7000+ Pokies
Gameplay & Design
In many ways, Where’s the Gold is your standard online pokie. You match specific symbols on a payline across the five reels, with the amount that you win depending on how many of that symbol you managed to match. As with other games, there are two “groups” of symbols: playing themed icons and card icons. The themed icons are associated with the gold rush, including wagons and pickaxes. Matching themed icons will always provide bigger winnings than matching playing card icons.
However, the Where’s the Gold pokie parts company with other games when it comes to the dynamite, which is the scatter symbol. Getting a dynamite symbol triggers a unique sound effect; if two, a music sting will play on every remaining reel. Get three or more to earn a big ol’ fashioned yee-haw and be taken to the bonus screen, which we will cover in the section below.
From a design perspective, the Where’s the Gold pokie is bright and charming, if otherwise unremarkable. The dynamite is the only animated icon, and even that only activates if the player is on the way to the bonus game. There’s also no ambient music or sound effects for reel spins, meaning that the average person is going to play the game with stretches of silence.
While it is cool that the Where’s the Gold pokies was adapted from an actual pokie, and it is a fun game in its own right, it could take lessons from other online pokies when it comes to better engaging players.
