on your reels. Unfortunately there are no other features or bonus games here to add interest.
Most disappointingly of all, the RTP rate of Mayan Mystery is a very low 92.1%, which is far below many other video slot games. Without any exciting features to redeem itself, this is a point which will put many more experienced players off. See the pay table below for all the symbol values.
Uncover the Mayan Masks to Unlock Their Riches
Overall, the artwork of this game is of a high quality, but unfortunately for a video slot it is very much lacking in animations and additional features to make the most of these graphics.
We like the Mayan theme and sounds, symbols and background all fit nicely, however this game is let down by its lack of extra features and its very low RTP rate. For a jackpot of only 500 coins, the returns offered by this game are too low to tempt most players who would rather stake their money on a game with a higher return to player rate.
So, sadly, there is little mystery to be had on this Mayan themed slot; it’s nicely designed but the format is just too simple and the returns to low to make it a big hit with players.
