Introduction to 3 Million B.C.
3 Million B.C. is a casino slot from Betsoft that takes us back to our earliest ancestors. While we were probably not living in caves next to sabretooth tigers and oversized bees with a large Jackpot Wheel in our front yard, we’ll let it slide this time, as Betsoft delivers on a bit of a clash between Cash Collect mechanics and 3-Pot bonus games. While we spin, looking to trigger Bonus Games, we have Cash and Jackpot Prizes popping up on the reels, needing to land a Collect Symbol on 1st reel to form a winning payline of prizes. The 3 Pot Mechanic comes in the form of Treasure Hoard Bonus Games, which can be triggered by different Wild Symbols and come with the bonuses Upgrade, which improves the Prize Wheel, Respins, which gives you up to 50 spins, or the Extra, which grants you additional pointers on the wheel for more prizes.
Betsoft has gone way past old-school and delivers on a prehistoric-themed game with a bit of a different 3 Pot mechanic as its core feature. If you want to try the game for yourself, then you can check out the 3 Million B.C. demo.
Theme, Gameplay, & Payouts
3 Million B.C. is a video slot from Betsoft with 5 Reels, 3 Rows, and 243 ways to win. You can choose between making a Min.bet of 0.05 and a Max.bet of 100. As of writing, we don’t know the game’s RTP, but it comes with high volatility and a solid max win of 10,000X the bet.
As the title would suggest, we’re back 3 million years, give or take, in a deep jungle, where we find our ancestors living in a small cave. However, it’s not all that bad, as they got a Jackpot Wheel that doesn’t stop spinning, and if we can get their neighbors out of the ice blocks, we’ll be awarded with a couple of Treasure Hoard Bonuses. You can play the game on most notepads, mobiles, and desktops.
The lower-paying symbols are J, Q, K, and A. Creating a win with 5 of the same symbols will pay out 0.33X the bet. The medium-paying symbols are a club, a tooth necklace, and a bonfire. Creating a win with 5 of the same symbols pays out 0.66X the bet. The higher-paying symbols are various characters and animals, including the bee, sabretooth tiger, cavewoman, and caveman. Landing a win with 5 of the same symbols pays out 1.3X to 5X the bet. The Special Symbols are the previously mentioned Wilds, Cash, Collect, and Jackpot Symbols, but more on them in the Feature section.
Special Features & Mechanics
What is the max win in the slot 3 Million B.C.?
You can win up to 10,000X the bet.
What features are available in the slot 3 Million B.C.?
The features are Wild Symbols, Cash and Collect, Treasure Hoard Bonus Games, and Feature Buy.
Wild Symbols
There are 3 different-colored Wild Symbols, each able to help create winning combinations by substituting for any paying symbol, except for Cash, Jackpot, and Collect Symbols.
Cash and Collect
The Cash and Collect mechanic consists of 3 symbols: the Collect Symbol that can only appear on reel 1, Cash Symbols with prizes ranging from 0.66X to 100X, and Jackpot Prizes, ranging from Mini (12X), Minor (25X), Major (300X), Mega (1,000X), and Grand (10,000X). A Cash Collect can only happen when a Collect Symbol lands on reel 1, following a winning combination of Cash and Jackpot Prizes on adjacent reels.
Treasure Hoard Bonus Games
Whenever you land one of the three different-colored Wild Symbols, there’s a chance to trigger their corresponding Treasure Hoard Bonus Game, which can be mixed if triggered with multiple Wild Symbols. The bonuses are as follows:
Purple Upgrade Hoard = Purple Wilds can only land on reel 2. When triggered, it will bring up the Prize Wheel and spin it up to 5 times, each performing 1 to 8 Upgrades on the wheel. Each selected Wedge will get upgraded by a random amount ranging from 3.33X to 66.7X the bet.
Red Respin Hoard = Red Wilds can only land on reel 3. Before the Respins bonus game is played, the Prize Wheel pulls up, which determines the number of spins you’ll be awarded, ranging from 5 to 50. During the bonus game, Reel 1 is filled with 3 Collect Symbols, and each Cash and Jackpot Prize can be awarded a random Multiplier ranging from 2XX to 10X. At the end of a spin, the Ancient Drop can randomly trigger, adding Cash or Jackpot prizes to random positions.
Green Extra Hoard = Green Wilds can only land on reel 4. The Prize Wheel spins with 1 to 3 pointers, and all prizes indicated by the pointers are summed and awarded.
All Bonus Hoards can be triggered together to form a Combined Hoards Bonus Game.
Feature Buy
There are 2 Feature Buy options to instantly trigger a Bonus Game for a price based on the current bet.
20X = Triggers the Respins Hoard, with a chance to trigger the Upgrade and Extra Hoard.
60X = Triggers the Combined Hoards Bonus Game with all 3 Hoard Bonuses.
Final Thoughts on 3 Million B.C.
3 Million B.C. is a game that, at first, seemed really interesting thanks to its mix of features and cool theme, but it comes with some out-of-place graphics, presumably from the studio’s usage of AI, as has been seen with games like The Jealous Ex and The Auction House. Moving on to gameplay, we see a highly volatile mix of features that perform best when triggered together: the Combined Treasure Hoard Bonus Games. While we did enjoy the exciting spins the Combined Bonus Game delivers, we can also see how, when triggered alone, many of these bonuses can be rather lacking and, in many cases, disappointing.
When spinning, we thought the Cash Collect mechanic would be enough to carry the poor base-game paytable, but it never really clicked, which made us feel it was rather redundant. This made longer sessions, where no bonus game triggers happened, rather dull. However, to give some credit where it’s due, we were a bit surprised at the relatively low cost of the Feature Buy, which may be good news for the high-risk, high-reward players out there. But, all in all, 3 Million B.C. is a lacking game that doesn’t do much to stand out, especially while featuring the 3-Pot mechanic, which has become somewhat of a trend.
3 Million B.C. is a game with an interesting theme, which sadly falls flat thanks to its combination of Cash and Collect and 3-Pot features, making most activations feel rather lacking unless you trigger the most volatile option.
