Tony Hadley, lead vocalist for English new wave band Spandau Ballet, admitted in an interview in 2011 that he had earned more money after the turn of the 21st century than he had in the 1980s. This is due to the high demand for their song “Gold” at events such as corporate functions, awards ceremonies, movies, and more. It also made its debut on Big Time Gaming’s first slot machine, Gold, ten years ago, which was a huge deal for the company at the time. Fans of new wave music may rejoice, as the Spandau Ballet classic is being remade in a more modern, expansive environment as part of Megaways’ celebration of BTG’s debut game.
Many of the same graphic elements from the original game are carried over into Gold Megaways, including the symbols and the banks of flashing lights that surround the 6-reel game grid. However, the camera has been zoomed out, so the gaming panel now occupies a smaller portion of the screen, and the rest of the screen is taken up by a blazing red curtain, as if the entire performance were up on stage, accompanied by dozens of tiny pinpricks of light. While snippets of Spandau Ballet’s 1980s classic “Gold” play during the main game, the full version of the song only plays during the free spins bonus round. The remake updates the appearance while maintaining a strong retro vibe, in no little part thanks to the pervasive traditional riches motif.
Gold Megaways may be played for as little as 5 p/c per spin, which is great news for players on a tight budget, and as much as £/€20 per spin for high rollers. You probably have guessed that pretty much all the numbers have been cranked up as part of the makeover. The mathematical model is extremely unstable, and the RTP is currently 96.42%, a number that is somewhat greater than it was previously. The maximum payouts in both the regular and bonus games are increased, albeit they may not be as high as you’d want.
When playing the base game, you may get up to 117,649 different chances to win when 2-7 symbols fall on any of the 6 reels. To win, you need three or more identical symbols to line up horizontally, beginning on the leftmost reel and continuing across all the reels. The symbols are basically the same, with the exception of the removal of the triple bar tile and a rearrangement of the premiums. Gold Megaways now has 9-A card symbols, rings, credit cards, vehicles, and watches, in that order. The value of a winning combination of six premium symbols can range from 2 times the stake to 100 times the bet.
Gold Megaways Slot Machine Functions
A plethora of bonuses, including responses, wild multipliers, free spins with expanding reels, and a brand-new Win Exchange feature, give Gold Megaways its glimmer. When a reaction occurs, all ordinary winning pay symbols disappear from the reels. The empty spots on the reels are filled up by descending symbols. The conclusion of the reactions is contingent on there being no further victories.
Wild symbols, represented by golden briefcases, appear on Reels 2 through 5. They can be used in place of standard icons to help form winning combos, and occasionally they will appear with a multiplier of x3. For every x3 wild that completes a winning combination, the win is tripled.
Gold Megaways does not include a bonus buy feature, but there are three ways to win free games. The first is when you obtain at least three of the BTG logo scatter symbols anywhere on the reels; this will provide 12 free games, plus 4 more for any scatter symbol beyond the first three.
The two additional methods of winning are linked to the Win Exchange function. If you win more than seventy times your wager, you may cash in on seventy times your wager in free spins and keep the remainder. When you win between 20x and 70x your initial wager, you can swap your prize for the chance to win free spins. If you choose this option, your whole payout will be put toward a spin on a wheel with red and green segments. The odds of getting more spins on the gamble wheel increase with the size of the prize.
Another wheel is spun before the main wheel spins during the free spins feature. This one shows that the initial Megaways count is between 14,000 and 117,649. During the bonus spins, a last bonus appears that can change the game’s outcome. Expanding Symbols can appear on any reel. When this happens, the reel gets an extra symbol, bringing the total to three. Expanding the reels to their maximum height of 10 rows would result in 1,000,000 potential winning combinations. When a reel reaches a full stack of 10 symbols, +8 more spins are added to the counter.
Slot Machine Review: Gold Megaways
Although Gold Megaways is faithful to the original Gold in terms of its aesthetics and sound design, it more closely resembles White Rabbit and The Wheel of Fortune Megaways in terms of gameplay. The wild stacks from Wheel of Fortune have been swapped out for x3 multipliers. Since Gold previously doubled the value of wild winnings during free spins and tripled those wins, this makes perfect sense.
The Win Exchange is a fascinating idea with lots of potential applications. Interestingly, 70x+ winnings happened less frequently in the main game than free spins produced naturally. You learn the hard way that 20x wins are rare precisely because you’re looking for them. The salad days, as the song puts it, may be experienced in the basic game. The wait for the initial 20x hit caused some players to be wary about pressing the gamble button.
Free spins are where Gold Megaways truly shines, regardless of how you spin it. Games like Gold Megaways have a lot of momentum. Difficult to begin, but once underway, difficult to halt. I hate to be the one to point out the obvious, but having more Megaways to begin with can have a huge impact on the final bonus score. One advantage is that there are more symbols to choose from, boosting the potential for winning combinations. The other perk is that there is a greater chance of the reels expanding to 10 rows high, which might result in significantly more free spins and a guaranteed x3 multiplier.
Gold Megaways is reluctant to hand over access to its extra round without a fight, so be prepared to put in some time on the regular mode. Thankfully, you may win up to 16,400 times your initial wager in the standard game, so it’s not exactly stingy. However, when the reels are fully expanded during free spins, wins of up to 20,200x the stake are conceivable, which is when the true magic happens.
It’s just about a fourth of what The Wheel of Fortune’s Megaways give, but playing Gold Megaways the way it was intended to be played is a ton of fun. When you add in the sweeping score playing in the background while the reels spin, it’s easy to get carried away and start believing the song’s claims that you’re invincible.