Lucky Apocalypse

A chemical accident has occurred…a leak of highly toxic gasses floods the city streets that sees just one mere lungful turn humans into destructive, flesh-eating zombies with no hope of cure.

If this was the beginning of a real-world apocalypse, there would be absolute global carnage as the world’s population becomes taken over by fear, panic and all that negative stuff that goes hand in hand with the nearing extinction of the entire human race.

The last thing most of us would feel is lucky to be in such a predicament…no, that would take a very special individual…perhaps the very individual cooked up by the team over at Yggdrasil Gaming you may remember simply as “Ryan”.

Those who do recall Ryan will instantly be drawn back to a charming Leprechaun character with a thirst for music and entertainment, featuring in 2 of his own titles, Rainbow Ryan and Rainbow Ryan 2, and living a fairly simple life of riches and joy.

Lucky Apocalypse Base Game

Well now it seems Ryan has had a little change of heart, as well as visuals, as he takes it upon himself to single-handedly take on the walking-dead in the explosive, scatter-paying Lucky Apocalypse; a 6 reel 5 row game featuring plenty of the core Yggdrasil elements from GigaBlox symbols to progressive multipliers.

Following on from a run of fairly light-hearted releases that were Golden Fish Tank Party and Max Elements GigaBlox, Lucky Apocalypse appears very much against the grain in terms of its captivating visuals and graphics; a dark, sinister city-street setting and symbols portraying half-life characters from your worst nightmares.

Even Ryan himself has had a significant facelift, now taking the form of an AI-style half cartoon, half reality, weapon-wielding vigilante and it all makes for quite spectacular viewing!

Action-packed spins are formed of a high volatile math model, partnered alongside a 96% RTP and max win cap of 6,260x bet, and with so much potentially going on during gameplay, this one really can bite hard!

Blasting onto casino platforms from 20th March, let’s join Ryan in his fight to save humanity as we check out all of those key features and mechanics in a little more detail…

Land 8 or More Matching Symbols Anywhere in View to Form Winning Combinations

Lucky Apocalypse Base Features

Win spins are formed by matching 8 or more identical symbols, scattered anywhere within the game grid.

9 regular paying symbols make up the selection, featuring low-paying medical kit, syringe, knife, pill tub and whisky bottle paying between 1.5x to 6x for 15 matching symbols and 4 high-paying zombie characters worth between 7.5x to 25x for scatters of 15 or more.

Wild symbols are also included and substitute for any regular paying symbol.

Upon forming a winning combination, all symbols involved shall be removed from the reels allowing new symbols to Avalanche into the grid to fill the spaces.

After 4 Avalanche Wins, a Gigablox Symbol of Size 2×2, 3×3 or 4×4 is Added to the Reels

Progress Bar and GigaBlox

During base game mode, a progress bar lays across the top of the reels, displaying 9 stages.

Each successful Avalanche win progresses the bar by one stage and the bar resets to its starting form at the end of every game round.

After 4 successful winning combinations, the GigaBlox stage is reached whereby a random, oversized paying symbol is generated within the game grid.

GigaBlox symbols can come in the format of 2×2, 3×4 or 4×4 and, during win evaluations, count as the number of 1×1 grid positions covered.

Achieving 6 Avalanche wins activates the Wild feature, with between 1 and 4 Wild symbols randomly falling into the grid.

Should a player manage to reach the 9th progress bar stage, the Free Spins feature is triggered.

After 6 Avalanche Wins, Between 1 and 4 Wild Symbols Are Added to the Reels

Lucky Apocalypse Bonus

Free Spins can be triggered by either reaching level 9 on the progress bar or by landing 4 or more scatter symbols during the same game round.

8 Free Spins are awarded in both instances and, additionally, a cash prize is also awarded when triggering the bonus with scatter symbols.

4 scatters awards 1.5x bet with 5 and 6 scatters awarding 2.5x and 50x bet respectively.

The free spins round plays out to the same scatter-pays mechanics as base game mode and one GigaBlox symbol is guaranteed to land on every spin.

Moreover, the progress bar above the reels changes to show 8 progressive levels of multiplier, ranging from x2 to x50, with the 9th stage being 8 additional free spins.

