Golden Festival Gold Pays Slot Review

Golden Festival is one of two recent releases in the excellent Gold Pays series, joining Golden Princess – another game that you can read all about and find the best alternatives for right here at Mr Gamez. As with any Aristocrat slot series, the two games share plenty in common but these games are by no means clones. While they continue to pack in the most desirable and enjoyable features that the series is known for, they also make sure to change things up sufficiently to offer noticeably different action. We’ll take a look at what makes the game so special as we proceed through the review, but first we’ll mention the online availability of the game. As you’d expect from one of the freshest releases around, Aristocrat is focusing on ensuring a market share among land based players first, so no online version of any of the Gold Pays series is slated for an imminent release at present. Nevertheless, we’ve pulled out everything that is great about the slot and matched it up with existing online games – you can find them on the full Golden Festival alternatives page here on the site, or check out further details at the end of this feature.

Golden Festival Gold Pays Theme

This entry in the Gold Pays series sees Aristocrat turning to arguably their best known theme of all time – Asia. They always put a traditional, classic twist on such games and that’s what you’ll find here, with some familiar icons joined by some highly detailed new additions. The game is certainly nice to look at and even the cabinet itself is highly detailed, with the main jackpot prizes being joined by a pay table at the top of the machine, ensuring that you always have an idea of what you stand to win. There are plenty of fireworks and sound effects to enhance the action, making this a real treat for fans of the Aristocrat slot style.

Gameplay and Prizes

As noted, the game displays the prizes available on the machine itself, so whether you opt for the one cent or two cent version, you’ll always know what’s coming from each symbol combination. In between those pay out amounts, you’ll see perhaps the most important part of the game of all – the four different standalone jackpots. The prizes are won as part of a simple second screen game where you must turn over tiles in order to discover which of the progressives they are hiding. There are twelve tiles in total and each of the four jackpots is represented by three symbols. Whichever one you discover three of first represents the jackpot that you win, with the lower end being just a few dollars and the top prize running into the thousands.

Basic gameplay is certainly not difficult to get to grips with, particularly if you’ve been playing Aristocrat slots for a while. Golden Festival uses the Reel Power 60 configuration, meaning plenty of ways to win without breaking the bank, together with the five by four reel layout that has almost become a standard on any Reel Power game.

Features and Bonuses

By far the most interesting mechanic on Golden Festival, aside from the jackpots of course, is the Gold Pays feature itself. When enabled, all of your standard slot symbols turn gold and, as you’ll notice on the pay table at the top of the machine, they become worth far more than their standard versions. The game also packs in the conventional wilds and scatters that you’ll be used to, together with free spins. These all combine to ensure that even if your jackpot winning luck isn’t in, there’s always a reason to play and Golden Festival stands up well to any standalone slot out there and can be particularly exciting even when the jackpots are not involved.

As we discussed earlier in the introduction to this feature, there is not yet an online version of Golden Festival out there, so our Aussie readers will need to head to the local casino to experience this unique brand of slots gameplay. If you’re based elsewhere, or even an Aussie players that wants to enjoy some similar action online, then you’ll be well served by our full Golden Festival alternatives page, where all of the most notable features and visuals can be found on other games that can be played at the top online casinos around the world.