Play Gold Pile: New Years Gold Slot

Gold Pile: New Years Gold Review

Each game in the Gold Pile series comes with a unique bonus round, that much is already established. However, with Gold Pile: New Years Gold, Playtech has decided to significantly alter the Jackpots also. The gold symbols on reel 5 still play a key role, like in the 2 previous titles, but the jackpots have been downgraded by 10x in this version.

This makes the whole Grand Jackpot Chase feature less exciting, but the upside is the enhanced bonus round. Where Tigers Pride offered no extras in the bonus round except extra spins, you will benefit from sticky wilds in New Years Gold. This can lead to far better regular payouts, so it all depends on what kind of wins you prefer to chase.

Gold Pile: New Years Gold Reel Screen

Gold Pile: New Years Gold Features

The wild symbol looks like a red box of firecrackers with golden ornament. It will substitute for all regular pay symbols, as wilds usually do, and thus help you form winning combos. The wild pays 80x for 5 on a payline, which is significantly higher than the regular symbols.

People familiar with this series will know what to expect. The 5th reel is framed, and comes with gold bars that can be added on top. You can seamlessly adjust the number of gold bars via the Gold Meter on the left-hand side. The meter goes from 0, 10, 20 and up to 100 %, and this directly controls how many golden symbols you can expect to land on the 5th reel.

Of course, this comes with a price. A 100 % gold meter will cost 10x the price per spin compared to a 0 % gold meter. However, a 100 % gold meter will guarantee that nothing but golden symbols land on reel 5.

All regular symbols can land as the golden version on reel 5 only, and this is key to winning jackpots. You need 5 symbols in a winning combo, including a golden symbol and a wild, to win a jackpot. If the 5 symbols are low-value royals, you land the Mini Jackpot of 4x. However, if they are premium symbols you win the Maxi Jackpot of 16x your stake.

When you land a 5 symbol win including a golden symbol, but no wild, the Grand Chase feature is activated. You can also trigger this feature by landing 4 regular wilds and a golden wild on reel 5 on the same win line. The triggering position on reel 5 will be framed, and you get 3 respins of reel 5 only.

The 4 regular reels are frozen in place with your winning combo intact. Landing a golden symbol in the framed reel 5 position means that you win either the Mini or Maxi Jackpot, depending on what symbols you triggered the feature with. The good news is that reel 5 will contain only the golden version of the matching symbol, and Grand Jackpot symbols.

This means that you will get repeated smaller jackpot wins, or you land the Grand Jackpot worth 400x your stake. This happens if the Grand symbol lands in the framed reel position on either of the 3 respins. The feature ends immediately if you win the Grand Jackpot.

The free spins round is triggered by landing at least 3 golden ox scatters anywhere in sight. Landing 5 scatters awards an initial win of 100x, and then you’re granted 6 free spins. You will get 3 spins added to your tally whenever you land 3+ scatters on a free spin. All regular and gold wilds that land will become sticky for the duration of the bonus round. You can trigger the Jackpots and the Grand Chase feature during the free spins round also.

The 200 Spins Gold Pile: New Years Gold Experience

We decided to play with 40 % on the Gold Meter, and we triggered both the Grand Chase feature and the bonus round in our 200 spins test session. You can see how it all played out in the 3-minute highlights video below, and the Grand Chase starts at 0:45 into the video. The bonus round follows not too long after that.

Review Summary

As we predicted in our review of Gold Pile: Tigers Pride, this Playtech series follows a distinct pattern. The Jackpot feature remains more or less the same from game to game, while the bonus round changes. Gold Pile: New Years Gold is the third installation, and for some reason the jackpots are worth 10 times less than what the 2 previous titles offer.

It’s hard to understand why, but most likely it’s because the bonus round is potentially more lucrative than in the 2 predecessor titles. Tigers Pride came with nothing extra in the bonus round, but in New Years Gold you get sticky wilds. A screen full of wilds pays 2,000x, while a screen full of the highest value regular symbol still pays “only” 300x. It’s nice to have options, but a 400x Grand Jackpot still feels a bit cheap.

Pros

• Fixed Mini and Maxi Jackpots of 4x and 16x
• Grand Chase jackpot feature can land you up to 400x
• Bonus round with sticky wilds

Cons

• Jackpots are worth 10x less than in the previous Gold Pile games

If you love Gold Pile: New Years Gold you should also try:

Gold Pile: Toltec Treasure - was the first game released in what we expect to be a lengthy series from Playtech (Rarestone). You will benefit from the same jackpot features as in the game at hand, albeit with 10x the value. The bonus round comes with only wilds and golden wilds on reel 5.

Gold Pile: Tigers Pride - was the second release in the Gold Pile Jackpot series, and the jackpots are worth 10x as much here too. The bonus round is stripped for extras, but you can retrigger it to get new spins.

Golden Macaque - is an asian themed installation in Playtech/Rarestone’s Fire Blaze Jackpot series. This series is somewhat similar, as you have a Hold & Respin jackpot feature combined with a bonus round that varies.