Rainbow Riches Fortune Favours Slots
There’s a saying that goes ‘’Fortune Favours The Brave’’, but you won’t need bravery to play the Rainbow Riches Fortune Favours video slot game, as it’s a reliable, high-paying and feature-filled title from those nice people at Barcrest, who know a thing or two about what punters are looking for and how to provide games that match their needs. Rainbow Riches will be familiar to anyone who has ever been near a slot machine, either at land-based casinos, online or at mobile optimised casino sites, as the game has been around, in various guises for years.
This latest version adds a few unique features to the Irish themed reels, such as a Magic Fairy who transforms into a mystery symbol at the end of a spin, but the real difference here is the way that players can select Big Bets to activate other features, such as a wild symbol, extra sets of reels and the removal of the lower-paying playing card icons.
As you would expect from an online slot that follows the Irish theme, there’s rolling green fields and rainbows behind the reels, while the picture symbols are largely made up of harps, toadstools, and even more rainbows, all overseen by an animated leprechaun who occasionally appears to one side of the game and waves at you. The leprechaun has been seen across all of the Rainbow Riches slots from the UK-based Barcrest casino games developer. Now owned by Scientific Games, the company remains one of the biggest names in the business.
Spinning up some Irish luck
This All Ways Pays (AWP) slot sees win-lines starting from either side of the game and any 3 or more matching symbols across any of the 10 paylines will be all that’s needed to win a prize. In the base games, Celtic-style high card symbols fill out the lower half of the paytable, returning wins of between 5x, 15x and 50x multiples of the stake per line when the 10, J, or Q are seen on 3, 4, or 5 reels, to 10x, 20x, or 100x for the K or A.
A blue harp, or the red toadstools, will each pay you the equivalent of 20x, 50x, or 150x the line bet, while a rainbow is worth up to 200x. By far the best symbol to land however, is the Rainbow Riches logo, as this returns 50x the line stake when it’s on 3 reels, 250x for lines of 4 and a payline filled with 5 of this logo will be worth a massive 2,500x.
At the very basic level, there’s just a single bonus feature in play, with the Magic Fairy transforming into a random example of any other symbol whenever she’s seen on the reels. If several Fairy symbols appear, they will all turn into the same randomly-selected symbol which will go some way to completing extra winning lines. But the Rainbow Riches Fortune Favours video slot is all about the extra features that are activated by the Big Bet.
A Bonanza of Big Bet Bonuses
A big ‘BB’ symbol takes you to the Big Bet options, where higher stakes open up greater winning possibilities and exciting features. Selecting wagers of 10.00, 20.00, 30.00, 40.00 or 50.00 per spin turns the single set of reels into 4 sets in a 2x2 grid pattern. A single Big Bet activates them all and in effect quadruples the chances of landing wining combinations, but each of these stakes will also add in additional features.
If you play the 10.00 Big Bet, the 4 set of reels work in just the same way as the single set at lower stakes, but at the 20.00 Big Bet level or above, any Magic Fairy symbol that appears will also transfer down to any subsequent sets of reels, making it easier for you to see symbols transforming into more examples of a random icon and completing win-lines.
Play the 30.00 Big Bet, and a wild symbol comes into play, acting as all others if it lands in the right places to plug any gaps in a run of matching symbols, or to extend a win across extra reels. Raise this to the 40.00 Big Bet, and not only does the Magic Fairy transfer to subsequent sets of reels, but so does the wild symbol, while the top 50.00 Big Bet can be even more lucrative, as not only are these special features in effect, but the 10, J, and Q playing card symbols are removed from the reels, making it far more likely that high-paying combinations will be landed.
Other Betting Options
While the Big Bets make this a game more suited to high rollers than casual punters, there’s still an option to play the basic game on a single set of reels for as little as 0.10 per spin and that you can keep raising the stakes beyond 50.00 to a high limit of 500.00. Free Rainbow Riches Fortune Favours video slots can be found, and these give you an idea of how the multiple reels and extra features work at each level, although clearly, without the chance to actually win anything.
There’s an Autoplay function if you just want to sit back and watch the reels spin on their own, and you can enjoy this game in a mobile optimised version that loses none of the features or rewards, and just moves the control buttons to the sides, where fingers and thumbs will naturally be placed on the smaller screens of smartphones.
It’s worth nothing however, that each symbol position on the 4 sets of reels is going to be tiny when they are crammed onto smartphone screens.
Other Irish Themed Slots
While the rest of the Rainbow Riches range is an obvious choice for fans of this slot machine, there are so many Irish themed games available that it’s hard to select just a couple to recommend.
Anyone who likes state of the art graphics should take a peek at the CGI-filled reels and backdrop to the Lucky Clovers video slot from Nucleus Gaming, where a happy leprechaun (is there any other type?), watches over the unique 5+1 reel format. Landing special symbols on the sixth reel will unlock features such as a money wheel which can lead to a jackpot, giant leprechaun symbols in a free spins round, or a pick a pot of gold instant-win game.
There’s more high-end graphics in IGT’s Shamrockers Eire to Rock slot machine, which sees an Irish band drumming up winnings The four members of the shambolic Shamrockers will pay out the highest wins, while a wild symbol and free spins feature with stacked reels should help to bring a rousing encore to the games.
Does Fortune Favour Players?
Although there’s still a potentially rewarding Magic Fairy feature in the basic version of this slot, Rainbow Riches Fortune Favours is really aimed at players who like to use real cash wagers of 10.00 and above per spin and having 4 sets of reels in play transforms this from a fairly standard game into an exceptional one.
The return to player percentage is high across all bet sizes though, so even at these higher stakes, the extra features should ensure plenty of winning spins. Having the flexibility to play on Android, Windows, iPhones and iPads is an important consideration these days, and one that will extend the fan base of this slot, although just about any game that follows the traditional Irish theme is going attract plenty of players.
