California Gold Casino Slot

California Gold, one of Vegas Technology’s 5 reel, 25 pay-line slots, features excellent software, offering play in a full screen or windowed mode, audio which can either be turned down or disabled altogether (just as well, as there isn’t any background music playing during the main part of the game) and adjustable game speed, as well as a facility to adjust the interval between spins within Auto Play. Auto Play allows players to bet on a maximum of 500 spins and a series of conditions when it should terminate can be pre-set.

As the name suggests, the game is themed around gold mining. The symbols on the 5 reels are all connected to this theme. The wild symbol of California Gold is represented by the Miner, and the scatter is a Gold Nugget. Other symbols include the Mine, a Bandit, a burdened Ass, a gold filled Cart, a Prospector’s Pan, a Map, Dynamite. A Barrel, a Pickaxe and a Lantern. In the background players can see all the symbols lying around in prospecting country. The graphics are overall very well crafted and although most of the animations aren’t that impressive, the animation for the wild Miner symbol is a treat.

Only 1 coin can be bet per line, but the coin values have a wide range, from 0.01 right up to 10.00. Their size, as well as the chosen number of pay-lines to be activated can be selected using buttons underneath the reels.

The wild symbol – only appearing on reels 2 through to 4 – will double payouts if it becomes part of a winning combination. If it appears on all three reels at once, it will trigger the bonus game, played on a second screen. For this bonus game, players choose one of 4 displayed mines. The Miner then goes through the selected minie, picking up 5 nuggets on the way. Each nugget has a particular weight (in ounces). Credits won will equal the total weight multiplied by the initial bet. The bonus round can also be triggered by scatters appearing during the round of free spins.

The scatter symbol will award scatter payouts if two or more of it appear. Three or more scatters will trigger the free spins (10 spins) round. Any wins during these free spins are tripled.

Although there is no available progressive jackpot and most of the fixed jackpots are disappointingly low, the highest, 5000 coin jackpot (which can be doubled if a wild symbol is included in the winning combination) does help to make this as a whole enjoyable and exciting game worth a go.