Enjoy the setting of the ancient Aztec temple with its hidden treasure trove and watch the bonanza of gems tumbling on the reels. There are so many bonus features that at some point you may lose track of what is happening on the reels. Don’t let that bother you because the payouts can be really big in Gems Bonanza.
This pokie from Pragmatic Play has the Aztec theme, but its structure is the more interesting aspect. Groups of symbols replace paylines and the Tumble feature can give repeated wins in the same spin. You will find this feature in some pokies of other suppliers under different names like Avalanches and Cascades.
After reading the review, we suggest that you make a few spins in the demo mode just to get familiar with the mechanics. The start playing with real money. If you regularly hit the spin modifiers or progressive features then you could be on your way to owning a gemstone hoard.
Gems Bonanza is played in an 8×8 matrix without the usual paylines. Payouts are awarded when you land a block of minimum 5 like symbols anywhere on the reels. The symbols in the block must be connected either vertically or horizontally. Just as you can get wins on multiple paylines in a regular online pokie, you can get more than one paying block in a spin in Gems Bonanza. The payout table in the pokie machine will give the absolute payouts based on your selected total bet. The maximum payout of 1000 times the total bet is obtained by getting a block of 25 or more red gems. At the other extreme, the lowest payout is 0.10 times the total bet for a block of 5 blue gems.
The stakes are set in the following manner. You pick the number of coins from 1 to 10 and the coin value from 0.01 to 0.50 credits. A multiplier of 20x is applied to the product to give the total bet per spin. The total bet ranges from 0.20 credits to 100 credits and this will suit both low rollers and high rollers.
Gems Bonanza is a high volatility online pokie. For taking home the very high payouts you will need to trigger the bonus features. The RTP is 96.55%, which is about the best that will get for pokie machines. The maximum win is 10.000x the stake.
The reels matrix is set in an ancient temple that is shown with great detailing and subtle animations. From the carvings it looks from the Aztec civilization. Within the reels the background is a parchment depicting a treasure map. To the left of the reels is the counter that keeps track of the points in the Gold Fever feature. To the right is a deity adorned with five coloured gems. When the special spin is triggered, a ray of light is emitted by the appropriately coloured gem to transform the symbols on the reels. The background music is quite soothing.
The symbols awarding the payouts are gems of different colours, shapes and sizes with simple designs. The wild symbol, which appears only in some of the special spins, is a gem set in gold. The animations of the winning symbols disappearing from the reels are pleasing to the eye.
Gems Bonanza is a feature rich online pokie and you will thoroughly enjoy them as each plays out on the reels.
The bonus opportunities start with the Tumble feature. After the winning combinations are paid in a spin the winning symbols disappear. The remaining symbols fall to the bottom of the reels and the empty spaces are filled by symbols falling from the top. New wins result in payouts being made and lead to the next tumble. Tumbling continues till there are no more wins or spin features.
In the base spins, coloured orbs will appear behind some symbols. If a win includes symbols with orbs then a special spin feature is awarded when all the tumbles end.
* Blue orb awards Nuclear: The reels are cleared of all symbols and new ones are brought on.
* Pink orb awards Wild Gem: All instances of one randomly chosen symbol are transformed into wild.
* Brown orb awards Squares: Blocks of 2×2 of the same symbol are added at random positions on the reels.
* Red orb awards Colossal Symbol: A block of 3×3, 4×4 or 5×5 of the same symbol is added at random position on the reels.
* Green orb awards Lucky Wilds: 5 to 15 wild symbols are added on to the reels in random positions.
Gold Fever is another unique bonus feature included in Gems Bonanza. In every spin, the number of winning symbols accumulated across all the tumbles is fed in a gold meter. If you reach the triggering number then the Gold Fever feature gets activated, otherwise the meter is reset to zero and you move to the next spin. Gold Fever can be played at five levels. All spin modifiers are guaranteed to be played once per level.
* Level 1: Requires 114 points and plays with a 2x win multiplier
* Level 2: Requires 116 points and plays with a 4x win multiplier
* Level 3: Requires 120 points and plays with a 6x win multiplier
* Level 4: Requires 125 points and plays with a 8x win multiplier
* Level 5: Requires 132 points and plays with a 10x win multiplier
There is no regular free spins feature in Gems Bonanza online pokie, but because of the spin modifiers and other features you will not feel the absence.
You can play Gems Bonanza with the Auto Spin feature active. You select from 10 to 100 auto spins, which then run one after another without having to click the Start button manually. The pokie game provides for certain conditions that can be used for stopping the feature when you have lost or won more than a set amount. The more important of these conditions are:
Your balance falls by a specified amount
Your balance increases by a specified amount
A single win of a specified amount
The online pokie does not have any facility to adjust the speed.
Gems Bonanza online pokie does not offer a doubling option after each win. Since there are other attractive features in the online pokie, players will not miss this option.
We recommend Gems Bonanza to online casino players from New Zealand, the main reason being its different reel mechanism. Because of the simple graphics and colourful symbols, you will enjoy playing this pokie on your mobile devices as well. A word of caution is that because of the high volatility you may have to play for some time before a big win kicks in.
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