The jewels we seek are all across our five reels – splendidly glimmering gems of all colours and varieties, intermingled with the usual 10s through Aces that make up the lower-paying symbols. When it comes to the lower symbols, we can all sigh. Nobody likes them, nobody wants them. And in Jewel Strike we have the option to get rid of them using the Epic Spins feature (see Bonus Features section, below). Yay!
Meanwhile, let’s focus on the game-play. As usual with Blueprint games the betting interface is straightforward, offering only a Total Bet option rather than coin levels, bet levels and all sorts of other levels offered by other developers. As we said in the Game Facts, these 10 pay-lines Pay Both Ways, but they also pay adjacently. To put this simply, if we land a combination of three symbols on reels 1, 2 and 3, or reels 2, 3 and 4, or reels 3, 4 and 5 we will score a winning combo.
Bonus Features
And so to the Epic Spins feature, which allows us to remove the lower-paying symbols from the board altogether. We can either remove some of the low symbols – 10, Jack, Queen – and multiply our stake x5, or we can also remove the King for x10 our Total Bet, or we can choose to do away with the Ace as well for a Total Epic Bet of x20. Thus, in this scenario, if we play a bet of €/£/$1.00 per spin, in the most epic of Epic Spins this will translate into a bet of €/£/$20.00 per spin. However, with no pesky low symbols to mingle with our high-payers the chances of landing high-paying winning combos are thereby increased.
Epic Spins or not, we can randomly land a Colossal Reel during any spin. Any one of the symbols can appear as a Colossal Symbol, covering a 3×3 grid. The Colossal Symbols therefore offer guaranteed wins, plus if any other matching symbols land adjacent to the Colossal Symbol our Big win potential is striking. Should we land five reels full of Golden Globes we will be looking at a whopping x1,000 multiplier, after which we’ll quickly need to sit down.
