Secret Riches of the Irish

With a name like Secret Riches of the Irish, there was little doubt that we were heading into a leprechaun-populated online slot set in the enchanting wilds of the Emerald Isle. Mere seconds after clicking the try game button, pretty much every supposition was confirmed. Designed by Yggdrasil Gaming partner studio Jelly, Secret Riches of the Irish is, as you might also have suspected, a leprechaun-themed slot which uses its main character, in this instance, a chap named Leppy, to collect cash money symbols, who may be aided in his task by multiplying multipliers in the free spins round.

What also stuck out at the load screen wasn't just the confirmation of how the game would look but the way Leppy holds his pipe. Either the guy has a very flexible thumb or the dude's got an extra finger. Nothing wrong with that, of course, yet it would be an unusual trait for a slot leprechaun. What's not unusual is Secret Riches of the Irish's appearance and sound. An outdoor spot is where Jelly has placed the 5x3 gaming grid, adorning it with Celtic patterns and colouring the scene with trees, a water feature, a dash of mystical lights, and so on. The sound, too, is a pleasant accompanying ditty. Indeed, it's all very pleasant, if generic, to behold.

Next on the list is picking a wager, where the options range from 20 c up to $/€80 per spin. A Golden Bet is available for anyone who would like to increase the stake by 50% in order to get 'Even more Bonus Triggers!' Medium volatile, there are two RTP models available - 94% and 90.5%.

Secret Riches of the Irish has 20 paylines built into its gaming grid and 9 regular paying symbols landing on it. They are leafy 10-A card ranks, paying 3 to 5 times the bet for a 5 OAK hit, then clovers, harps, top hats, and mugs of beer as the highs, worth 10x to 20x for 5-of-a-kind. Secret Riches of the Irish does not have a dedicated wild symbol, but Pot of Gold symbols may be wild, substituting for regular paying symbols when they are.

Secret Riches of the Irish: Slot Features

If the keys to the secrets are the game's features, then they include Pot of Gold money symbol collections, free spins with reel multipliers, and a bonus buy.

Pot of Gold

Pot of Gold symbols are money symbols, appearing on reels 1-4 displaying cash prizes. Leppy is the collector who is present only on the rightmost reel. When Pot of Gold symbols land at the same time as Leppy, he collects the cash prizes. Leppy can also land as a Respin Collect symbol or a Boost Collect. Respin Collect Leppy collects the money prizes then respins the reels in an attempt to land more money symbols to collect any new ones that land. Boost Collect Leppy updates any money symbol in view to collect higher prizes.

Free Spins

Landing 3 scatter symbols on reels 2, 3, and 4 awards 8 free spins. During the feature, landing 2 or 3 scatters awards a further +2 or +4 spins, respectively. Leppy has more chances of landing on the rightmost reel during free spins, and multipliers appear above reels 1-4. These multipliers are activated if a full stack of money symbols lands on the reel below. Multipliers multiply each other if more than one is activated. Multipliers apply to all winnings.

Buy Free Spins

If reel multipliers are where it's at and you can't wait to get into the free spins to witness their abilities, players are able to buy the round for 100 times the bet.

Secret Riches of the Irish: Slot Verdict

Secret Riches of the Irish was a slot that failed to raise much interest at the start of the review and, after putting it through its paces, also failed at the end. There just wasn't much here to get the pulse a-racing; little intrigue, few secrets, nothing exceptional. About the most interesting things in Secret Riches of the Irish were Leppy's possible extra digit and the way Jelly appears to have mirrored some of Blueprint Gaming's collect symbol ideas, whether on purpose or not. The ones which BP has extensively used in games like The Goonies Hey You Guys or King Kong Cash Even Bigger Bananas, namely, hitting a collector on a certain reel, expanding it, and offering several variations. In Secret Riches of the Irish, you don't have to unlock the variations, though. In fact, now that you mention it, Secret Riches of the Irish actually looks quite a lot like a Blueprint Gaming slot, huh.

Winning potential, however, resides on the opposite side of the scale. Where BP slots often have that 50,000x clause in the fine print, Secret Riches of the Irish settles on a much more modest figure of 2,500 times the bet. More realistic, perhaps, yet like the rest of Secret Riches of the Irish, pretty eh as well. Maybe a big target figure would have provided extra motivation to sit through Secret Riches of the Irish's genericism, but, no.

To throw some positivity into the review, Secret Riches of the Irish does look nice, and the subtle mystic touches provide a hint of an enigma. The Irish meets Egyptian-themed slot CleoPatrick DoubleMax appears to have been one of Jelly's more successful releases, so maybe Secret Riches of the Irish will appeal to the same audience. Cool if it does, but it was hard to shake off the impression Secret Riches of the Irish was a forgettable minnow.