Rocky’s Gold Slots
If you’re searching for a slot game where you can literally hit pay dirt, then check out the five reels and 20 pyalines of Rocky’s Gold, from Northern Lights Gaming. It’s the first release from the company and they have clearly thrown everything at this gold mining themed slot, with explosive bonus features, colourful symbols and great animations. The high quality is immediately obvious and even as the game is loading up, players are treated to a 3D animation of the desert canyon where Rocky’s mine is located.
Precious crystals, nuggets of gold and playing card symbols will fill the reels, joined by boxes of TNT that will trigger one of several fun features when landing next to the plunger. Rocky is a prospector who helps out by throwing dynamite at the reels, and chests of gold launch free games which can see locked wilds, multipliers and more on each spin. Clearly, you won’t have to dig very deep to uncover some treasures in the Rocky’s Gold video slot.
Northern Lights Gaming may be a newcomer to the online casino business, but the team behind the company has over 50 years of experience. Based in Stockholm and Manchester, their aim is nothing less than to create the best high-end video slots ever to hit the market. That’s pretty ambitious talk from a new studio, but if Rocky’s Gold is a sign of things to come, they may be on track to hit this target. With lots of new games lined up for release, the Northern Lights Gaming slots developer could be a company to watch out for.
Crystal Clear Gameplay
There’s lots to like about the game even when the reels aren’t spinning, as a lot of care has been taken in the overall design. The gold mine sits behind the reels, with tumbleweed rolling around the scene and gold glistening in a mine cart, while the sounds of someone playing a banjo can be heard in the background.
You win whenever enough examples of the same playing card symbol, crystal, or the golden game logo are seen across a payline in an unbroken run from the left side. If the J or Q symbols land in place, you stake your claim to five, 25, or 100 times the per line bet, while the K and A symbols pay ten, 50, or 150 times.
Green, blue and red crystals pay up to 200x, 250x and 300x respectively when seen right across a payline. The golden RG game logo returns four times your line bet when it’s on reels one and two only, with full lines worth 500x. A wild symbol, which is a shiny icon made up of four gold bars, pays a high limit of 300x, but is also able to act as any of those listed above, completing extra combinations for you.
Explosive Features
Two special symbols can appear on reels three and four to trigger the TNT bonus feature. When a box of explosives and the plunger stop next to each other, Rocky appears and selects a playing card symbol, turning all examples of it into a higher value crystal or the game logo. He will then pick another lower value symbol and do the same, carrying on until the blows himself and the TNT up.
Another fun feature is randomly awarded after any spin. Rocky wanders to the side of the game and starts picking sticks of dynamite from a box. He throws them at the reels, turning symbols into extra wilds. A single dynamite stick will turn one position wild, multiple dynamite sticks can be thrown to adds several wilds, or he can get out the Big Stick and blast whole sections of the reels into more wilds.
Hitting Pay Dirt
The gold chest bonus symbol gives you golden opportunities to collect extra cash. If two appear, you get to click one of them to reveal a coin award, but three, four, or five at a time will launch ten, 15, or 20 free spins.
After each free spin, you may be offered a Pick Me bonus before the next spin begins, although this doesn’t happen every time. You could uncover wild reels, or win multipliers, or locked modifiers which hold either feature over until the next spin. If you get two multipliers offered, each is added to the other for the chance of a huge payout.
It’s all accompanied by Rocky, who triggers each feature in more of the fun animations and sound effects that are seen and heard throughout the game.
Going for Gold
Placing your bets is a simple matter of clicking plus or minus button to adjust the stake per line. All lines are active and with just 0.01 on each you will be wagering 0.20 per spin. Raise the bets to the maximum of 25.00 per line and you’ll be staking 500.00 on each spin.
It’s got a high return to player percentage of 96%, and there’s a guarantee of fair play via a license issued by the UKGC.
If you want to speed things up a little, click the Autoplay button and let the games play out on their own. You choose the number of spins, any win or loss limits, plus your stake and let the software do the rest. Another option is choosing what gaming platform to play on, as this slot is fully compatible with iPhones, iPads, Android and Windows devices.
Digging Into Other Gold Mining Slots
Among the vast array of online slots based on the Wild Western theme, you’ll find plenty of games set in and around gold mines. Gold Strike, from Games Warehouse has a similar cartoon style and sees a prospector, dynamite and crossed pistols on the five reels. Features include symbols that lock in place after a win, which can lead to an improved mix on the next spin. There’s also free games and a can shooting bonus round where you claim mystery coin prizes and multipliers.
The five reels and 25 paylines of the Gold Rush slot machine from Habanero feature 3D animated prospectors, bandits, a dog, mine carts and more. A chunk of gold is wild, and the dynamite is a scatter symbol, awarding up to 15 free spins. During these games, you could experience a mine collapse, where between five and 15 examples of the same symbol will tumble onto the screen. A progressive jackpot can be won at the end of any spin in the base games or the bonus round.
Is Rocky’s Gold a Real Blast?
The gold mining theme might not be very original, but this is a fun, reliable and well-designed game that has exciting features. The welcome appearance of Rocky, throwing dynamite at the reels or adding modifiers to the free games is a real highlight.
You can play this slot for real cash or try a few practice spins on free Rocky’s Gold video slots, although if you play at a trusted online casino which offers a free play bonus package, you can even collect cash awards without staking a dime.
