Golden Retriever

Golden Retriever: Slot Overview

Using its portfolio of slots as a guide, few things seem to get Pragmatic Play partner Reel Kingdom's tail a-wagging quite like the animal kingdom. Obviously, the studio has a strong affinity with fish, but sift through its catalogue, and you'll find all sorts of critters from chickens (Finger Lick'n Free Spins), pigs (You Can Piggy Bank On It), cats (Fonzo's Feline Adventures) and more. Now it's time for humans' best friend, dogs, to have a turn. However, a different animal does not mean brand-spanking-new mechanics, since the slot under review, Golden Retriever, contains a fair number of Big Bass connections that players will spot in a heartbeat. Still, there are some newer features sprinkled about the place like fleas on a beast, so who knows, Golden Retriever might end up being someone's best friend, as well.

They might be the ultimate family pet now, but Golden Retrievers were originally bred in Scotland in the mid-19th century to help hunters retrieve game. This may explain why the slot is set way out in the countryside, in the middle of mighty nature where the skies are long and blue, and the wildlife ripe for hunting. Golden Retriever doesn't really seem like much of a hunting slot, though. The protagonist of this game looks far more interested in chasing balls, slobbering lovingly all over someone's face, or nuzzling a crotch or two. While much of the gameplay is straight out of the Big Bass playbook, atmospherically, Golden Retriever felt like a cousin of Bear Crazy, another game which proved that Reel Kingdom can theme slots with animals that don't necessarily have to be bass fish.

Fido's play area is a 5x3 grid where there are 10 paylines evaluating winning combinations of regular pay symbols. Reel Kingdom has tightened the math model up into a highly volatile state, producing a maximum RTP of 96.52%. Gamblers get a couple of feature buys and an ante bet, while the base stake selection ranges from $/€0.05 to $/€250.

The pay table is littered with 10-A card ranks, a dog bowl (this is the Money symbol), a dog rope, a football, a bag of Yum Yum, and a doggy bed. Royal symbols pay out 10x-20x the bet when landing a 5 OAK combination, or 20x-200x is awarded for hitting 5 matching picture symbols.

Golden Retriever: Slot Features

Scatter symbols are present on all reels, and hitting 3 or more of them triggers the bonus round. Before the bonus starts, a wheel spins to award either free spins or the Hold & Spin. Whenever 2 scatters land in the base game, there is a random chance that 1-3 symbols on the screen are transformed into scatters.

Free Spins

Players win 10, 15, or 20 free spins when triggered by 3, 4, or 5 scatters, respectively. Wild symbols appear in the free spins round, where they substitute for all regular paying symbols, and each one collects the value of all Money symbols also in view. Money symbols have a value of 2x to 500x the bet. Wilds are collected as well. Every fourth wild collected retriggers 10 extra free spins and a multiplier of x2, x5, and x10 for the first, second, and third retrigger. Retriggered spins are played when the current batch ends.

For the first retriggered batch of free spins, the Win Fetch modifier occurs, and all symbols on a random payline are changed to instances of the same pay symbol. For the second retrigger, Can't Lick It changes a random number of symbols on screen into instances of a random pay symbol. For the third retrigger, Can You Dig It transforms random symbols into 3 money values each that are collected. Possible values are 1x to 100x. After the third retrigger, no more retriggers can occur. At random, when there is a wild in view but no Money symbols, random Money symbols can be added to positions on the grid.

Hold & Spin

When triggered by 3, 4, or 5 scatters, the Hold & Spin gets a starting reserved multiplier of x1, x3, or x10. During the feature, only blanks and sticky Coin symbols worth 0.4x to 10x may land. The round starts with a random number of Coins already on the screen, and 3 respins. Each time a Coin hits, the respins are reset to 3. The Hold & Spin ends when there are no more respins left, and then Coin values are paid. If the grid is filled with Coins, the values of all Coins are added together and multiplied by the reserved multiplier. The grid is then cleared, random Coins are added, and the feature starts again with a higher reserved multiplier from x2 to x25.

Ante Bet & Feature Buy

The ante bet doubles the stake when activated, to double the chance of winning a bonus round. Players may also buy the bonus triggered by 3-5 scatters for 120x, or triggered by 4-5 scatters for 500x the stake.

Golden Retriever: Slot Verdict

Reel Kingdom has spent years perfecting its Big Bass formula, which has gone through countless iterations after it burst on the scene in 2020. Well, perfecting might be too strong a word. The team has definitely used and reused the formula in a lot of releases since then, mostly fish-related, but not always. With Golden Retriever, Reel Kingdom is back in its element, even if it has swapped fishing trips for slobbering in the great outdoors. Experienced gamblers will instantly spot this as a Big Bass offshoot, with the familiar mix of Money symbols, free spins, and multipliers that no adorable canine theme can wholly disguise. In saying that, even though Golden Retriever clearly borrows heavily from the studio's tried-and-true BB playbook, it manages to produce a few tricks to give it personality.

One issue is that its tricks aren't overly impressive. The Hold & Spin, for example, is a pretty dry example of this type of feature. Its main redeeming quality is the reserved multiplier, which makes both triggering the round with more scatters and filling all positions on the grid extra desirable. It's not the sort of bonus round that redefines what we know of hold 'n' win entertainment, but its simplicity matches the BB ethos, and not every gambler wants a long list of modifying symbols in their hold 'n' win rounds. Free spins are the usual collect Money symbols, collect wilds to progress the multiplier action the studio can churn out in its sleep, but again, tweaks appear in the form of the retrigger modifiers. None produced any sort of 'wow, what is this?' reaction, but none hurt to have around either. Winning potential wasn't especially wow either, but the 5,000x win cap is consistent with what the fishy versions of these sorts of slots are often sporting.

It seems as though Reel Kingdom just cannot bring a chainsaw to the umbilical cord connecting it to its beloved Big Bass setup. Makes sense; the studio's Bass series has been phenomenally successful, and gamblers must clearly still be flocking to this brand of Money symbol collecting. On the other hand, Golden Retriever did feel a bit tired, despite the glossy-coated theme change and one or two newer features.