The Ancient Four - Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Introduction

If you like games with a touch of ancient mythology, you're in for a treat with the fantastic new title from Platipus Gaming, The Ancient Four. This game focuses mainly on Asian mythology, with symbols including the white tiger, phoenix and turtle. The Ancient Four is played on a five-reel, four-row grid with 50 always-on paylines.

Keep your eyes peeled for the wild dragon who appears on the second to fifth reels, substituting for all core game symbols.

The yin yang scatter symbol holds the key to the bonus feature, which provides 10 free spins with sticky wild dragons. One dragon appears on each spin, staying put until the end of the feature.

Theme, Graphics & Soundtrack

The Ancient Four's reels are built under the roof of a rather mystical-looking temple. Beneath the reels is a background full of ancient meditative symbols, producing an overall calming effect on which the game can run.

Reel symbols are well-designed, with each major symbol having its own unique design. The colours of these symbols allow them to be recognised easily.

Winning symbols animate briefly, but in a way that draws sufficient attention to the areas on which you have won.

The calming soundtrack, however, is overshadowed greatly by reel effects and win jingles, which is a shame.

The Ancient Four RTP and Variance

This title has a long-term average RTP of 95.02, which puts it somewhat below the average for most games of this type. Most online slots enjoy a long-term RTP of around 96.0%. The volatility data for The Ancient Four was not provided, but through gameplay and inspecting the paytable, this appears to be around the medium area, bringing balanced gameplay and the chance of some larger wins from time to time.

 
How to Play The Ancient Four

1. To find the pay table in The Ancient Four, click on the three-line menu at the bottom left of the reels, then click the Paytable icon that appears in the top menu. The pay table displays key information about features, paylines and win amounts.
2. Also in the main menu are the full game rules. These are found by clicking on the Info tab at the top of the menu.
3. Your bet can be changed by clicking the arrow that points up and is found below the fourth reel. The numbers displayed here are the line bet. The full spin bet is the line bet multiplied by 50, which is found below the second reel.
4. Spinning the reels is achieved by clicking the large spin button, which is situated below the fifth reel.
5. If you want to spin repeatedly, click the auto spin button, which is emblazoned with two arrows forming a circle. This brings up the autoplay menu, which allows you to set off up to 100 spins. These can be stopped at any point by clicking the stop button, which appears in place of the spin button.
6. Please play The Ancient Four responsibly by ensuring that you play with money you can afford. Set yourself a sensible budget for each play session and ensure you stick to it. When the fun stops, stop.

Bet Sizes & Paytable Wins

Line Bets in The Ancient Four range from 0.01 to 1.00. As there are 50 paylines, the total bets per spin are between 0.50 and 50.00.

If you match 5x the phoenix on a win line, you win the top spin prize of 1,000x the line bet

If you match 5x the tiger on a win line, you win 500x the line bet

If you match 5x the turtle on a win line, you win 500x the line bet

If you match 5x the bonsai tree on a win line, you win 400x the line bet

If you match 5x the Chinese knot on a win line, you win 400x the line bet

Matching 5 identical playing card symbols on a win line will return between 400x and 200x the line bet

The Ancient Four Bonus Features

The wild dragon will substitute for all of the symbols, barring the yin-yang scatter. This symbol appears on reels 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Landing 3 or more of the yin-yang scatter symbol in any location on the reels will trigger 10 free spins. On each free spin, a wild is added to the reels. These wilds remain in place for the remaining spins. If you land three more scatters on the reels during free spins, you will collect an additional 5 free spins, but this will only happen once during each free spins round.

The Ancient Four Review Our Verdict

The design and implementation of this slot looks great, and the free spin bonus offers great promise with the sticky wilds. In practice, the free spins do not trigger very often. Similarly, the great soundtrack produced for this title is almost entirely overshadowed by reel effects.

Disclaimer: The Ancient Four trademark / license is owned by Platipus Gaming. This site is not endorsed by Platipus Gaming.