New Year Riches Slot Review

Where To Play New Year Riches

I’m used to seeing new releases from Play’n Go – and from my experience, they’re probably the most prolific software provider on the planet when it comes to pushing out new content. Chances are you’ll have played their games before if you have ever used any of the leading mobile slots sites.

Unfortunately, that means that sometimes, they push out content that isn’t necessarily as good as what we’re used to – and I have a feeling that New Year Riches is going to be a good example of a Play’n Go slot that just doesn’t get the play-time the software provider anticipates.

In this New Year Riches slot review, I’m going to do my best to give you an honest, impartial and in-depth look at what New Year Riches offers – and I’ll kick things off with a look at how to play the game.

As the name suggests, New Year Riches is based around New Year’s Eve – and some decent-looking graphics and animations reinforce this. The game itself is built around a 5-reel, 3-row mechanic, and there’s a total of 20 fixed paylines in play. The game’s RTP is – by default – 96.48%, and you can stake from between 0.20 and 100 credits per spin.

How to Play

Play’n Go make their slots as easy to play as possible, and this is no different in New Year Riches. It’s really easy to start playing, and all you need to do is select the amount of money you want to bet, and press the spin button – that’s pretty much all there is to it!

Unlike other software providers, Play’n Go don’t have the game set – by default – to spin at a high amount, and the minimum of 0.20 bet credits is the default; I like this, as it means that if you accidently spin before selecting your bet size you don’t end up placing a massive bet!

Like most the game developer’s other slots, New Year Riches also comes with an autoplay function; this allows you to set up to 100 spins to play out automatically, and it’s a really useful feature, especially for those playing from mobile devices. There’s also a Quickspin option, but this isn’t available to players from the UK anymore, due to new regulations brought in by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission.

Symbols and Payouts

I would definitely class New Year Riches as a medium variance slot; in fact, I was able to find the main promotional sheet from Play’n Go, which states that New Year Riches ranks 6/10 on the volatility scale. From my testing – this seems to be about right, although I am a little bit surprised that the RTP is so high.

It’s not up to the likes of classic NetEnt slots like Blood Suckers – but it’s still higher than the industry average today – and it’s good to see Play’n Go offering high-RTP slots even in today’s competitive iGaming day and age.

When it comes to the game’s symbols, you’ll notice that Play’n Go has chosen to stay away from conventional playing card values, including 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace; instead, the lower-paying symbols are represented by playing card suits, so you’ll find Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds and Spades on the reels. They don’t pay particularly well, so bear this in mind.

When it comes to the higher-paying symbols, Play’n Go has chosen to offer a variety of the world’s most iconic places – so there’s the Taj Mahal, a Japanese Temple, London’s Big Ben, and the US’ Statue of Liberty.

There’s also a wild symbol on the reels which substitutes for all other symbols bar the scatter symbols; this is represented by the Champagne and Flute. Finally, there’s the scatter symbols themselves, and this is shown by a Clock striking midnight.

Bonus Features

As you’ll soon see, there’s very little to actually find in New Year Riches when it comes to bonuses and features, and it’s one of the main reasons why I feel the game isn’t going to do anywhere near as well as some of Play’n Go’s other releases do.

I think it’s pretty fair to say that Play’n Go has decided to focus almost entirely on the game’s look and feel – rather than the math model and the game’s mechanics. Still, there is one bonus round which I’ll talk about below:

New Year Free Spins

The New Year Free Spins round is the only bonus you’ll find inside New Year Riches, and it’s triggered by landing three of the scatter symbols on the first three reels. Remember, the scatter symbols are represented by the Clocks.

When you manage this, you’ll be taken to a brand-new screen where you’ll see a giant “splash” where you’re awarded 10 free spins. However, I should point out that 10 Free Spins isn’t the limit – you will find yourself able to win more than 10 free spins; more on that in just a moment.

The free spins themselves actually play out on exactly the same set of reels – and this means there aren’t any wild symbols or stacked symbols added to the reels. I think this is a shame – and I can’t help but feel as though Play’n Go have somewhat missed the boat here… but still, let’s talk more about what makes the bonus round stand out.

You’ll notice that – when you begin the feature – you’re awarded, initially, a 2X win multiplier. This is applied against any wins you form. On each subsequent spin, the multiplier increases by 1X – and it’s possible to get the multiplier as high as 20X.

How do you manage that? Well, you need to re-trigger the feature – and that’s achieved by landing 1, 2 or 3 of the scatter symbols in view during the bonus. Doing so will award you with an additional 2, 4 or 6 Free Spins respectively, and unlike other Play’n Go slots there’s no limit on the number of free spins you can be awarded.

Jackpot and How To Win

Like many of Play’n Go’s slots, New Year Riches has a maximum win of 5,000X your stake – although, again, like many of their slots, figuring out exactly how to win this ‘jackpot’ is pretty difficult.

A win of just over $3000 was the best I could manage. This was a result of the free spins round, with the 20x multiplier. There were a couple of respins included within it as well.

Not a bad result of course, but nowhere near as much as I’ve managed during some of my other slot reviews.

From what I understand, the only way you’ll be able to actually get anywhere near this maximum win-potential of 5,000X is to get the 20X multiplier during the bonus round and land multiple lines of the top-paying symbol; however, it’s not possible to win 5,000X your stake in a single spin, so bear this in mind.

Software

I do have to hand it to Play’n Go when it comes to their mobile-optimized gaming; all their games render incredibly well and New Year Riches is certainly no exception. When I was putting this New Year Riches review together I tested the slot out extensively – and that meant I played it from a number of different mobile devices, including iOS phones and Android tablets.

One of the first things I noticed was that New Year Riches loads really quickly – and, like other game developers like Quickspin – I wasn’t left waiting for a minute or two as the game’s sounds and animations loaded.

Play’n Go has also made it really easy to select the bet size from their mobile-optimized games. It’s as easy as were you accessing the site from a desktop computer or laptop, and I was really impressed with just how easy it was to run through the different bet options on offer.

The only thing I’ll point out here, is that I recommend tilting your device into “landscape” mode when playing. This ensures the game’s full display “opens up”, and it means you’ll be able to see all the game options and buttons on your screen. Without doing this, many of the game options are ‘hidden’ under the hamburger menu, so it’s just something to be aware of.

Summary

If I’m being completely honest, I have a feeling that New Year Riches will appeal to quite a small player base; while, I feel, Play’n Go has done a great job of building a good-looking video slot that’s fun-to-play, exciting – and fast-paced – I do feel that it’s going to cower when put up against many of Play’n Go’s other slots like Reactoonz, Book of Dead and Wild Frames.

New Year Riches might be fun for a few spins over the holidays, but I’m not sure whether any of our team will still be playing it in January.

One of the main reasons why I say this, is due to the fact that New Year Riches just doesn’t offer any bonuses and features that I haven’t seen much in the past. I also found that the base game is pretty mundane – and aside from the base game wins, there’s no reel modifiers or anything to look forward to.

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Perhaps the only thing that somewhat saves New Year Riches is the fact that, during the main bonus round, the multiplier can increase to as high as 20X.

While achieving this multiplier is pretty hard (you’ll need to re-trigger the bonus round a fair few number of times) it does at least mean New Year Riches offers some decent win-potential – and of course, I like the fact that it’s possible to win as much as 5,000X your stake… but again, like most of Play’n Go’s slots, don’t expect to see many wins above 1,000X stake.

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Last Updated on February 21, 2021