Take a trip back to Imperial China in Emperor’s Gold, a 5 reel, 10 payline video slot produced by Barcrest. Extras on offer here include a bonus feature that awards up to 40 free spins with expanding wilds. Add frozen wilds and a trail bonus into the mix if you opt to pay a little extra and spin in Big Bet Mode. Stakes range from between 10p and £500 per spin.
Visually, Emperor’s Gold has a historical feel – joining the Chinese letter-style A to J playing cards are lanterns, temples, pandas and tigers. The top payers are the empress and emperor – land 5 of these in a single payline and you’ll pocket 40 or 60 times your total stake.
The golden dragon is the game’s wild – it can land on reels 2, 3 and 4. When it does, it expands to turn the whole of that reel wild. As usual, it replaces all other symbols bar the scatter. Play at stakes of over £2 per spin and the wild replaces the scatter too, making it that much easier to trigger the Free Spins feature.
The firecracker emblem is that scatter – you’ll be awarded 12, 14 or 20 free spins when you land 3, 4 or 5 of them anywhere on the reels on the same spin. The action in the feature is a little different to the base game too – on each free spin, you’ll see a single clustered high value symbol alongside the lower value A to J playing cards.
Once again, the stacked wilds can hit. When the dragon breathes fire, it can add more valuable cluster symbols to the reels. The dragon can also boost the number of free spins you’ve been awarded. A full re-trigger of the free spins is possible too (giving you up to 40 free spins).
You’ll also be given the chance to operate in Big Bet Mode. This series of 5 linked spins costs extra but does offer some decent goodies in return:
- £20 Big Bet – play in this mode and any golden dragon expanding wilds that hit will be locked in place for any Big Bet spins you have left.
- £30 Big Bet – the frozen stacked wilds are once again in play here. You’ll also activate the Super Bonus Trail. Any scatters that land during the linked spins move you along the trail and award extra spins.
- £50 Big Bet – at this maximum bet, you’ll receive the sticky stacked wilds as well as a Mega Bonus Trail where more free spins and extra picture symbols are added.
Playing in Big Bet Mode also improved the Return to Player rate to 98%. Play at £2 or more per spin and it’s 96%. Lower than that and it drops to 94%.
This is another decent effort from Barcrest – it’s very easy on the eye as usual and the free spins round offers plenty of potential. Playing in Big Bet mode can be tough if you have a limited bankroll. If you have deep enough pockets, it can certainly spice up the action. There’s a seemingly endless supply of Chinese-themed video slots – Emperor’s Gold is one of the better ones and certainly worth investigating if you’re a fan of the genre. I also recommend Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold by Barcrest which is superb.
