Ancient Thunder Keno

Keno, by default, is not the world’s most exciting game. Few gamblers would dispute that. For the game to develop and to continue to attract new players, developers need to innovate. They need to think up new ways of serving the same games to us, the punters, to keep things fresh and keep us coming back for more. And thus we end up with games like Ancient Thunder, a game which combines keno with mythical gods. What could be more alpha than that?

Grand Vision Gaming are the developer behind Ancient Thunder. It’s supposed to be a mobile-compatible game but you may struggle to get this to work on iPhone. You may also struggle to get it to work in the Chrome browser on desktop for that matter. The intro screen features stone temple pillars, flashes of lightning, gold spears and many other flourishes that you would associate with Grecian gods. When the game loads, you’ll find that the Greek theme has been maintained, with each numbered square on the grid hewn out of stone.

Iconic Stuff

There’s little you can do to transform the fact that a keno game is obliged to fill the screen with loads of numbers and squares predominantly. There’s no getting away from that here unfortunately. On the plus side however there are some nice touches which have been applied here, helping to bring this game to life. There are more stone temple pillars standing to the left and right of the screen for instance. There’s the game’s logo, surrounded by flashing blue lightning and rendered in striking blue and gold. And then, to the left of the keno board, you’ve got a variety of mythical gods named and depicted: Athena, Helios, Poseidon and Zeus.

There are numerous buttons positioned across the bottom of the screen – more than you’d expect a keno game to have in fact. These are labelled as Menu, Quick Pick, Clear, Draw, Max Bet, Bet/Denom and Speed. Who knew keno was such a complex game? Speed is an obvious one and also arguably the least important one. It really doesn’t matter what speed it all whizzes by at; there are four settings and it comes on setting number three by default, which seems perfectly fine. The Quick Pick button is self-explanatory and will instantly select 10 numbers on the grid for you. The maximum amount you could win from this game is 10,000, which would occur if you matched all 10 that were drawn and you had the max bet set.

Godly Gains

Your denomination can be set between 0.05 and 1 and your bet can be set at between 1 and 4 coins. While the initial part of the game, picking keno numbers, is easy to understand, it’s what comes next, when certain numbers are stripped away to reveal images of Greek gods, that things get interesting. Your best bet before playing this game is to consult the help guide which can be found in a sub-menu, for here you’ll learn exactly how Ancient Thunder works. Unfortunately the playing guide is written in extremely small lettering so you’ll need to crane to make it out.

Select Your Spots

What you’re looking at here is a regular 80 spot keno game that has a 20 spot draw and 15 bonus spots. To start off with, you need to select between 2 and 10 spots. At this stage, 15 bonus spots will be selected at random. If you hit a bonus spot, this will also be displayed on one of the legends you’ve matched with to the left of the grid. When you’ve filled that particular legend with hits, you’ll be awarded their character bonus. There’s also a wheel spin bonus to watch out for. To achieve this, you’ll first have had to hit all five Zeus bonus symbols. You’ll then be awarded two spins of the bonus wheel. You can select the first prize you’re offered or you can spin again and pray that the second prize is greater.

Ancient Thunder in Simmary

Provided you’re properly into your keno, Ancient Thunder by Grand Vision Gaming is a lot of fun to play. It’s also a lucrative game too, or it certainly has the potential to be. The graphics aren’t bad, though compatibility with certain browsers and device types may be an issue. The sound effects are minimal but pretty good when they do occur and the symbols of the gods, or legends as they’re called here, is also neatly done.

If you’re gonna play keno, you might as well choose a version of keno that has a little more to it than interminable squares, numbers and bet levels. Sure, you’ve got all that here, but you’ve also got Greek gods like Zeus and Helios rocking up to give this online casino game a little extra spice.