The popularity and ‘star power’ of the morion-hatted conquistador is such that we’re just waiting for NetEnt to announce the first ever slot-to-movie adaptation. Thevirtual reality version of Gonzo’s Questis scheduled for late 2021, and we already have theaugmented reality live gamefrom Evolution. This Cluster Pays version is kind of squeezed in between, and it doesn’t quite live up to the high expectations we have for this franchise.
The Cascading Wins Multiplier mechanic that made the original release so popular is long gone in Gonzo’s Gold, which is kind of strange for a grid slot. Overall, the base game is mostly a sinking ship grind, like in mostBook slots, but the expanding symbols bonus round does offer some thrilling moments. It largely depends on which symbol is chosen to expand, as is usually the case, and the expanding mechanic has been tweaked in an interesting way.
The scatter symbol serves double duty as a wild, and it thus steps in for all regular pay symbols to help complete winning combos. The regular premiums pay between 750 and 5,000 x your stake for 25 matching symbols in a cluster (that would be a full 5×5 grid, of course). Your best chance of winning big happens when you land 3+ temple scatters anywhere in view.
This triggers the Bonus Round, and you get10 free spinsno matter how many triggering scatters you landed. In addition, you get an up-front scatter win of2, 20 or 200 x your stake for 3, 4 and 5 scatters, respectively. You willpick 1 of 9 question mark tilesbefore the feature starts, and this determines which special ‘golden’ expanding symbol you get.
When you land2 of the chosen expanding symbolsadjacent during the bonus round, the symbols expand to cover a full reel or row, respectively. The expanded symbols are considered adjacent no matter their position on the grid. This means that they will always count as a cluster win, and pay similar to non-adjacent expanded reels in regular ‘Book slots’.
A second payout calculation is then summed up for the expanded cluster win, in addition to what you might have won from the original free spin. You canretrigger the bonus round indefinitely with 3+ temple scatters, and this awards a scatter win as described above, plus10 extra spinsadded to your tally.
We had a decent time testing this NetEnt follow-up, but we have to say we are a little disappointed overall. More about that in the review summary, but we’ve created a brief and edited highlights video as usual. You can thus check out how we fared by hitting the play button below.
Every previous installment in the Gonzo saga has added value to the brand, except for this. Gonzo’s Gold is the first release where we feel that NetEnt is simply taking advantage of the brand name to churn out a somewhat hasty production to fill the release roadmap. The original Gonzo’s Quest mainstreamed the progressive Cascading Win Multiplier feature, something most grid slots embrace, but not this one (for whatever reason).
The base game is screaming for some modifier action, but we get that NetEnt has tried to make a barebones release with a ‘Book of’ mechanic inspired bonus round. The game does come alive when you trigger the feature, and expanding cluster wins are both fun and potentially lucrative to the tune of6,500xyour stake. We still feel that this game could have done without the Gonzo branding though, as the usually lively conquistador is reduced to a static pay symbol.
Pros
Cons
Gonzo’s Quest Megaways- is a highly popular and solid follow-up to NetEnt’s most iconic release ever, and you get a cascading wins multiplier that can go as high as x15 in the bonus round. You can also look forward to unbreakable wilds and an earthquake feature, and the max win is a solid 21,000x your stake.
Gonzo’s Treasure Hunt- is another highly successful and fun follow-up release in the Gonzo range, and this Live Game features Gonzo himself as an Augmented Reality in-studio co-host. You’re taken right into the heart of the Incan city, and prize drops and multipliers can lead to 20,000x payouts from a single stone in the pick’em game.
Age of the Gods Norse: Book of Dwarves- is a Playtech ‘book slot’ that sticks out from most other productions. It too comes with a 5×5 layout, and the bonus round comes with 3×3 sized expanding symbols. Up to 3 special symbols can come from retriggers, and you can win up to 10,000x your stake.
Gonzo s Gold
