The 007 series of slots has offered a wide variety of scenarios, from giant cabinets to mechanical 3-reel slots. One version I had not seen until my last trip to Vegas, which I played at Virgin Las Vegas, is Goldeneye.
The bet panel shows one thing I like, which is an accessible Grand jackpot. Here you need to bet at least 100 credits on pennies, or $1, to be eligible for the Grand progressive jackpot. Many times on these licensed games you need to be betting $3 or more, so it was nice to see that be more accessible. Of course, if you’re betting higher, your chances of winning it are greater.
One thing that caught my eye quickly about this game is the line hit potential. Three of a kind of any of the premium symbol pays at least your money back. Five of a kind of James Bond gets you 10x your bet, and five of a kind wilds get you 30x your bet.
Normally it would seem hard to get these to come out, especially on an all ways pays game, but for some reason during my time playing it they were coming out to play reasonably often, enough so that I noticed those pays.
The game features a number of bonus opportunities, and it all starts with the wheel.
Wheel Bonus
Getting the bonus symbol on reels 2, 3 and 4 get the wheel bonus. The wheel features a variety of bonus options, including:
- One of the jackpots, whether Minor, Major or Grand
- Pick Bonus, with the ability to go up to three rounds
- Free Games, which gives you seven free games
- Respin Bonus, a hold and spin feature
Let’s go through each of the features in turn
Jackpots
There are three prizes you can win:
- Minor is 120x your total bet
- Major is 600x your total bet
- Grand is the progressive at the time, unless you’re betting 50 credits, in which it is 1250x your total bet ($625).
It’s about as simple as that.
Pick Bonus
The pick bonus has three levels, and you start with five picks. With each pick, you will be paid a credit prize. Some symbols have a +1 pick. There’s also a symbol that will reveal three picks at random (awarding the credit prize for each), add one pick, and move you on to the next level.
The size of the credit prizes available depends on what level you’re on; moving to a higher level increases the reward:
- Level One: 50-300 credits times your bet multiplier
- Level Two: 75-750 credits times your bet multiplier
- Level Three: 500-3500 credits times your bet multiplier
Free Games
You get seven spins, but on any spin you could have up to 10 spaces replaced with wilds. On an all ways pays game with 15 spaces in total, if the wilds come out in force, combined with the healthy line pays, it can get pretty generous quickly.
That was the case in my free games, on multiple spins, where the wilds came out in force, matched up with premium symbols and themselves, and yielded strong payouts.
I had a healthy 60x bonus despite only seven spins, but my sense is this is a volatile bonus given the few spins, so it could pay well or not at all depending on what comes of the free spins.
Respin Bonus
If landed, three spaces are locked to start it off, and the standard three spins are given to collect more. Credit prizes that can land are 25-500x your bet multiplier.
Gold symbols (which themselves will award 25x your bet multiplier) will add multipliers to the reel set that can help boost the pays of whatever lands within them, and other prizes can be boosted when you collect in the multiplier positions.
Filling the whole screen awards a multiplier of between 2 and 7x. The pay table notes a maximum of 100 spins can be awarded in this bonus.
Overall Thoughts
Some of the 007 games I don’t find myself all that excited about, and then on occasion there are ones I really love. Thunderball was one of them, and this is another – there’s enough going on to keep it interesting, and the pays are very clearly there, which isn’t always the case for licensed games.
I haven’t really seen this one around, but I know it’s out there, and if you see it you should give it a try yourself.
Goldeneye Slot Videos
This is the only full video I’ve found of the game so far, from TheSlotCouple19. Note that the version they played has a wide area progressive of over a million dollars, and does require a max bet to qualify; my guess is this is configurable by casino:
The same channel posted this short:
