California Gold Slot Review 2024

California Gold

California Gold is a 5 reel slot from NextGen which has 20 paylines. This one offers free spins, scatter features and wilds, plus a jackpot of $10,000.

The gold rush of California is a well known phenomenon, a time when a lot of people got rich and a lot of people died poor because of it. It also fueled the development of California at the time, so as it happens with many other things it had both good and bad sides. One of those areas where gold was being prospected is seen in the background image of this slot, with barrels on one side and with sticks of TNT found on the other. The reels are made entirely out of wood, even the background panels on top of which the symbols appear. Speaking of the symbols, the images are well done and they include the miner, the gold nugget, the bandit, the gold mine, the mule, a mining cart with gold, a gold pan, sticks of TNT, a map, a lamp, barrels and a pickaxe.

The top jackpot gives the player $10,000 if he wins the 5000 coins while betting with $2 coins per line. If he does that and he selects all 20 lines, the bets go up to $40. He has the option to reduce the line bet to as little as $0.01 if he wants to, though the 5000 coins will have a considerably smaller value after that.

The gold nugget acts as the scatter feature of this slot, offering the player payouts for having two to five of these symbols on the reels, which start at twice the amount wagered and go up to 100 times the amount wagered. If the player has a minimum of three scatter symbols, he also wins a round with 10 free games which have a 3x multiplier for its payouts.

The other big feature mentioned on the slot's paytable is the wild, using the image of the gold crazed miner. This wild can only appear on the middle three reels (2, 3 and 4) and it can substitute for the other symbols when it does show up.

If the player has the wild on all three reels, he gains access to the bonus round called Mad Miner. In this bonus round, the player selects one of the mines and he collects the nuggets found in it.

It's an enjoyable game overall and it has a bit of funny elements in its graphics which add to its character and enjoyment.