Overview
Prepare to be dazzled by Little Gem, a vibrant 3-reel, 3-row slot from Pragmatic Play and Reel Kingdom! This medium volatility game boasts a captivating design, overflowing with glittering gems and shimmering effects against a stunning blue-purple backdrop. Experience the thrill of 5 fixed paylines as you spin towards a maximum win of 2,460x your bet. With a default RTP of 96.7%, Little Gem offers a balanced gameplay experience, perfect for both casual and seasoned players. The unique Hold & Win bonus round adds an extra layer of excitement, rewarding you with the potential for substantial prizes. While the hit frequency is reported as 1 in 20 spins, the high-value symbols and expanding wilds can deliver satisfying wins. A surprisingly understated soundscape contrasts with the dazzling visuals, creating a unique atmosphere. Little Gem offers a compelling blend of classic slot mechanics and modern bonus features, providing a distinctive gaming experience.
Gameplay & Features
As the name states, Little Gem's focal feature is its Hold & Win bonus round. On themiddle reelonly,gold and silver Money symbolsmay appear, each one taking a value of1x to 20x the total bet. When3 Money symbolsare in view, theHold and Respin bonus roundis triggered. When this feature is activated, the three triggering Money symbols remain on the reel, and all other symbols fade away. A total of4 respinsare awarded, and if new Money symbols land, they lock in position; plus, the spin counter isresetback to four. During respins,Diamond Money symbolsmay land onreels 1 or 3. These symbols have values of100x to 500x the total bet. When respins run to zero, all Money symbol values are awarded, and the feature ends
Final Thoughts
Reel Kingdom has a knack for pushing out unusual slots, but they've really outdone themselves this time. It's funny how one of the more flamboyant, look at me, games we've come across in a while has such empty gameplay. The low hit rate can lead to lengthy runs of dead spins, and when coupled with the fact there's no music can be deathly dull to power through. Symbol values aren't too bad, so when a win finally manages to emerge from the morass, it's almost akin to finding an oasis in the desert. The top return value is decent, however, so there is a form of equilibrium going on. Either way, are people going to queue up and play Little Gem to experience a bizarre exercise in balancing the books?
Debatable, and it's probably best not to pick Little Gem if your idea of a good time is sensory overload while a raging hot rod of a game bucks away like a wild bronco. Once our eyes adjusted to Little Gem's garish colour scheme, the game was just straight-up dull. Nothing happened most of the time, the process of waiting for symbols to hit seemed to take ever longer lengths of time, and the desire to stick it out to see the finer moments took progressively more willpower. They say time flies when you're having fun, so if time feels like it's going backwards, what does that imply? In short, if you want an absorbing hold & win game with depth, Little Gem is unlikely to fit the bill, though, to be fair, you don't see this sort of feature on a 3x3 grid often.
On the positive side, several of Little Gem's key stats aren't bad - default RTP is solid, and the max win of2,460x the betisn't atrocious, for what it is. Little Gem is a game which takes a lot of player effort to extract any joy out of, it must be said, and why bother when there are better hold 'n wins or classic slots mere clicks away. Still, one cool thing about people is that we have all types of interests and turn-offs. So, there might be players out there who'll be brought to their knees in gratitude by what Pragmatic Play and Reel Kingdom have made, whereas others are likely to flee at first sight.
