Who's a good girl that lays scores of golden eggs? It's Golden Gal's by Indigo Magic from Bragg Studios, of course! This truly golden gal is Grandpa's pride and joy, his favorite hen and the crown jewel of his old farm. Treasured for her ability to provide valuable oval assets, this priceless chick is famous across the land and her progeny is highly sought after. The good people at this popular Bragg's studio conjured up a delightful farming experience filled to the brim with rustic charm, humor and satisfying mechanics that can please just any fan of themed slot games.
General Overview
Golden Gal's is a high-volatility game with a 5x5 grid, 50 paylines and a default RTP of 96.04%. There are no royal symbols here, we're on a farm after all. Instead, there is the coveted golden egg wild and the golden gal herself, both top-paying symbols with the value of 16x the bet for a five-in-line. Mid-paying symbols are two more chicks, a triple seven and the wooden barn sign, while low-paying symbols are represented by fresh corn, eggplant, cabbage and radish veggies. On top of that, other symbols appear, too: the fox thief collector symbol, cash coins and the bonus barn symbol. All symbols share a palette with bright colors and a humorous style, typical of comparable games on the market, and all of them are amusing and a sight to behold. The entire setting is rustic and bucolic, showing an inviting picture of farm life that is pleasant to the eye and mind.
Features and Mechanics The base game features collection mechanics and multiplicative wild multipliers. Coins carry random values that are collected whenever the cunning fox, which is the collection symbol, lands on the reels, and multiple foxes will collect all landed symbols multiple times. Then there are wild multipliers of up to x6 that are not added but multiplied between themselves if more than one lands in one spin, and these two mechanics alone could be enough features for a normal game. However, this is not a normal cookie-cutter title as it reliably entertains with additional bonus features.
The bonus game is started by landing three or more bonus barn symbols which leads to a funny animation of a fox thief randomly drawing between two options: the cash respins and the free spins feature. If you get the former option, you win as many respins as the number of bonus symbols you landed, which is three, four or five. In this phase, all positions spin as individual reels, only include fox collector symbols, Pop N' Split frame symbols and cash coins with values of up to 500x bet. The feature follows classic hold & respin rules, meaning that symbols are sticky and the respins counter is reset back to its starting value whenever a symbol lands.
What's special and exciting in this case, however, is the use of the Pop N' Split mechanic, an original innovation from the Indigo Magic studio. Pop N' Split frames land as symbols and split into four smaller frames. When they land, a funny chicken animation shows how four random values are assigned to each frame. The highest value among them is copied onto the other three frames and then all values are added up, effectively quadrupling the highest value drawn for this one symbol. In other words, if the four values in small frames are, let's say, one, three, five and eight credits, the entire Pop N' Split symbol is worth 32 credits, which can be a significant boost to your payouts. Anyway, when all positions are occupied, you win the sum of all values landed and an additional 500x the bet prize.
If you, on the other hand, win the free spins feature, you are awarded 15, 20 or 30 free spins, depending on how many bonus symbols triggered the bonus feature, and mechanics become even more sophisticated. They revolve around bonus symbols, special wilds and egg collection meters above the reels. First, wilds that land in this phase are sticky for three spins and then removed. Second, all bonus symbols you land now add to their respective egg collection meters with three free slots. For every three collected eggs, their corresponding reel multiplier is upgraded by one to up to x5, and each such upgrade awards three additional free spins. What's more, if a wild lands on a reel with a multiplier, the wild becomes sticky with that multiplier value. If you, however, manage to land a special bonus symbol, all slots in the egg collection area are instantly filled and you receive corresponding bonuses: a multiplier upgrade and three extra free spins.
Last but not least, there are two very useful options that we found to be quite handy and helpful. The first is the side bet option that increases the chances of landing collector or bonus symbols by 32% and 27%, respectively, for a mere 20% extra on your bet. For those who feel lucky (or just impatient), this is a great thing and we cannot recommend it enough. The second and perhaps even more intriguing functionality is the buy bonus option: for 75x your current total bet, you instantly trigger the bonus game with at least three bonus symbols. These two options can do wonders in combination and we've spent almost all of our playtime with both switched on, simply because they were so convenient and considerably spiced up our gaming sessions.
Appearance and experience
The farming theme is still all the rage in the slot scene and certain markets, such as Italy, for example, absolutely love it. The industry standard is to present the theme as humorous and cartoony (I dare you to find a realistically depicted farming slot game) and this title excels in this: characters look like they come directly from an animated feature film and have a well-developed background story. This contributes to the overall appeal of the game at first sight and the initial good impression sticks even after several gameplay sessions. It's definitely a game that attracts attention with its vibrant colors and lighthearted disposition that spells out fun, fun, fun. In addition to that, the game sports a new and updated UI design, clear, efficient and functional, with all the buttons in the right places and an unintrusive style that does not distract from the game, a welcome upgrade of the previous version. We liked the music in the background as well, a chill and simple tune with a guitar, a banjo and a fiddle in low-tempo that fittingly speeds up to mid-tempo whenever you start one of the bonus games. What's more, sound effects are pretty unique and unconventional but fit the theme and make the game special in this aspect as well. This nicely complements the animations of symbols: special symbols and winning combinations pop out when they land, and when you create a winning line, symbols that don't form win combos are greyed out to effectively highlight the winning line. Another, perhaps less subtle but still handy functionality is the clickability of symbols on the grid: you can tap or click on them to see their paytable values.
Our Final Verdict Good-humored themes in slot games are always like a breath of fresh air compared to titles that take themselves (too) seriously - and there's always a pretty sizable market demand for them. This makes them an essential part of any ambitious online casino operator's portfolio: even those players who normally prefer classic-style slots and "serious" themes like to take a break from them and have a few spins in games with offbeat themes to take the edge off. Moreover, there is probably no better way to introduce new players to the pleasure of slot gaming than offering them content that is easy on the eyes and visually friendly. Besides its enjoyable mechanics and features, this is what we liked the most about Golden Gal's: it's instantly approachable, amusing on several levels and, thanks to its high volatility, able to deliver pretty palatable payouts that can please just any player, be it a rookie or a veteran slot scenester. After all, it's not like you can milk the hen that lays golden eggs anywhere and everywhere. Chicken farming just got fun - and here's the game to prove it!
Here's more information about the title.
