This is the second ‘old school’ style fruit slot I’ve seen this week – the first one was a bit of a disaster though, so will Inspired Gaming’s Golden Winner turn out to be any better? Let’s start by looking at the key specifications. There are ten fixed paylines – a small number, but it’s enough for a regular video slot grid such as this one. The RTP is a little below average too – at 94.50%, there’s a reasonable chance you will get less playtime out of this slot than other similar games. As for the top jackpot prize, this is specified at 250,000 euros rather than a multiple of the current stake – I’m not keen on this, especially as it’s also specified that it isn’t possible to reach such a number from every bet configuration. Essentially, that’s telling us that the top prize has to be less than the 250k divided by the max bet, so it’s less than 2,777x the current stake.
Those aren’t fantastic numbers to start with, but it’s still clear right from the start this game will be better than the other game I mentioned earlier, titled Find the Lady. Why? The paytable is far better, for a start, and features many more symbols. That is unless you choose to play the ‘fortune spins’ – earlier Blueprint titles used this mode as a way of obtaining extra reel sets for a higher bet amount, but here it’s just a different game mode that costs the same amount per spin but removes many of the symbols from the reels. Depending on your location, you may also have the opportunity to enable a ‘fortune bet’ – a bonus bet facility that turns the scatters into stacks in return for an additional 50% per spin.
If you like games styled after old fruit machines, then our free demo slot of Golden Winner is likely to be of interest to you – check it out below:
| Provider | Inspired Gaming |
| Reels | 5 |
| Rows | 3 |
| Paylines | 10 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.10 - 90 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 2,777x |
| Bonus Buy | No |
| RTP | 94.50% |
| Our Rating | 7.0 |
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Golden Winner Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
The symbols used in Golden Winner should be instantly familiar to anybody with experience playing online slots – they are the same ones used in games such as Hot Fruits on Fire, for example, and include all of the classic fruits as well as bars, bells, lucky sevens and the like. This is a good-looking example of the fruit slot genre, but it’s still a little bit uninspired – I’m not sure if that’s a fair criticism to throw at the game though, as it’s very much intended to look and play the way it does.
Most symbols require at least three matches to award a win, but the red lucky sevens and bells also offer prizes for just two matching symbols. We’ll stick to just the biggest prizes here though; the bells offer the largest returns with an impressive maximum prize of 200x the total bet, matching that offered by the red lucky sevens. The blue sevens aren’t quite so lucky, offering only half as much at 100x the current bet for a full payline of five of a kind. Then there are the red and blue BARs, which share identical returns of 50x the total bet for all five symbols. The cherries can appear in several configurations, but any five on a payline will still get you 20x the total bet back in winnings. That just leaves the regular fruit symbols – there are strawberries, oranges, plums, grapes, and melons, all of which pay the same – 10x the current stake for a five of a kind combination.
There’s a decent range of available bets – €0.10 and €60.00 are the minimum/maximum respective limits, but there are also plenty of other options between the two extremes. Even those with deeper pockets get a good range of possible wagers here, which makes a nice change in the current slots industry.
Base Game & Modifiers
The basic gameplay of Golden Winner is typical of classic video slots, using a traditional 5×3 reel set that is spanned by 10 fixed paylines. The low number of paylines means you won’t win as often as you might on other slots, but it also allows the payouts for the regular five of a kind hits to be much larger than usual. The red lucky seven and bell symbols, for example, both offer payouts of up to 200x the current stake – much more than you’ll get from other online slots.
Wild Bells
Unfortunately, the wild bell symbol does not show up during the regular base game – you do get the red lucky sevens which have an identical payout, but those do not act as wilds. You can get the wild bell as part of the base game by enabling the fortune spins mode; otherwise, it’s only present in the Fortune Spins.
Fortune Spins
This alternative to the normal base game removes all regular symbols except for the cherries, scatters, and wild bells. The bell also acts as a cash collector in this mode – if a bell and a cherry land simultaneously, the value presented on top of the cherry symbol will be collected. Cherries can be worth anywhere from 1x to 100x the value of the current bet.
Fortune Bet
This is presented as another alternative to the regular base game, but it’s really just a bonus bet. In return for 50% more per spin, you can play the game with stacked scatter symbols – a rather unique way of boosting the odds of triggering a bonus round and offers an additional advantage in that an entire bar landing fully in view will add 10 extra free spins to your starting counter.
Golden Winner Slot Bonus Features
Three or more bonus symbols landing on the reels will trigger the main bonus round – three scatters award 10 free spins, whilst four or five will get you 15 or 20 free spins, respectively.
Free Spins
During the bonus round, every bell symbol that lands on the reels will collect the values shown on top of the cherry symbols that are currently in view, similar to the fortune spins mode discussed earlier. Bells are also collected on the trail displayed above the reels, and filling the trail with 12 bells will award an extra 10 spins and an increased multiplier of 2x, 3x, or 10x at the final stage.
Just like the fortune spins mode, each cherry can be worth between 1x and 100x the total bet, but unlike the fortune spins, those values are further boosted by the active multiplier.
Pros
- One of the better-looking fruit slots that I’ve seen recently.
- The regular payline prizes are relatively large at up to 200x the total bet
- The multipliers available in the bonus round add to the excitement factor considerably.
Cons
- The maximum jackpot is not really specified – I calculated it at 2,777x when playing at max bet, but I’m not sure how many would ever do that!
- The fortune spins mode seems like a strange inclusion – I’m also unsure how using it affects the game's RTP.
Final Thoughts
Max Megaways 2 is something of a mixed bag – I definitely think it’s an improvement over the original, and the modifiers are certainly more generous this time around. Fans of the original are sure to love it, as are most of those who enjoy Megaways games in general. For me, however, very little here feels new, special, or unique – I’ve just seen all of these features far too many times to get excited by this release. Oh, and what are the chances of a BGT slot paying over 100,000x the bet? You're lucky to see anything over 500x these days.
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