Wonder of Ages Slot: Overview

History-inspired slots have been around forever and still fuel loads of releases, both classic and modern. A quick browse through your favourite provider’s catalogue will usually uncover everything from the stone age to the middle ages and far beyond. What you don’t see as often, though, is a single game that rolls multiple civilisations into one package. Blueprint Gaming aims to fix that with their new slot Wonder of Ages. Think of it as Ancient Civilisations 101, letting players dip into four heavyweights of the ancient world – Rome, Egypt, China, and Greece – essentially four themes for the price of one. Each civilisation comes with its own bonus game, and players can also gain access to the popular progressive Jackpot King Deluxe Network.

Sticking with the blended-history approach, the backdrop behind the 5×3 grid is a collage of architecture from different regions. You’ll spot pyramids alongside Greco-Roman columned buildings, for example, setting the tone immediately. The lighting helps too: that warm sunrise-or-sunset glow that makes everything feel a bit more dramatic. Like taking an evening walk around Palatine Hill while the past seems to stir and the ruins feel alive again.

Before you start spinning, you’ll need to choose your stake, which ranges from 20 p/c up to $/€40 per spin – in manual or auto play. RTP sits a touch below the old 96% benchmark, but it’s still respectable at 95.49% RTP since it also factors in the jackpot and reserve. As for the pay mechanics, you’ll need at least three matching symbols on one of the 20 paylines to land a win.

The symbol set is fresh, so instead of the usual card royals for lower payouts you get roman numerals – I, II, and III, which is a neat touch. After that come two figures from Asian/ Eastern history, resembling Genghis Khan and a Babylonian ruler. Then you move into Ramses, Leonidas, Cleopatra, and Caesar as the top-value premiums. Apologies if any of the names aren’t exact, but they clearly signal the eras used for the higher symbols. Win values vary: for instance, five Genghis’ pay 12.5x the stake, while five Caesars deliver 50 times the stake. Alternatively, landing all five different characters on a payline awards 200 times the stake. Even those returns are overshadowed by the wilds, though. In addition to substituting for any symbol except the scatter, a full payline of wilds pays 500 times the stake.

Wonder of Ages Slot: Features

Alongside the three tasty jackpots, Wonder of Ages includes a bonus feature that links all the civilisations together. It begins with the logo scatter symbol featuring three of the characters. If 3, 4, or 5 scatters land on the reels they pay x5, x10, or x100 the total bet respectively and also activate the Wonder of Ages Bonus. You’re then taken to a selection screen showing the available bonus games with coins next to them. You choose coins until you uncover 3 matching ones, which opens the related bonus game. There are 4 bonus games in total and each awards 9 free spins that cannot be retriggered:

• Empire of Rome Free spins – reel three is stacked with wild emperor symbols.
• Wonders of Egypt Free Spins – On each spin, up to 5 symbols can be turned wild.
• Rise of Greece Free Spins – Free game starts with an x1 win multiplier that increases by +1 every 3 spins. A special wild symbol is locked in the centre of reel 3 for the duration.
• Mighty Dynasty Free Spins – On every spin a random win multiplier is applied up to x5.

Once the 9 free spins are finished, you’re sent back to the Wonder of Ages Bonus screen to select coins again. This loop of unlocking bonus games continues until the Fallen Temple symbol eventually appears, which ends the feature. Put simply, with enough luck you can run through multiple different bonus rounds back-to-back.

Up next is what will likely be the main attraction for many players – the Jackpot King Deluxe Pot. It activates when 5 Jackpot King Deluxe symbols land across reels 1 to 5. From there, the goal is to hit crown symbols to climb a ladder of increasing multiplier rewards. Gather 15 or more crowns and you reach the spin The Wheel King. Here you can pick up big win multipliers, or one of the three progressive jackpots – Regal, Royal, or Jackpot King. When a jackpot is hit, it resets to a seed value and begins building again as players continue contributing to the pot.

Wonder of Ages Slot: Verdict

Will a few spins of Wonder of Ages teach players much actual history? Not particularly, but the shifting settings are enjoyable, and having four separate bonus games adds variety. The free spins modes aren’t wildly distinct from one another, yet it’s still a welcome way to keep the action from feeling repetitive. It also helps that you can, in theory, trigger one set of free spins after another until the Fallen Temple symbol shows up.

How often that happens is hard to say without any published stats, but getting the best out of the game seems to rely on chaining free spins. Blueprint has set the max potential at 10,000x. Run the numbers and it becomes obvious you’d need to keep dodging that Fallen Temple symbol for a very long time before you’d be in danger of hitting the win cap.

A lot of players who queue up Jackpot King network slots do so for a shot at the top prize, which is understandable given the size of the jackpots. Within that network, Wonder of Ages is a fairly fun entry. The 4 bonus games help maintain variety, and unlocking more than one in a single run can really lift the intensity. That said, landing huge non-jackpot wins is difficult because the base payouts are modest. Unless you’re specifically hunting a jackpot title, you may be better off choosing a different game.