Rise of Maya Online Slot Machine – Free Play & Review

Long before Europeans set foot on the American continent, it hosted a wide variety of tribes and empires. People whose beliefs and languages could be as different as the various European nations of today! But above these numerous tribes and kingdoms stood one empire.

The mighty Maya, whose influence is still felt to this day. Those glory was so great, they managed to claim the honour of being used as a theme for a NetEnt slot!

Though far from the best looking game the developer ever released, it still looks quite pretty. The two torches off to the side of the board will spit flames into the sky after every win!

Certain symbols will even play an animation which looks cool and creepy at the same time. We also really like how this release transitions from regular gameplay into free spins. It looks awesome!

As for special features, Rise of Maya has a few! It has an expanding Wild, which can cover the entire reel. There’s also a free spins mechanic, activated by collect three or more Wild/Scatter icons.

However, if you only score two Wild/Scatter symbols, a Second Chance re-spin plays. If you get the third required icon during that bonus, you get to play free spins.

Developer

NetEnt is one developer that needs no introductions. The team was founded in 1996, at the infancy of the iGaming industry.

They quickly rose through the ranks, and became synonymous with online slots. No other developer can gather a crowd of players like NetEnt can! Today, the developer has over 1000 employees working for them. And we can’t wait to see what said talented people will release next!

How to Play it

This release is played on a 5×3 board with ten fixed paylines. To set your total bet, you must increase or decrease your coin value, which will lower your actual wager in turn. You can bet anywhere between $0.10 and $75 on each spin. Not the best betting spread we’ve seen from this software provider, but it’s better than average.

Rise of Maya also shows us NetEnt’s new user interface! We have to admit, we really like how it looks. Though we have an obvious gripe with how real money values are displayed: in small letters beneath the large coin bet. It can be annoying to read if you’re leaning back in your chair while playing.

Fortunately, the developer has nailed the new Autoplay system! It works similarly to their old one. The difference is, now you have to choose the number of auto spins before you can configure other options. The whole thing looks sleek, and is much easier to use compared to before.

Symbol designs range from somewhat bland to absolutely amazing! We’re not huge fans of the playing card royals.

You can see some effort put to make them fit in with the theme, but it just wasn’t enough to immerse us. Especially when you put them side by side with these creepy, high quality Maya masks! Our favourites were the Wild icons and their expanding animation.

Special Features

Which serves as a wonderful segue to talk about how that mechanic works! There are technically four Wilds. There’s a standard serpent Wild, which does not expand. Two serpent Wilds which can expand either up or down, and may not cover the entire reel. And finally, there are Serpent stacks, which always cover the entire reel! These only appear if a Wild lands on a hot reel during free spins.

Hot Reels? These are reels on which Scatters or Wilds landed to activate free spins. As a result, they’re only present while free spins are active. You activate free spins by collecting enough Wilds or Scatters. Three, four or five Wild or Scatters reward ten, fifteen or twenty free spins, respectively.

If you only get two instead of three Wilds or Scatters, you get the Second Chance re-spin. This is only available if you activate Bonus Bet, which doubles your current wager.

Maximum Payouts

This game has a medium-high variance with a jackpot worth over 6000x your total stake. Rise of Maya has an RTP of 96.42%, which is above the current industry average.

Summary

Some elements weren’t to our liking. But what few things we didn’t like are heavily outweighed by all the things we loved about this slot! It has a great volatility, a thrilling jackpot, and exciting special features that make chasing after said jackpot really fun! Give it a go, you won’t be disappointed.