Gladiators Gold Slot Machine
Several millennia ago, the most popular form of entertainment under the Roman Empire was going to the local stadium to watch gladiators fight wild animals, or each other, to the death.
Gladiators Gold is a video slot game designed by Microgaming that was inspired by those legendary warriors. Their lives were hard and the living conditions tough, most of them were slaves and were denied the most basic rights as human beings. Their only hope was to become legendary gladiators and win the favours of their master. In Gladiators Gold, you will take their place and try to win the jackpot on the reels instead.
Read our full review of Gladiators Gold and figure out the best way to win gold and glory while having fun as the reels spin.
Enter the arena
It will take only a glance to realise that Gladiators Gold belongs to the retro slot game category, and we must admit that the graphic quality is just not on par with the rest of the market.
The game screen is filled with command buttons and symbol lists, apart from the reels themselves of course. A rather cheerful gladiator poses in the background next to the game logo, wielding a sword and a chain. His broad smile can feel welcoming, but remember that gladiators were the toughest warriors across the Empire.
You can guess some of the features of the stadium itself in the distance, such as marble columns and a crowd of spectators cheering. Otherwise, we must admit that Gladiators Gold looks a little dated.
Know the rules before you start to fight
As a retro slot game, Gladiators Gold follows a set of simple rules that you need to know in order to make the best out of the game right from the start.
The game matrix is rather small and features only 3 reels and 3 paylines. The reels can stop in between symbols at the end of a spin, which could void an entire combination. To win, you need to line up combinations of three symbols on an activated payline. The command bar located just under the reels can help you modify the size of your wager and the number of paylines you want to bet on. Use the (+) and (-) buttons as well as the bet one switch to do so.
As always, you can put a little extra on the table to increase the size of your future earnings. This risky move can be made easy with the bet max shortcut. A single click and you will go all-in on all 3 paylines for the next spin. Use it carefully, but do not hesitate if you are feeling lucky.
The easiest paytable you have ever seen
The symbol menu is one of the most important elements of any slot game, and knowing it well can help you spot winning combinations faster. This should not be a problem at all in Gladiators Gold.
The paytable actually contains only two kinds of symbols: bar signs and sevens. As it is common with old school games, the paytable focuses on combinations instead of individual symbols. Bar signs are the most common symbols in the game, but also the least valuable. The lower combination that pays consists of three bar signs of any kind, followed by solid combinations of either single, double or triple bar signs in a row.
The sevens are rarer but pay larger rewards in general. They can be either golden or red, and mixing the two kinds in a single combination still pays a modest prize. Golden sevens come after, and a combination of three red sevens can land you the biggest rewards of available in Gladiators Gold: up to 4000 times the value of your wager. Note that the red seven combinations can award different prizes depending on which payline they land - diagonals being the most rewarding.
The most epic fights in history
Gladiators Gold starts off as an ambitious game with an epic theme, but ends up being rather simple and not very deep in terms of graphics or gameplay.
No need to look for special features or symbols such as wilds and scatters, you will not find any. There are still big cash prizes to be won in the game, but the lack of variety in the paytable can make playing Gladiators Gold a rather dull experience in the long term. Unless you are an absolute gladiator fan, you might not find many reasons to come back to the game after a while.
