Imagine a bunch of gems floating about in space – one man’s space junk is another man’s treasure. In the case of Joker Gems slot, a futuristic gem matching game from ELK Studios, that’s exactly what’s going on, with prizes awarded for matching combinations and clusters of like for like symbols. This game has much in common with other star and space themed gem slots, so if you’re a fan of any of these types of games, you’ll find plenty to get excited about in Joker Gems.
The Joker element refers to the joker symbol, the most valuable symbol on the board. The action takes place on a 5 x 5 reel set, so there’s a compact feel to proceedings. However, unlike most slots, not every reel position is filled – only some reel positions become occupied on each spin. The aim of the game is to find matching clusters of the same symbol, which will award payouts according to the somewhat complicated paytable.
There’s a lot of cool elements about this game, but perhaps most obviously, there’s the respin function, which we’ll discuss in more detail later on, not to mention the three different levels of jackpots. While these are non-progressive prizes, they do make the action feel all the more exciting, and will result in decent wins if you’re lucky enough to trigger one of them.
There are 20 possible payline/clusters on the board, and you’ll get paid a multiple of your bet depending on the number of symbols in your cluster. Respins also help towards this, so it’s possible to work your way up to a much bigger winning cluster if you get a few lucky spins in a row – it’s all part of what makes Joker Gems stand out against other slots games.
Bets range from £0.20 to £100.00 per spin, so there’s something for every point in the budget range. When you consider the main jackpot stands at up to £120,000, there’s every reason to take this slot for a spin. RTP is strong too, coming in at 96.3% – comfortably amongst the top paying tier of slots games of its kind.
While there aren’t many bonus symbols per se, there are several crucial additional features of note in Joker Gems, with innovation clearly high in the priorities for ELK Studios.
With every spin, there’s the chance to win combinations by landing clusters of three or more symbols. When you spin a cluster, these symbols lock in place for an additional free respin. Any matching symbols that expand the cluster from the next spin will stick, and you’ll get another respin – and so it goes, until you fail to find a match for your clusters. This means you can find yourself landing a 3 symbol combination one minute then walking away with a much bigger win the next – simply by getting lucky on these additional respins.
There are no feature symbols as such, but there are bonuses in addition to the cluster respins which can pay dividends if things go your way.
The Light Chaser feature is a particularly impressive bonus, cropping up from time to time to virtually guarantee a big feature win. It’s a randomly triggered feature that can appear at any moment. When the chaser dances over the screen, it stops to reveal a cluster of four or five matching symbols – great for guaranteeing you something from your feature. Then the free respin kicks in, and you’ve got the chance to add more matches to your cluster, thereby increasing the size of your prize.
Once you see this in action a couple of times, you’ll get a better idea of how it works – and it can be a particularly good paying feature if you manage to increase the size of your cluster.
There are three different jackpots to be won for matching symbol combinations in one of three patterns – you can see these on the first screen of the game information/paytable menu. These pay from £10,000-£50,000 respectively, and it’s where you’ll find the game’s biggest and best wins.
At first glance, you could be forgiven for thinking Joker Gems is nothing special. But with an unusual game engine, some impressive random and cluster bonus features, and the ever-looming presence of those sizeable jackpots, there’s actually a lot more here than first meets the eye.
Joker Gems is a must play slot for anyone who enjoys similar slots games – there’s enough of a twist here to make this unique.