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The Great Fire of Rome was one of the greatest tragedies ever to befall the city. However, the searing flames offer an opportunity to the bold. Set yourself apart from the other troops with your service, and the emperor may richly reward you.
Marching through the blazing streets, you’ll uncover priceless jewels and animal sigils. You’ll also find golden wings and Roman banners, playing the part of Wild and Scatter, respectively.
The success of games like Yggdrasil’s Champions of Rome shows Kiwis have a healthy appetite for Rome-themed titles. This pokie puts a unique spin on things by centring things around Rome’s most-hated emperor and the infamous blaze that destroyed the Eternal City.
Most of the time you see Rome in slots, it’s depicted as pristine and beautiful. Meanwhile, Nero’s Fortune paints the usually clear skies in an orange hue, with sparks of fire floating through the air. The city’s still a beaut, but the oppressive atmosphere does wonders in setting this game apart from the competition.
Considering how well Quickspin nailed the background, I had high expectations for the icons. Sadly, the art team didn’t stick the landing. Rubies and animal sigils look great, even if they’re a bit generic. Meanwhile, the playing card royals feel entirely out of place.
It’s a shame because this could have gone down as one of the developer’s greatest hits visually. Instead, the half-pie symbols end up spoiling what might’ve been Quickspin’s finest work. Even so, Nero’s Fortune’s graphics still were impressive enough to keep me interested.
The pokie has a 5×5 layout and uses cluster pays to award payouts. Nero’s Fortune is highly volatile, paving the path to some wicked wins with some luck.
Try to snatch up as many rubies as possible, as 12 or more of them will net you a 150x cash prize. The brave lion will grant 50x while the fierce wolf pays 20x. By the time you get to the eagle, you’ll only receive 10x for a 12-icon win.
The slot’s minimum wager is $0.20 per spin, while the maximum goes up to $100. It’s a solid bet spread that’ll appeal to both casual audiences and high rollers.
I was quite satisfied with the 96.24% RTP, as it’s better than in most other pokies. The game’s 8,575x top prize remained elusive as I played, but I got a few solid hits of 200x and more while testing.
The slot’s bonus features are enticing, ensuring I never felt bored playing Nero’s Fortune. You shouldn’t expect to get them back to back. However, they pop up often enough to keep New Zealanders on their toes.
Tumbling Reels go into effect after every win. Participating symbols are removed from the reels, with existing icons dropping to plug up any holes. At the same time, new symbols would appear to fill any empty spaces. The Tumbling Reels feature continues until no new payouts are awarded. It’s simple but oh-so-fun and gets your blood pumping like nothing else once you score several wins in a row.
The Burning Arrows feature has a chance to activate on any winning cluster during normal gameplay. It adds multipliers under icons, which remain hidden until a win uncovers them. Each revealed arrow increases your multiplier, providing the perfect addition to the Tumbling Reels feature.
You unlock the Flames of Nero Free Spins feature by landing 3 or more Scatters on the reels. During the bonus feature, multipliers are added under random positions and accumulate until you run out of free spins. You cannot retrigger the Flames of Nero feature, so cross your fingers and hope Lady Luck serves up some spicy wins.
Rome may be far from our islands, but many Kiwis are still enamoured with history’s best-known empire. Because of that, we can see many of them falling in love with Nero’s Fortune.
The pokie has a fantastic selection of features that play off each other well. Tumbling Reels are essential for unlocking the Burning Arrows feature, for example. New Zealanders shouldn’t expect the bonus features to trigger frequently, but each activation might cause a lucrative chain reaction.
My impressions of the visuals are mixed but leaning toward favourable. I’d be happy to stamp a big sweet as label on the game, but the icons were a bit underwhelming.
Nero’s Fortune earns a rating of 8.7 out of 10. It looks fantastic and is fun to play, but high variance can result in some dry spells with nothing entertaining going on. If you can deal with that, you’ll have a chance to win a massive jackpot.
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