Apex Strike Megaways: Slot Overview

Apex Strike Megaways is an online slot from developer Iron Dog Studio that drops players into the wild, where survival means dealing with dangerous animals of all kinds. It’s striking to consider the raw strength of a bear or the ruthless coordination of a wolf pack, and yet humans still ended up on top. In a weaponless face-off, most people wouldn’t fancy their chances of not being torn apart, but intelligence and teamwork ultimately helped us push back and become the planet’s true apex predator.

In Apex Strike Megaways, the setting looks like the North American wilderness—one of those sunbaked, dusty landscapes filled with desert vegetation and dramatic rock formations. It’s a familiar backdrop for slot designers, as you’ll know. Visually, the main talking point is how the classic scenery combined with the old-school symbol style gives off a subtle Wolf Gold sort of feel. That, and the lion symbol is hard to miss.

Then comes choosing your stake, with bets ranging from 20 c to $/€50 per spin. There’s also an ante bet option. With the ante bet switched on, the stake increases by 25%, which in turn doubles the chance of triggering the Hold and Win feature. With or without the ante bet, the default RTP stays fixed at 96.13%. Running on a medium-high volatile math model, Apex Strike Megaways uses a layout of 6 main reels showing 2 to 7 symbols each, plus a 4-symbol reel at the top. The number of ways is determined by how many symbols land on the main reels, topping out at 200,704.

Whenever a winning way lands, the contributing symbols are destroyed, and the remaining symbols tumble in to replace them. If the fresh drop creates another winning way, it pays and the tumble sequence repeats. This continues until no further winning ways appear. In the paytable, 9 to A card ranks make up the lower-value symbols, while the higher pays feature an eagle, wolf, lion (oddly far from its usual habitat), and a bear. A 6-of-a-kind royal combination returns 0.5 to 1.25 times the bet, while landing 6 matching premium symbols pays 2.5 to 25 times the bet. The wild substitutes for all standard pay symbols, and it only appears on the top horizontal reel.

Apex Strike Megaways: Slot Features

Apex Strike Megaways delivers most of its action through tumbling wins, a Megaways Hold and Win round, and a feature buy option.

Megaways Hold and Win

Hitting a mix of 6 Special Strike Nugget symbols and/or Special Sun symbols triggers the Hold and Win feature. Once the bonus begins, every triggering symbol sticks to the positions where it landed and stays there until the feature finishes. The round starts with 3 respins, and any new Special Strike Nugget symbols or Special Sun symbols that land make them stick and also resetting the respin count to 3. Special Sun symbols show cash values, while Special Strike Nugget symbols can be Mini, Minor, Major, or Mega, paying 10x, 50x, 250x, or 2000x the bet, respectively.

Buy Feature

Players can choose to purchase the Megaways Hold and Spin feature directly from the base game instead of waiting for it to trigger naturally. It costs 50 times the bet and comes with an RTP of 96.35%.

Apex Strike Megaways: Slot Verdict

Iron Dog Studio wasn’t exactly on a strong run of releases at the time of this review, and Apex Strike Megaways didn’t do much to change that. Its retro presentation may suit some players, particularly since it pairs that look with a similarly old-school core feature, which is fair enough. And although there are a handful of hold ‘n win mechanics inside Megaways slots—Gold Digger Megaways, Big Bass Hold & Spinner Megaways, Floating Dragon Megaways Hold & Spin, for example—it’s still not something you see especially often attached to Big Time Gaming’s well-known engine. Maybe Iron Dog Studio noticed an opening it wanted to target with Apex Strike Megaways?

If that was the plan, it would have helped if the end result had a bit more excitement. For comparison, iSoftBet released something with broadly similar mechanics in Aztec Gold Megaways, featuring eye-catching visuals and a multiplier-enhanced hold ‘n win round, and that arrived roughly four years before Apex Strike Megaways. Choice is never a bad thing, of course, and Apex Strike Megaways may fit players with a particular gambling appetite, while the appeal of making a slot that sits comfortably among the many retro/North American nature/nostalgia-style titles was likely strong.

Still, it’s a cautious, low-risk direction, as shown by the sheer number of slots already using this theme—though most don’t also throw in a lion. The same can be said of the straightforward hold ‘n win feature, which doesn’t bring any fresh ideas. The outcome is a slot where little truly stood out, not much lingered in the memory, and even with a hefty 10,000x the bet win cap, it didn’t really feel all that apex.