Overview
This slot consists of 5 reels and 25 paylines, and you can set the size of the coins you bet from $0.02 to $4.00. This makes the minimum amount you can bet worth $0.02 and the maximum worth $100.00.
Where's the Gold, as the name suggests, has the feel of the California gold rush of 1849. The symbols help convey this gold rush feeling as you'll see all of the following on the reels.
- A miner
- Covered wagons
- Pick axes
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Gold letters on the reels
A twilight desert backdrop features cactus and hills, while the decent looking symbol graphics hover in the foreground. At first glance, the game looks nothing like a modern online slot machine. Sure, the colors and graphics are better than some of the very first 3D online games, but a relatively simple desert scene isn't going to excite anyone who just spent money to play a game. Overall, the background and symbol graphics are decent, but they don't exactly bring to mind the stunning 3D slots of today.
This game does not feature music in the typical sense. However, Where's the Gold does have some captivating sound effects, not the least of which are the galloping hooves that accompany the stopping of the reels.
The sound effects that occur when you change pay lines or create winning combinations are reminiscent of early Atari games.
What makes Where's the Gold Special?
The graphics aren't that great; we've already covered that. Also, the gold rush theme has been done to death in both land-based and online slots. So what makes this one stand out from the crowd? Well, maybe standout isn't the right word because it doesn't do anything particularly innovative. But in terms of how it plays and what it offers, Gold Rush Gus Episodes has enough in it to keep you coming back for more.
First of all, Where's the Gold was one of the very first slots to introduce additional wild symbols during the bonus round. We will discuss this aspect in more detail later on. But you can look forward to not just one, but several wild symbols whenever you trigger the bonus game.
It is quite strange that the main game does not have a wild symbol. This is something that even for a slot developed in the early 2000s feels outdated and won't win any appreciation from players.
What makes Where's the Gold interesting and revolutionary is that you can trigger the bonus round quite often. This somewhat compensates for the fact that there are no wild symbols to help you in the main game.
There is a scatter symbol and it's the dynamite symbol. The dynamite symbol increases your payouts according to your bet at these rates.
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2x for 3 symbols
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10x for 4 symbols
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50x for 5 symbols
Bonus Round
The bonus round is also triggered by dynamite when you get three or more of these symbols anywhere on the reels.
After the bonus round is activated, the player is taken to a second screen where they select one of five characters to mine for gold. In fact, up to seven different characters have appeared performing the same tasks. This means that we don't see the exact same prospectors every time we unlock the bonus round.
The following seven characters are profiled.
- Happy Lucky
- Findo the dog
- Mary Money
- Nugget Ned
- Peter Panner
- Professor Gold
- Winnie Fortune
Choose the character you think will find the most gold. When you do, a spotlight will shine down on them. All five characters will start digging.
The experience is enhanced by the unique way each character collects gold. For example, Professor Gold collects gold with a magnifying glass; Findo sniffs gold. Happy Lucky uses a metal detector; Winnie Fortune consults her crystal ball. Nugget Ned swings a bug net, and Peter Panner pans for gold just like in the Wild West. The visuals of these characters in action really capture the imagination.
At the end of the round, you will receive a certain number of free spins based on how many gold nuggets your character uncovers.
We can expect a maximum of 10 free spins, but we tended to land on five or six of them, ending up with either five or six spins, more often than not. So we found ourselves finishing a round with either five or six free spins.
You will now return to the reels to complete your Free Spins. This is where the extra wilds become significant as you will see that several of the symbols have turned to gold.
Wild symbols: Gold symbols are wild. They substitute for all symbols except the dynamite scatter symbol. They remain wild during the free spins.
Gamble Feature
Where's the Gold also includes a Gamble feature that can be activated after any winning payout combination. Simply click on the Gamble button located in the bottom right corner of the interface any time you win a round to activate this feature.
This will take you to another screen with a card prominently displayed in the middle. You can choose whether the card will be red or black, which will double your original winnings. Or you can decide whether the suit is Diamond, Club, Heart, or Spade, which will quadruple your winnings.
