Emerald Isle

Irish-themed online slots, especially those with pots of gold and leprechauns, make a lot of sense. Emerald Isle is a game by NextGen that gives you a similar chance to find your own pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, and it does that by giving you a feature-rich experience along with solid graphics and a soothing soundtrack. This game is great for players who want a relaxing experience, but there's a lot of action to be had on the reels as well.

Game Layout

There are five reels, three rows and a total of 20 static paylines. This means that you won't be able to play with fewer than 20 paylines in this video slot, but that doesn't really affect gameplay since most of the time players wouldn't want to do that anyway. Coins start off at the $0.01 level with a maximum value of $25, and you can only bet one coin per payline. This puts the betting range from a super low $0.20 per turn to an incredibly high $500 per spin. Even the highest of rollers and the stingiest of penny players will find bet sizes in this game that fit their bankroll and style of play.

Wild Symbols and the Bonus Feature

The leprechaun is wild, which is a bit cliche for the subgenre because just about every other game that uses this theme has the same wild. He stands out a bit for showing up on all reels, and you only need one of them to get a win. This means any leprechaun on the first reel immediately results in a payout of at least 2x. Five of a kind earns a whooping 6,000x payout, and NextGen has clearly made sure that the upper wins are sizable considering four of a kind still earns a 1,000x prize.

If you get the leprechaun wild on the first and fifth reels at the same time, then you'll get a chance at a bonus feature. It will give you up to 500 times your entire bet, which would be the same as a 10,000x line bet, which is the largest individual prize in the game.

Scatters and Free Spins

The rainbow is your guide to finding a pot of gold in Irish folklore, and the rainbow being the scatter symbol is very appropriate along these lines. You can earn 100 times your entire bet for five of this symbol anywhere on the reels, but you only need two of a kind for a win.

Three or more of the scatter awards you 10 free spins with a 3x multiplier. This is a very value-packed bonus feature, and the multipliers give you a chance to earn even larger wins than were already available.

Top Regular Wins

There are some other pretty good wins available in this game as well. The redheaded woman pays 1,500x for five of a kind, which is larger than the top jackpot in many other games, and it's not even one of the top two or three available wins. Five of the pot of gold is good for a 500x payoff, as is five of the shamrock. All three of these symbols pay with only two of a kind, which kicks the hit-rate up quite a bit.

Rounding out the bottom end of the pay schedule are the A, K, Q, J, 10 and 9 symbols. They are stylized in a way that fits the theme, though they aren't overly impressive. Five of the A or K gets you 150x, five of the Q or J pays 125x, and you can earn 100x for five of the 10 or 9. These are good pays for the lowest symbols in the game, though it does contribute to a higher volatility.

Overview

Emerald Isle is another game that fits a theme that has really been done to death in the online slots world. With that having been said, they did an above-average job with it, and it's hard to complain with multiple bonus features and several chances to win four-figure or five-figure prizes. While we like to see originality in terms of which themes are used, NextGen has shown plenty of originality with their other titles, so we don't mind the use of a common theme like this at all. This won't be a good fit for some players, but we feel that most will be able to get something enjoyable out of the experience.