Each Avalanche win progresses the multiplier level with the highest multiplier achieved during a game round applying to the total round win.

The bar then resets in between free spins.

Land 9 Avalanche Wins or 4 or More Scatter Symbols to Trigger Free Spins

Random Features

3 extra, random features are also included during both base game play and the bonus that may trigger upon a non-winning spin…

• Zombie Horde – a random number of non-winning symbols are transformed into high-paying symbols that form part of a winning combination.
• Lucky GigaBlox – random non-winning symbols are transformed into a 2×2 GigaBlox symbol that form part of a winning combination.
• Shamrock Shootout – a random number of non-paying symbols are turned into symbols that form part of a winning combination.

Landing 3 or more scatter symbols during the same free spins round also retriggers the bonus, awarding 8 extra spins and the instant cash prize.

Bonus Buy

For those looking to skip through base game play, a bonus buy option is included with Lucky Apocalypse at the cost of 100x bet, triggered by a random number of scatters.

Lucky Apocalypse Free Spins

First Impression

With only a handful of exceptions, with examples of Vampire Riches DoubleMax and Valley of the Dead, Yggdrasil has always tended to prefer the path of enlightenment to the road of demise, however if Lucky Apocalypse is any kind of sign of things to come, then I for one am all for it!

Those who agree that the best quality is found in the detail will have no issues whatsoever in becoming truly immersed in captivating gameplay, with remarkable graphics, animations and a whole range of often edgy anecdotes from Yggdrasil’s once-innocent Leprechaun, and little snippets of times gone by such as a Rainbow Ryan 2 poster in the bar during free spins really shows that no stone has been left unturned with the studio’s overall thought process.

Even the theming, though a little out there, works well; taking a typical Irish stance that, let’s face it, has been done to death and dropping it in the heart of a zombie outbreak truly is the work of genius!

OK, so we know the game looks great but how does it play and how does it fair amongst the ranks of the scatter-paying greats out there?

Although the main game screen looks a little intriguing at first glance, game play is surprisingly simple for the most part, with players requiring runs of scatter combinations in order to progress the bar above the reels.

2 in-game features are offered along the way; the fabled GigaBlox symbols hitting our screens again and random Wilds coming for that final push towards triggering free spins.

A good deal of action can be found, although with no inclusion of multipliers during base game, quantity of hits outranks quality in order to get into that bonus round!

A neat inclusion is the multiple ways one can trigger the bonus feature, through either 9 consecutive Avalanches or by landing 4 or more scatters into the game grid, with scatters offering that little extra incentive of a cash prize.

Triggering free spins brings a change to proceedings with the progress bar altering, bringing multipliers nicely into the frame.

Whilst progress is made in the same way, the final multiplier stage reached before the end of a game round shall see the value apply to the current game round win.

With a guaranteed GigaBlox symbol on every spin, reaching those higher multipliers can really pay dividends but I can’t help think it may not be as explosive as the usual DoubleMax mechanic we are more used to seeing.

That reason is two-fold; multipliers progress in smaller increments up to a maximum potential of x50 and whereas DoubleMax multiplier stages apply to each cascading win, the multipliers here only apply to the entire game round win.

The good news is that the multiplier mechanic here can honestly pack a punch and it’s always nice seeing something a little different from a provider…it’s volatile to say the least and makes the game’s max win potential of 6,260x bet very realistic.

Furthermore, free spins rounds can be enhanced by the inclusion of 3 random features that may trigger upon seeing a dead spin, making for fewer “wasted” spins and more chance of progressing the multipliers to higher levels.

Lucky Apocalypse is another prime example of fine Yggdrasil ingenuity…a seemingly simple model that has plenty of hidden layers, each peeling back to reveal a game of increased complexity and potential.

With the popularity of scatter-pay games on the constant rise, it can be a tall order to create something that offers players a fresh take and experience but you have to say that the team has pulled one out of the bag here.

To anyone who feels it’s too late to change their career path, or are just too set in their ways, just take a clover out of Ryan’s book…not in the sense of swapping the stage for an all-out zombie-slaying rampage, but the next opportunity to veer off the path may just be the road that needs taking!

*The screenshots taken of games reviewed on this site are taken from Demo Play, as reviews are often written before games are released for real play.