Cash Mine

Cash Mine: Slot Overview

The creative impulse in the online gaming world is interesting, constantly drawing in and out like waves at the beach, one minute washing up treasures, the next coughing up something less savoury. Not long before Cash Mine, we'd reviewed Nunchucks Chicken, a game full of barnyard animals and an unusual hold n' win style bonus round from Skywind. Today, we've got Cash Mine, a cute game, sure, but one that lacks much in the way of individuality. Still, Mining themed slots are one of the most bulging collections out there, so if you're in the market for one, take a gander at Cash Mine and see if it's worthy of your coins.

The story begins outside the mine and doesn't head into it until the bonus game has been triggered. That means during the base game, players find themselves above ground, facing a 5-reel, 3-row game grid utilizing 10 paylines, propped up by timber posts in front of a plain rock wall. It's not the most inspiring view, but minimising the screen or playing on landscape mode on a mobile affords players a glimpse of a blue sky and towering crags. Much of Cash Mine's charm is provided by the tinkling sounds of its banjo led soundtrack, injecting life via an upbeat 'home is where you hang yer hat' style soundtrack. The scene is a positive one, though there is a mass-produced feel, too.

There are two ways of metaphorically mining this pit. One is in normal mode where bets range from 10 p/c to $/€300 per spin, or, by adding 50% to the stake, you can engage the Double Chance feature, which doubles the chance of winning free games. One thing to note is the game comes in three RTP settings, with 96.5% being the highest. In this setting, players get a highly volatile math model, which Skywind has rated 5 out of 5, while hits come at a rate of 1 in 6.2 spins. Putting it lightly, not every rock is going to contain a gold nugget.

Lining the game grid are 10 fixed paylines for winning combinations of at least three of a kind on. Pay symbols are standard mining objects, such as high-value lanterns, picks, dynamite sticks and mining helmets. Landing a line of five premiums is worth a payout of 20 to 50 times your total stake. J-A royals make up the low pays and are all worth 5x the bet for a five of a kind hit. Lastly, nugget laden wild symbols pay up to 100x the bet for a line of five while also substituting for any of the previously mentioned pay symbols. The good thing about wilds is when they land, they expand to fill the whole reel.

Cash Mine: Slot Features

There are two ways of potentially striking paydirt in Cash Mine. One is with a money collect system, similar to the one found in Fishin' Frenzy style games. The other is free spins which are boosted when certain symbols are collected.

Money and Collect Symbols

The jolly solo-toothed miner is the collect symbol, and when he lands at the same time as money symbols, he collects their values for the player. There are three types of money symbols, possessing individual values of 2-24x, 25-29x, and +50x the total bet. Money and Collect symbols can appear in the base game as well as in free spins.

Free Games with Boosters

The final symbol to keep your eye on is the mine shaft scatter. Scatters show up on reels 1, 3, or 5, and 3 of them in view awards 8 free spins. Free spins use a respin feature, triggered when money symbols land. The triggering money symbols are locked in place, and the remaining symbols are respun once.

Also, a collection bar is added to the top of the reels in free spins. If a collect symbol hits, it is stored here. When 4 collects are achieved, +8 free spins are awarded, and money symbol values are increased by 1, 2, 3, 5, or 10. When 8 collect symbols are achieved on the bar, multipliers of x2, x3, x5, x10, or x25 increase the values of money symbols on the reels.

Cash Mine: Slot Verdict

Skywind has released a lot of slots and must have a demanding production schedule set in place. That goes some way to explaining the gap between a game like Nunchucks Chicken, a slot which oozed individual identity, and Cash Mine. Instead of putting forward much in the way of new ideas, Cash Mine rehashes a bunch of features while dressing them up in a fallback theme. We're not knocking mining in general. In the right hands, the topic can be used to drive something excitedly original. However, since mining has been used so many times before, if a studio doesn't do interesting things with it, the lack of imagination is doubly noticeable.

Maybe trebly so in Cash Mine, since it is full of common features. The gameplay isn't dull or useless, though. Money symbol collecting is a proven crowd-pleaser, and winning boosters to drive up values in free spins can be fun. Multipliers are typically a bonus in any game, and they can certainly help boost payouts if you can progress so far in the bonus game. At best, Cash Mine's max win has been listed as 5,000x the bet, so decent results can be achieved when the mining's good. Add in the respin element, and in subtle ways, Cash Mine does offer something a little different for mining buffs to experiment with.

In Cash Mine's favour, the vibe is bouncy, the features are a curious rendition of Fishin' Frenzy or Big Bass Bonanza, and the winning opportunities aren't bad. If mining's your thing, Cash Mine has the goods to hit some sort of spot. However, despite the game's positive points, if you don't have a particular interest in the particular theme, Cash Mine may struggle not to come over a touch too generic.