Icy Gems

As time passed and technology improved, people found themselves with better and more impressive hardware. Nowadays, the phones we carry in our pockets are more powerful than the average PC people used 20 years ago. The slot industry followed the trend and made great use of the extra power – improving the visual fidelity of games, adding smoother animations and higher quality sound effects and music tracks.

All of which is fantastic, and we could not be happier, but sometimes, we want a little break. Just For The Win’s Icy Gems created for Microgaming-powered casinos provides just that – a fun, enjoyable game wrapped in simplistic graphics. The title is played on a 5×3 playing field with 20 fixed paylines. Bonuses include symbol storage and super spins.

When we said that the slot is simplistic, we meant it. The background is a single repeating texture which looks like Christmas gift-wrap paper, while the reels are populated with basic icons. The only time we see any awesome animations are when the super spins special feature is triggered. And considering there are three different variations of super spin, the game’s graphics are not as bland as they originally seem. However, while the graphics are unique, the gameplay of Icy Gems is identical to a previous Just For The Win release called Reel Talent. It offers the same bonuses and the RTP and volatility are identical. While cloning titles is an unfortunate reality of the industry, most developers have the common sense not to release the cloned slot in the same month as the original.

Players can wager between $0.10 up to $100 per spin, which is a great betting spread for casual gamblers and high rollers. The game has high volatility and an RTP of 96.03%, and that is average compared to other titles made by the same developer. The maximum win is worth 1,210.5x your total bet.

Symbols include playing card royals: J, Q, K and A, alongside emeralds, rubies, amethysts, diamonds, and the slot’s logo. A golden W letter is the Wild icon and it can substitute for all other symbols. When a winning combination happens, the icons which were part of that score are stored off to the side, and a re-spin is played. If another win occurs, that symbol is stored, too. This continues until no new pays are granted, or three icons have been selected, which leads to the Superspin bonus. Superspin has three distinct visual stages, depending on collected symbols. If all three icons are different, the regular stage one plays. If two symbols are the same, and one is different, the golden stage two is triggered. And if all three icons are identical, a crimson stage three is played, on which a win is guaranteed.