Diamond Rise

It isn't very often you'll come across new 3 reel online slot machines these days, and this is because casino game developers prefer to release slot titles with a minimum of 5 reels. In the case of online slots with high numbers of paylines, you can even find 6 – 7 reel slots these days. Diamond Rise is a new release keeping things very simple with only three reels, and in a move that proves just as basic, the studio has only made up to 3 paylines available. Are we seeing a new trend appearing with players actually preferring 3 reel slots? Before we get ahead of ourselves, let's see what Diamond Rise has to offer, especially with the pinball-style bonus feature with multipliers.

Rarestone Gaming is a new-ish studio that’s been releasing online casino games for a few years now. We refer to them as new because most studios have been around for ages now, with the likes of NetEnd and Microgaming still going strong since the 90s. Diamond Rise is a bit of a strange slot in that its theme could be summed up as the Miami diamond scene? That’s more of a question we’re posing, as it’s hard to tell exactly what they were going for. One of their previous releases, Gold Pile: Orangutan, will probably live a little longer in the memory based on presentation, but let's not get too carried away and judge this book by its cover. As mentioned, there are only 3 reels with three paylines, but this doesn’t mean the thrills will be any less than a 5 reel slot.

Something we’ve noticed is that slots with fewer reels and paylines like Diamond Rise tend to cater exceptionally well to high rollers. This slot has a maximum stake option of 500 per spin. We're not sure how experienced you are in the world of online slot games, but that's sure to be one of the higher maximum bet limits you're likely to see. The minimum players can drop per spin is only 0.01, so as you can tell, there's a really big wagering window. To round up the specs, all players can play on mobile devices using iOS and Android.

There’s something quite dreamy about the neon lights of Miami. No one can say they aren’t nice to look at, so we found the symbols a nice touch in their neon light format. As this is a traditional 3 reel slot, we have very traditional symbols, being BAR, cherries, grapes, 7 and, the highest paying of all the symbols, the bell.

There weren’t any surprises when we checked out the special symbols, as they’re the standard ones you find in most slots online to bring added value. The wild will substitute all regular icons in order to help complete 3 of a kind wins. The only symbol the wild won’t act as is the scatter, which is represented by the diamond.

Rarestone Gaming might have kept the over slot quite basic, but for the bonus feature, they decided to get a little creative. We can't say we've seen this bonus feature before, so full marks are awarded for originality in this department.

The Diamond Rise bonus is triggered when you land three scatters on the same spin. This will take you to a screen that looks a little like pinball. However, instead of balls shooting out from the bottom of the screen, diamonds get dropped into the screen from the top. You'll see that there are 6 cups at the bottom of the screen with multiplier values, and whichever cup the diamond lands in is what multiplier will be applied to the initial stake. You'll also see that the diamond will hit little iron balls as it falls down the screen, and depending on what balls you hit, more multipliers can be added to the overall tally.

While the bonus feature isn't exactly straightforward, it's very easy to understand when things get going, playing out almost like pachinko. We tend to find that while the option to go big here exists, not many players are out seeking thrills that intense, as most wagers play more for lower, consistent wins than jackpot joy. If your tactic is for lower wins in value to negate wagering high, you can play various online slots here that give better returns with higher multipliers, but if going for the big time is your thing, you might just have found a diamond in the rough in Diamond Rise.