Avatar Gateway Guardians (Yggdrasil Gaming): Overview

The LeoVegas Originals Series keeps growing, and Avatar Gateway Guardians is the latest title to join it. This series is an exclusive set of Yggdrasil games available only within the LeoVegas line-up for their customers. At first glance, the playfield instantly calls to mind that Stargate SG1-style device used to jump between worlds. Avatar Gateway Guardians delivers a distinctive visual style and a spinning mechanic you likely won’t have encountered before. In a way, it really does feel like walking through a Stargate into an odd new realm that blends classic and modern themes. All that’s missing is Jack’s constant one-liners and Teal’c saying ‘Indeed’ while lifting an eyebrow every few minutes.

Rather than traditional vertical reels, the game rotates 3 rings in a circular motion. Each symbol is divided into three segments, and those segments spin independently across the 3 rings. When all 3 parts align after a spin, they create a winning symbol and award a payout. If the completed symbol forms inside the glowing white highlighted zones, it activates additional features. In practice, you’re looking at a 3×6 set up in the base game and 3×8 in the bonus feature. It can take a moment to adjust, but after a handful of spins it becomes easy to follow.

To get the Gateway turning, you first pick a stake from 10 p/c to $/€200 per spin. And you’ll be spinning plenty, because this highly volatile slot can deliver long stretches between wins. The purple, green and blue dot symbols appear most frequently and sit at the bottom of the paytable. The other 4 standard symbols are the faces of what seem to be the Guardians, resembling the masks seen in ancient Greek theater. There’s a blue one, a green one, a purple one, and a reddish-gold one. The reddish-gold face pays the most at 40 times the stake, which is decent, but don’t count on seeing it often because it lands very rarely. The game got a lot of testing time—it was difficult to stop playing, and that symbol appeared once, if that. RTP is a solid 96.3%, which is comfortably above average. You can also set up to 1000 auto spins, which may be useful for pushing through the quieter runs.

Avatar Gateway Guardians (Yggdrasil Gaming): Features

On top of the unusual core mechanic, there are two extra features designed to help strengthen payouts—the Hot Spot and Free Spins. In both the base game and the bonus game, parts of the grid are highlighted; these are known as Hot Spots. There is 1 during the bonus game and up to 8 during free spins. When a complete symbol lands inside a Hot Spot, it triggers the Multiplier Wheel. The multiplier begins at x1, and the Multiplier Wheel—positioned beneath the grid—spins horizontally. Whatever value it stops on is added to the multiplier. This keeps building the multiplier until the Multiplier Wheel lands on the payout symbol, or it hits the capped limit of x101. After that, the win is worked out and paid.

Free spins start when the 3 free spins parts appear on the grid. Unlike pay symbols, they don’t have to land as a fully formed symbol—seeing the parts anywhere on the screen is enough to trigger 8 free spins. That said, how they land does influence the bonus. If 0, 1, 2, or 3 parts land in the base game Hot Spot then 2, 4, 6, or 8 Hot Sots come into play during Free Spins respectively. If a free spin produces more than one symbol landing on a hot spot, each symbol takes its turn on the multiplier wheel in sequence. Naturally, you’re aiming for 8, because it means every winning symbol that lands will activate the Multiplier Wheel.

Avatar Gateway Guardians (Yggdrasil Gaming): Verdict

Avatar Gateway Guardians offers plenty to like, though it also has a couple of small drawbacks. Starting with the positives: it’s genuinely different, and that deserves credit. There’s an otherworldly vibe to both its visuals and its motion, and it pulls you in. The artwork is outstanding and the backdrop carries a subtle, sinister edge. It still feels unmistakably like an Yggdrasil game—just transplanted to a different planet. Gameplay is enjoyable as well, and once you understand the concept, it’s actually fairly straightforward. It has enough x-factor to keep you engaged without feeling like a gimmick, creating that “one more spin” pull. It’s excellent for demo play; deciding how much of your bankroll to commit is another matter.

Which leads to the main area where it could have been stronger. Of course, everyone wants bigger payouts, but in Avatar Gateway Guardians it would have made a noticeable impact. With a max win of 2,525 times the stake, the ceiling isn’t terrible, but it could have been far more tempting. What makes it frustrating is that the maths clearly allows for more. For instance, if the top symbol hit alongside the x101 multiplier, that alone would equal 4,040 times the stake. Landing multiple symbols on Hot Spots during free spins is already thrilling, but it could have been truly massive. Wins could, in theory, climb much higher, yet for some reason they’ve been capped. That’s disappointing, and lifting it would have improved the game’s overall appeal.

So, is the LeoVegas Original Series doing enough to convince new players to sign up? Avatar Gateway Guardians will definitely pique your interest. It’s a unique and gorgeous piece of work, after all. But going all-in and registering to put real money into it? That’s a tougher call.