Marco Polo Slot Review

Marco Polo was an Italian merchant traveller, and his travels were recorded in the book entitled, ‘Livres des merveilles du monde’, translated as ‘Book of the Marvels of the World’ and also known as ‘The Travels of Marco Polo’. The details of the book introduced many Europeans to the delights of both Central Asia and China. He would learn the mercantile trade from his father and uncle, both of whom travelled extensively throughout Asia, and in the process met Kublai Khan, the 5^th Khagan of the Mongol Empire and 1^st Emperor of the Yuan dynasty. Polo wasn’t the first European to reach China, but he was the first to leave a detailed chronicle of his experience there. As such, Novomatic has also created this game based on his life and travels, entitled with his own name.

Visions of the Orient 

The game has five reels included in its offerings, as well as three rows worth of an interface. While this presents a familiar layout for regular slots players, the graphics incorporated into the game aren’t especially wonderful. Speaking of this, the icons incorporated include not only Marco Polo himself, but a symbol of the Mongol leader, a camel in two different incarnations, a map with ravaged edges and a box filled with golden  treasure. These are all backed up by the regular A, J, K, Q and 10 symbols, which have all been designed in an oriental fashion. Unfortunately, Novomatic have also included their frequently used arcade music, which plays at the start of every spin.

In addition to the reels and rows, players will also be provided with a total of nine pay lines to choose from. These can be customised to suit your own preferences, starting from a single line and moving up to three, five, seven and finally, the full nine. This is done via the buttons at the bottom of the reels. A single credit can be equated to $0.50, or increased to $1 and then a maximum of $2. The bet that you’re able to place per line is also able to be altered from a single credit to a maximum of 100. This allows every player a total overall wager of $900 per spin.

Journeying Across Asia with Increased Specialities

The addition of special features is what makes any game more compelling, and this product isn’t specifically wavering out of the lines. The symbol of Marco Polo acts as this game’s wild symbol, and this will substitute for any other icon on the reels, except for the two camel icons. Should you spin five of these onto an active pay line, you’ll receive a pay out of up to $500,000.

The camel icon, which is backed by a night sky, acts as a scatter symbol. Therefore, it will pay out in whatever location it appears in. Should you manage to spin three or more of these anywhere on the reels, you’ll trigger 10 freespins. During this round, you’ll be provided with an initial win multiplier of two times. Furthermore, the green-backed camel will provide the round with another wild icon, standing in for all other icons. Three of them appearing in any position on the reels will reset the freespins counter and the win  multiplier will increase by one.

Finally, the remaining special feature of the game is the gamble option, and this is activated at the end of every winning combination formed in the base game. This gives you the possibility of increasing your winnings by playing a side game. Opting to do this will present you with a game where you need to guess the colour of the next playing card to be turned over, either red or black. A correct guess will ensure that your winnings are doubled, while an incorrect guess will see your winnings all disappear. 

Read the Story

If you haven’t perused the book of Marco Polo, or perchance seen any kind of television show relating to his life, then this game is a great place to start to inform yourself of what he was all about. Granted, it isn’t going to give you a full head of knowledge on his travels, but it will provide a fairly decent game with intriguing specials incorporated. Graphics-wise, it’s fairly average, although the animations are pretty appealing on the whole.