Game provider Wazdan has been known to create all kinds of crazy online slots in the past, a tradition which undoubtedly continues in Nine Coins (written in the game as 9 Coins™), the latest in their “Hold the Jackpot” series of online slot machines. When you first begin playing the game, you are likely to be confused – nothing seems to result in a win, whatever lands anywhere on the reels. The only obvious feature appears to be the fact that coins with a red inner colour will stick in place indefinitely any time that they land. The paytable explains – there are no prizes available in the base game of 9 Coins (Hold the Jackpot). So that’s no pay lines – no pay ways – no base game prizes whatsoever – an RTP of 96.06%, and a maximum jackpot of just 500x your bet. That’s an “interesting” start to things, for sure.
So where are the prizes, you might well ask? They can be found in the bonus game, activated by hitting three symbols of any type on the middle row of the reels. This will trigger the “Hold the Jackpot” feature, which is a free spin-type bonus round where you begin with three spins, and the counter refreshes any time an extra symbol appears, which will become sticky until the end of the bonus round. That’s all you get by way of features, so I hope you like that type of bonus round!
Intrigued? I don’t blame you! Why not give our free demo slot of 9 Coins™ (Hold the Jackpot) a spin or two below?
9 COINS™ SLOT THEME, STAKES, PAYS & SYMBOLS
As far as the theme of 9 Coins™ is concerned, I guess you won’t be surprised to learn that almost every part of this game concerns its unusual 9-reel setup, filled only with huge golden coins. There hasn’t been any attempt made to dress up the game with any further theming, which makes the limited nature of the base game even more unusual in my eyes. Who is 9 Coins™ intended to appeal to? Maybe there’s more to this slot than we think, right?
I was expecting the game to at least feature something special in terms of its payouts – there must be some attraction for a game to be successful, after all. That makes the limited maximum payout of just 500x your bet even more surprising – it feels like there are a lot of surprises for a game which is so openly lacking in them! The numbers shown on the large coins refer to a prize which will be paid out once you make it to the bonus game, but they only range between 5-10x your bet. There are Mini, Minor, and Major jackpot symbols, but the value of these is fixed at 10x, 20x, and 50x your stake, respectively.
You can win several of these prizes at once, but if the Grand jackpot happens to appear during the same bonus round, you will only win the prize for that one coin, which is the game’s maximum prize of 500x your bet. I felt sure there must be more hidden away here somewhere, but after playing the game for around half an hour and reading all the information pages, it contains, I realised that I was out of luck – this is all that the game has to it.
It’s hard to say what the minimum and maximum bet available in this game is in terms of Euros (or pounds/dollars) as the demo version of the game lets you choose between a minimum of €0.10 and a maximum of €10,000 – I can’t imagine that there is any casino out there willing to accept bets that large, even on a game with a maximum payout of just 500x. If other review sites are to be believed, the maximum bet may be €100.00, but it’s impossible to be 100% certain of this.
BASE GAME & MODIFIERS
How on earth do you describe the base game of a slot such as this? I guess I’ll have to defer to the way it is described in the paytable! The game features nine reels arranged in a 3×3 grid – note that each box is a reel of its own; this is not a 3×3 playfield as you might expect when first opening the slot.
The reels only contain bonus symbols, so you will often find yourself with lots of empty boxes at the end of each spin. No prizes are awarded for any combination that lands in the bonus game, and even the red coins which become sticky and locked in place are not worth anything until you get to the Hold the Jackpot bonus round.
9 COINS™ SLOT BONUS FEATURE
The bonus round is a little bit more interesting – you’ll need to land three bonus symbols on the middle row to trigger the feature, but remember, all the symbols that land in the base game of 9 Coins™ are bonus symbols, so that means you need a full row of any symbol on the middle row to enter the bonus round.
You begin the “Hold the Jackpot” feature with three free spins, and any red coins you had locked before the feature’s start will remain in their place until the end of the bonus round. Each time another symbol lands on the reels, your free spin counter will reset back to three, but you won’t receive any prizes until the end of the bonus round. This occurs if you run out of free spins or manage to fill the entire grid with prizes – something that I never saw during testing.
My average return from each bonus round was well under 100x my stake, but I did have two hold the jackpot features which were somewhat out of the ordinary, one of which paid around 200x and another which reached over 400x my bet. That’s not bad going for a relatively short session of play.
Volatility Levels™ Feature
A “chilli meter” shown to the left of the main spin button allows you to select the volatility level of the game. It isn’t explained exactly how this affects things. Still, presumably, there will be more low-value bonus rounds at the low volatility setting, whilst the chances of hitting the Grand Jackpot will be higher at the high volatility setting. However, I kept a chart of my winnings from 20 bonus rounds and didn’t notice any significant difference between the three settings!
9 COINS™ SLOT REVIEW FINAL THOUGHTS
It’s hard to believe that this is all there is to Wazdan’s 9 Coins™ – Hold the Jackpot; actually, it’s even more difficult to believe that this review has stretched to over 1,200 words, considering how basic the gameplay is here.
I’m sure there is a specific type of “old school” slots player who will enjoy playing this game, but it wasn’t for me. If you are an older player or are one of the people that enjoy classic three-reel games, why not give this one a try? You could well be the target audience.