Montezuma Slot – Free Demo

The wheel sets the free spin count and the multiplier

Two rounds of the Free Spin Feature turned up in my 390 spins, and the wheel handed out 6 free spins the first time and 15 the second. Montezuma is a payline slot played on a 5 by 3 layout. The total bet is the lines in play multiplied by the cash bet on each, which means not every total bet figure is available. Winning combinations are created by landing identical symbols left to right on neighbouring reels, starting from the leftmost reel, across 30 paylines. The Chief is the only symbol that pays from two of a kind. The highest win only is paid per combination, and line wins are added together. The chief draw here is the Free Spin Feature, which awards free spins off a wheel while also applying a multiplier to what they pay. Across my 390 spins the two feature rounds accounted for 78.00 of the 1,048.44 I won.

The pyramid stops at reel four

Symbols on the reels comprise the pyramid and the Aztec wheel. The latter is the Feature symbol. It is the only symbol that pays scattered rather than left to right. The wheel above the reels determines both how many free spins are awarded and what they are worth. That multiplier is read fresh before each free spin, so one round can mix a 2x spin with a 10x one.

There is 1 wild on offer here, and the pyramid serves as the standard wild symbol. A win still has to start from the leftmost reel, so the wild extends lines rather than starting them. It appears on reels 2 to 4 only, substituting for everything except the Feature symbol. During free spins the game switches to an alternate set of reels, though the winning combinations on them are the same.

Three Aztec wheels start the Free Spin Feature

During gameplay, the Aztec wheel appears as the Feature symbol, and the Free Spin Feature is triggered if 3 or more of them land scattered anywhere in view.

The trigger itself pays out before a single free spin is played, and the scatter pay on the trigger pays accordingly:

• 3 symbols: 3 times the total bet.
• 4 or 5 symbols: 10 times the total bet.

The number of free spins is determined by a spin of the wheel. It can land on 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15 or 25, and before each free spin the wheel above the reels displays a multiplier of 2x, 3x, 5x or 10x. That is applied to line pays and scatter pays alike. Neither of the two rounds I played retriggered.

Two Feature symbols are enough to retrigger

Landing 2 or more Feature symbols during the feature retriggers it. That is one fewer than the three needed to start it. This adds further free spins off the same wheel, and those added spins retain the multiplier of the triggering spin, while alternate reels are used throughout. Retrigger counts come off the same wheel, so a single retrigger can add as many as 25 spins. The bet per line and active lines remain as they were on the triggering spin. Nothing about the stake can change while the feature runs. There is also a Bonus Guarantee here: any feature ending below 10 times the total bet is increased to 10 times the total bet, the initiating scatter pay included. At my 1.20 stake that floor was 12.00, and both of my rounds cleared it without needing it.

What 390 spins at 1.20 returned

Attempting to describe them in writing is far more confusing than actually playing them hands on, as is the case with most of these payline slots from Light & Wonder. Zeus God of Thunder and Black Knight are the studio's other payline games on the site. As you can probably tell, Montezuma is largely constructed on the classic free spins template with a wheel tossed in as well, and basically the idea is the same - land the scatters to trigger the feature and hope the wheel is generous. It arrived twice for me, on spin 75 and on spin 292. The developers have chosen to go with a max win stated in cash only, 250,000.00 in a single game, which I find a bit peculiar. The rules add that some stake configurations cannot reach that figure at all. My own 390 spins are the run behind this. They took 468.00 in stakes and returned 1,048.44, taking the balance from 1,000.00 to 1,580.44. 109 of them paid, though 66 of those paid less than the stake. The longest gap without a win was 19 spins, ending on spin 182. The two features I witnessed were 217 spins apart and returned 42 and 23 times the stake between them, while one spin on its own paid 659 times the stake. That spin left the balance at 1,683.40, and the peak of 1,685.56 came on the spin after it.

Our Minty Verdict: The Free Spin Feature carries whatever upside Montezuma has, and the wheel settles both its length and its multiplier before the first free spin is played, so a 3-spin round and a 25-spin round begin the same way. Two of them landed in 390 spins, 217 apart, and between them they returned 78.00 of the 1,048.44 that came back.

One spin carried three quarters of the return

The 95.86% RTP is on the low side. My own run came back at 224%, and 790.80 of the 1,048.44 I won arrived on a single spin. It's not their finest effort in the category mind you.