By Doug Holmes
Summary:
- Yggrdasil Gaming releases Raptor 3 DoubleMax slot
- Min/max bet: 0.10/50
- Max payout: 10,284x
Yggdrasil Gaming is making a comeback to prehistoric territory with “Raptor 3 DoubleMax“, the third installment in its dinosaur-themed slot series.
Based on the iconic DoubleMax mechanic that made the original Raptor game stand out in 2021, the new release brings back the familiar multiplier system while also bringing forward more exciting features.
This time, the setting moves away from the dark, mysterious forests of the previous games to a sunlit canyon surrounded by towering rock formations and sparse vegetation.
The visuals change during free spins, revealing a wider view of the landscape. While the new environment looks good, it lacks some of the atmosphere that made the original game memorable.
The slot starts with a 5 reel by 3 grid and 243 ways to win, although the playing area can expand during bonus rounds.
Raptor 3 DoubleMax keeps its symbol selection relatively simple, dividing the icons into low-paying card suits and higher-paying dinosaur characters.
The four card suit symbols, clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades, make up the low-paying group. Landing five matching symbols from this category awards between 0.1x and 0.2x the bet.
The higher-paying symbols feature four different dinosaurs. These prehistoric characters offer better rewards, with five matching symbols paying between 0.5x and 0.7x the bet.
Wild symbols also play an important role, replacing all regular symbols except scatters. However, wilds do not appear directly on the reels but they are instead added to empty positions following winning combinations during the avalanche sequence.
Scatter symbols are responsible for triggering the free spins feature and can also help extend bonus rounds through additional spins and reel expansion.
Special Features
Raptor 3 DoubleMax combines several familiar mechanics with two additional random modifiers known as Predator Strike features. Avalanches, wild additions and the DoubleMax Multiplier form the foundation of the gameplay, while free spins provide opportunities to expand the grid and build larger multipliers.
Avalanches
Whenever a winning combination lands, the winning symbols disappear and new symbols fall into the empty positions. Before the new symbols drop, a wild is added to one of the vacant spaces.
This creates another opportunity to form a winning combination and continue the avalanche sequence.
DoubleMax Multiplier
The feature starts with a x1 multiplier, which works by doubling after every avalanche. Each new fresh win after that will further boost the multiplier and generate more payouts during extended winning sequences.
During the base game, the multiplier resets to x1 at the beginning of every new spin.
Predator Strike
This random feature can activate on any spin or avalanche, in both the base game and free spins. It awards one of two modifiers called Claws and Road.
The latter increases the current DoubleMax Multiplier by one level without requiring a winning combination. Claws works by removing one multiplier level from the DoubleMax multiplier trail. It can remove the current level or an upcoming one, but cannot affect levels that have already been passed.
Free Spins
Landing three, four or five scatters triggers 5, 7 or 9 free spins, respectively. The bonus round also changes the grid size, with three scatters providing a 3-row grid, four scatters expanding it to five rows and five scatters unlocking seven rows.
The DoubleMax Multiplier does not reset between free spins, allowing it to continue growing throughout the bonus round.
Landing additional scatters during free spins awards extra spins: three scatters add one spin, four add two and five add three. These combinations also activate Reel Expansion, adding two rows to the grid when it has fewer than seven.
After the expansion, the Last Bite feature removes the scatter symbols and triggers an avalanche. This special avalanche does not increase the DoubleMax Multiplier or add a wild.
Players can also activate Golden Bet by increasing their stake by 50%, which doubles the chance of triggering free spins.
There is also the option to purchase bonus rounds directly. The price depends on the number of scatters required to trigger the feature: 80x the bet for three scatters, 240x for four and 880x for five.
All in all, Overall, Raptor 3 DoubleMax offers a familiar but entertaining combination of escalating multipliers, expanding reels and random modifiers. The DoubleMax mechanic remains the main attraction, although the sequel does not quite recreate the impact of the original game.