If you correctly guess the color or suit, you can choose to take your winnings and exit the game or continue playing. If you choose to keep playing, be aware that you can only win five times in a row before the Gamble feature ends.
If you've played slots before, you know about the Gamble feature that's available in many games. It allows you to double your bet by choosing the color of the next card. What you may not know is that this feature is also a staple of many video poker titles.
But the originality is there because you can quadruple your bet by choosing the suit of the card. This isn't a feature you're likely to find on many slot machines, especially those produced in the early 2000s.
Where's the Gold Online
As mentioned earlier, finding Where's the Gold in online casinos is an easy task. However, if you prefer the land-based casino experience, there's really no reason to play the online version.
It is an almost perfect duplicate of the original slot machine with only a few minor differences.
The main difference is that the Gamble feature has a different color background in the online game. In the online version of Where's the Gold, you will see a solid green background, whereas in the land-based machine, the background is a solid red color.
A loud yeeeee haaaaa! greets you when you start the online version. We suspect this is often the case in brick-and-mortar casinos as well, but since these games are almost always on, you don't get to hear the miner yell this clichéd cowboy phrase quite as often.
An advanced feature of the Auto Play option is available to you online. This allows you to automatically spin the reels from 5 to 500 times at your chosen betting level, which can be adjusted at any time. To stop Auto Spin before the selected number of spins has been completed, simply click on the same button you used to start the feature at any point after a spin has been completed. 5-500 spins
Comparison to other Aristocrat Slots
We don't have contrasting versions of Where's the Gold to examine, aside from the barely noticeable, albeit important, differences in the online incarnation. Therefore, we thought it would be worthwhile to compare this particular slot with some of Aristocrat's other game offerings.
You'll notice one theme: the bonus round in Where's the Gold is much better than in most Aristocrat slots.
Buffalo
This is another slot that resembles the Wild West, but instead of miners, it has buffaloes. The main feature of Buffalo is that it allows up to 1,024 winning combinations per spin.
There's also a wild symbol in the main game, which is a step up from Where's the Gold. The downside is that Buffalo's bonus round is simply a free spins feature rather than an original second screen experience.
- Read Full Game Buffalo Review
Choy Sun Doa
This Asian-themed game offers you 243 ways to win. Compared to Where's the Gold, the visuals in Choy Sun Doa are a few notches above, especially in the background department, which features a serene Asian nature scene.
Once again, the bonus round, which consists mostly of free spins, pales in comparison to Where's the Gold.
Let's Go Fish'n
The games from Aristocrat usually present us with very small jackpots. So this one, with its top payout of 12,500 coins, is a bit of an anomaly. And I think the same can be said for most of the game's features.
Other than that, Let's Go Fish'n is virtually a duplicate of Where's the Gold. The two games even share a second screen bonus round. In this bonus round, you choose one of five characters to do your fishing for you. Well, sort of. The character you choose will catch your fish anyway. Literally, the character is a winning character. Again, it's a virtual duplicate, which is weird.
Pompeii Slots
While Pompeii is one of the most popular Aristocrat slots of all time, it doesn't quite offer the graphics or bonus round that Where's the Gold does. Still, it may be even more popular than it deserves, considering how well this game slings the Roman theme.
- Read Full Game Pompeii Review
Queen of the Nile
It's likely that Aristocrat's Queen of the Nile is the most played slot machine of all time, and it even inspired IGT's legendary Cleopatra game.
Creating the ancient Egyptian theme, the desert background sounds whispering over a background of music that harmonizes with the period style, in Queen of the Nile, and they do a great job of it. But Cactus Game Design compromised on everything else to make it work.
- Read Full Game Queen of the Nile Review
Summary
Where's the Gold is not the most technologically advanced slot machine you will find. In fact, it wasn't even that advanced when it was first released.
The enjoyable second screen bonus round, added wild symbols, and not-so-routine characters within will keep your attention longer than you might expect.
Considering how often you can expect to enter the bonus round, it's no wonder Where's the Gold has gained such a following in the slot world.
