Land Hyper-Wins on the new Lucky Riches Hyperspins slot

It's pretty rare that you get an in-house release from Microgaming these days with their partners being the source of most of their recent releases, but the Isle of Man-based slots giant is still producing the occasional slot now and then and one of their own games has just been released across the Microgaming platform, it's called Lucky Riches and it features the Hyperspins option.

This is a 5x3 reel, 243 Ways to Win slot that is based, loosely, on a casino/gambling mecca theme with the backdrop of a neon lit city, presumably Las Vegas or based thereon, in soft focus in the background of the slot. That does shift all your attention onto the reels.

With Hyperspins, you can choose to spin any of the five reels after a spin, for the price stated below each reel. This allows you more flexibility about which reels to target (for example, if you are a symbol short on one reel for a big win, you can spin just that reel, at a cost). So how does this brand new release (hitting casinos on the 7^th May 2020) stack up?

We decided to take a closer look to find out.

Overview

• Game: Lucky Riches Hyperspins
• Developer:
• Reels: 5x3
• Pay Lines: 243 ways to win
• Minimum Bet: 0.25
• Maximum Bet: 125.00
• Jackpot: 480x
• Free Spins Bonus: Yes
• Other Bonuses: Yes
• Progressive: No
• Volatility: Low

Presentation

The backdrop to the slot is a neon lit city which is obviously inspired by Las Vegas, although it is in soft focus, or if you were being less polite, blurred. That switches all your focus to the main reels, which are located in the centre of the screen with the main controls of the slot at the foot of the reels. At the bottom of reach reel is a small box, which is where the cost of the Hyperspins spin for each of the five reels is displayed after each spin.

Accompanying the simple on screen visuals is a rather jazzy, electronic funk soundtrack which is rather nice and provides a nice backdrop as you play on the slot. The animations are smooth, as you would expect from Microgaming, but given the presentation of some of their other releases in the past few months, it is all a little underwhelming.

The slot is a mix of retro themes and some newer style bonuses. Sometimes these slots work very well, other times they miss the mark. Let's see where Lucky Riches Hyperspins falls on that continuum.

What is on the reels?

As we mentioned previously, Lucky Riches Hyperspins is a more retro-looking slot and that is true when it comes to the symbols on the reels. The lower value symbols are the playing card symbols, from the 9 through to the Ace.

Wins start at just 0.08x your stake, which is a very small amount but you can win up to 8x your stake with these lower value symbols. In truth though, with the lower value symbols you need to hit at least five across the reel to guarantee any decent profit on a spin.

The higher value symbols are all linked in with the retro theme or gambling in general and they include a pair of dice, a bell, a Bar symbol, a trio of poker chips and the lucky 7 is the highest value symbol in the game. Wins with these symbols start at 0.4x your bet and increase up to 160x your bet for landing five of the Lucky 7 symbols.

There are two more symbols on the reels, each linked in to the main bonus features of the slot, the Scatter and the Wild.

Wild features

The Lucky Riches Hyperspins logo is in the game Wild symbol and it only appears on the second and fourth reels, so obviously there are no prizes for landing Wilds across the reel. Instead, the symbol just serves as a substitute for all symbols bar the Scatters. I would have liked to have seen a multiplier attached to the Wild but that was not added to the game.

Free Spins features

The Diamond symbol is the in game Scatter symbol and in order to land a shot at the Free Spins bonus round you need to land three or more of the Scatters anywhere across the reel, either on a single spin or by using the Hyperspins option.

When you do, you will be rewarded with 15 Free Spins and best of all, all wins are subject to an automatic 3x multiplier, which is why the Free Spins bonus round is by far the most lucrative aspect of the slot. You can also re-trigger the Free Spins bonus during the round by landing three or more of the Scatter symbols once again.

The other spins bonus, although not a Free Spins bonus, is the Hyperspins option. After every spin a player can elect to hold four reels and spin just one reel, for the price shown on screen. The more beneficial spinning that single reel is for a player, say if they need just one more Scatter to trigger the Free Spins bonus, or if they are one symbol away from a big money win, then the greater the value of the spin will be.

Players are free to use Hyperspins as often as they like and they can swap the reels they spin in the bonus, however you need to weigh up whether the additional cost in spinning the reel to try and land that win or trigger Free Spins, is worth it for the extra cash you'd need to pay to activate the bonus.

Best feature of the Lucky Riches Hyperspins slot

It may be something of a controversial opinion in slots circles, but I don't actually like the Hyperspins bonus very much. The only time it becomes interesting for you, the price of the spins rises a great deal so that you have to really think whether it is an option you want to use at all. For me, the best bonus on this slot is definitely the Free Spins bonus which when landed can see the player land some of the better value wins on this lower variance slot.

Conclusion

Lucky Riches Hyperspins is an interesting slot but for me it is one that I think would have been better in doing away with the Hyperspins aspect of the slot, increasing the size of the bottom end wins for each of the symbols and then adding another bonus feature, say in the base game that could be randomly triggered. That said, if you like Hyperspins and the options it gives you, then Lucky Riches is as good an example of the genre as you are likely to find.

You can play Lucky Riches Hyperspins at any of the Mega Moolah casinos.