Avalon Pokies
The legend of King Arthur runs through the Avalon pokie from Microgaming. Those who know their mythology, or have watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail will know that King Arthur pulled the sword Excalibur from a stone then he and his Knights of the Round Table ruled England until he died in battle and the sword got chucked back into a pond. There's also something about a killer rabbit, but that may just be in the movie.
Bits of this feature in Avalon, which has been around for nearly a decade, so it's about as old as the legend itself, but it has managed to remain popular for this long thanks to an appealing theme, classy design and nice bonus features that can result in wins of up to 3000 coins.
Free Spins and Rich Wilds
It's a 5 reel, 20 line game where the coin value range goes from just 0.01 placed on a single line, to 0.50 which if placed on each of the lines equals a big 400.00 per spin, with wins of course, being a multiple of the coin value.
Because it's pretty old, the graphics are not the fanciest that I've ever seen, but the symbols are nicely presented, and the animations of spinning reels is realistic enough. Those symbols consist of the standard 10 through to A card icons, crowns, goblets, emeralds and royal crests, with the Lady of the Lake acting as a Scatter symbol who pays out whenever she appears on at least two spots of the reels at once.
Avalon
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The misty Isle of Avalon is wild, so if players have two identical symbols and the Wild on a line, it will count as a winning combination. It's also one of those helpful wild symbols that carries its own value, so a full line of 5 rewards the lucky player who got it with the biggest 3000 coin win.
The bonus game here is a free spins round that kicks off automatically with 3 or more Scatter symbols landing at once. Initially, there are 12 spins, during which the Treasure Chest acts as another Wild symbol, so there’s two in play at the same time for greater odds of completing a winning line, or getting a row of Wilds. This symbol, like the Isle of Avalon, has its own value, with up to 1000 coins being won for getting a full line of it.
On top of this there’s a multiplier in effect that boosts the amount won throughout the free games that starts at 2x and can be as much as 7x, so players can expect some decent payouts during the round. The actual size of the multiplier depends on how many scatter symbols triggered the round, so the more the merrier.
Following any win, and when the free spins round has ended, players can multiply what they have just earned by playing the optional Gamble Game. Wins can be doubled by correctly guessing if a card will be turned over and revealed as red or black, and to quadruple the win, they need to correctly pick the suit, Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds or Spades. By getting it right, they can play again, to multiply the prize even further, but an incorrect pick anywhere along the way loses the amount just won, so play carefully.
A Legend or a Loser?
Avalon has remained popular for so many years by offering players an uncomplicated game with a popular theme and nice payouts, especially in the bonus round. It may have been around since the legend of King Arthur was current news, but I would definitely categorise this as a golden oldie and it’s remained popular for a decade, so I’m not the only fan.
There is an Avalon II for those who like their games a bit more up to date, however, the original is still worth a go.