3 Million BC Slot Review
In 1997, British scientists pulled DNA from a 9,000-year-old skeleton 🦴 in a cave in Cheddar (yes, the cheese place) and went looking for living relatives.
The match was Adrian Targett, a history teacher living half a mile from the cave. His family sat through the Ice Age and the Roman Empire without moving farther than a decent stroll.
Next up is an exclusive game called 3 Million BC slot from Betsoft Gaming that's all about our knuckle-dragging cousins, but instead of bashing us over the head with a tree stump, they could be gifting us a whole bunch of moolah.
Gameplay
Betsoft has gone full Saturday-morning cartoon with this jungle setting. Above the reels, you'll see a wheel (more on that later), and three neanderthal dudes frozen in ice. They’ll play an important role later on, but I'll explain all of this in the Features section.
The 5x3 grid has 243 ways to win, the RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.
RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate. is 96.2%, volatility is high, and the max multiplier is 10,000x. The max win is $300,000, with bets ranging from $0.15 to $30, and the only restricted currency is the Japanese yen.
At the bottom of the paytable, the J, Q, K, and A symbols come carved into stone slabs and pay 0.33x for 5-of-a-kind.
The Campfire, Claw Necklace, and Wooden Club symbols pay 0.67x for 5-of-a-kind, while the Bee, Sabertooth Tiger, and Cavewoman double that at 1.33x. The Caveman heads the paytable, and his 5x for 5-of-a-kind is as good as the regular symbols get.
Three color-coded Wild symbols live on the middle reels: the Purple Wild lands only on reel 2, the Red Wild calls reel 3 home, and the Green Wild sticks to reel 4.
They replace everything except the Collect, Cash, and Bonus Prize symbols, and each color can wake its own hoard keeper (those dudes on ice) above the reels.
The Collect symbol only lands on reel 1, while Cash symbols (worth 0.67x to 100x) land on reels 2 through 5. Whenever a Collect connects with Cash or Bonus Prize symbols across adjacent reels, you pocket their values right there in the base game.
Five fixed jackpots, called Bonus Prizes, sit above the reels: Mini (12x), Minor (25x), Major (300x), Mega (1,000x), and Grand (10,000x) of your total bet. The Grand Jackpot doubles as the game's ceiling.
Features
UPGRADE HOARD:
The Purple Wild can set off the Wheel of Fortune thing, which mixes cash wedges from 6x to 100x with all 5 Bonus Prizes, so even the warm-up act carries the Grand Jackpot.
Up to 5 upgrade rounds each pump extra value into 1 to 8 wedges (3.33x to 66.67x a pop) before the final spin decides your prize. Those 5 jackpot wedges never grow, though, only the cash gets fattened up.
RESPIN HOARD:
The Red Wild spins the Wheel that hands out anywhere from 5 to 50 respins. For the whole round, reel 1 stays packed with 3 Collect symbols, so every Cash or Bonus Prize symbol that connects to them gets banked.
My favorite part comes right before each collection: every Cash and Bonus Prize symbol in the win gets its own random multiplier (2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 8x, or 10x).
The Grand Jackpot is the lone exception, paying its flat value with nothing on top. Let's not get too greedy… the Grand Jackpot is already gifting us the max multiplier, so just take a chill pill.
Ancient Drop:
Once the reels stop, the game can toss an extra Cash or Bonus Prize symbol into a random empty position. That's free ammo for the Collect column.
EXTRA HOARD:
The Green Wild calls up a wheel of cash prizes up to 100x plus all 5 Bonus Prizes, then hands you 1 to 3 pointers. One spin later, you collect everything the pointers hit.
COMBINED HOARDS:
Any 2 hoards (or all 3) can fire on the same spin, chaining in a fixed order: upgrades first, pointers second, respins last. Hit the full trio and a boosted wheel with up to 3 pointers decides how tall your stack of respins gets.
BUY BONUS:
Pay 20x to fire the Respin Hoard (the other 2 hoards can still gate-crash the purchase), or 40x to launch all 3 at once.
Performance
The theme of this game might be an ancient one, but the software driving it certainly isn't. I played thousands of rounds across my iPhone, laptop, and tablet, and had zero issues.
Maximum Win
Pair the 10,000x max multiplier with the top bet of $30 and you can scoop the max win of $300,000. The smallest bet you can place is $0.15.
Conclusion
The slot's money lives in the 3 hoards; the regular paytable is set dressing while you wait for a colored Wild to wake something up.
Of the 2 shortcuts, by which I mean the Respins buy and the Combo buy, the Respins option is the no-brainer. Most studios charge 5 times this price for a respins round, and the other 2 hoards can still crash the party on the cheap ticket.
I'd skip the Combo buy. Paying double to guarantee wheels that might tag along anyway isn't my idea of value.
Low-risk players should keep sessions short and bets small, because the base game won't feed a bankroll while you wait for a trigger. Balanced and high-risk players get the better end of the deal: a cheap buy and a Grand Jackpot worth chasing.
And for once, my usual closing complaint stays in its cave. High volatility and a 10,000x max multiplier line up the way they should. Sweet!
Slot Details
Game Provider: Betsoft Gaming
Game Type: Video Slots
PaylinesPaylines are preset lines that run across the reels, and when you land matching symbols on them, that will result in a payout. The more paylines, the more ways you can win, but also the higher your bet per spin.: 243 ways
RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.
RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate.: 96.2%
Volatility RateSlot games can have low, medium, high, or extremely high volatility rates (or a combination thereof).
The less volatile the game, the more often it should pay out, but the lower the amount, the less the payout, as this is in keeping with the risk you’re taking. Volatility rate should be considered in conjunction with a game’s RTP.: High
Bonus Round: Yes
Progressive: No
Free Rounds: Re-spins
Max Multiplier: 10,000x
Max Win: $300,000
Published by
BitStarz, award-winning Bitcoin Casino
