Slot Wars - The Wild Gang VS Wild Wild Gold - ReelNews By GamblersArea
It is time for a wild showdown in the world of online slots! Pragmatic Play and Popiplay have both recently added amazing Western-inspired releases into their portfolio so let’s see which one will take the win in this episode of slot wars.
Giddy up for the upcoming battle!
Round 1: Winning Potential And RTP
Pragmatic Play release is played on unusual 3-4-4-4-4-3 reel formation where the number of paylines reaches 2,304 in the base game and increases up to 4,096 ways to win during one of the bonus rounds. The game comes with a massive winning potential of up to 10,000x the bet.
On the other hand, the base game of Wild Wild Gold has a much smaller playground composed of 5 reels and 3 rows with 10 palyines. Nevertheless, it also boosts a nice max win of 7,790x the stake.
When it comes to the RTP, Popiplay’s slot has a slight advantage featuring the return to player percentage of 97. Compared to it, The Wild Gang’s RTP of 96.2% is a bit lower. However, due to the higher winning potential the gold in this round goes to the game developed by Pragmatic Play.
Round 2: Bonus Features
The first slot has an abundance of bonus rounds and special symbols, starting with 4 different Wilds. Besides their usual substituting powers, these symbols also receive a random multiplier of up to 4x when they land on reels 2 or 3.
These Wilds also double as Scatters and trigger one of the two bonus rounds. Both of them come with 8 free spins during which Wilds land with a 2x multiplier on their first and 4x multiplier on their second appearance. The multiplier meter collects all Wild multipliers and carries them out for the whole duration of the feature.
Depending on the number of Wilds on reels, they can trigger:
- Wanted Free Spins round - A regular free spins round with the mentioned features characteristic for both bonus games. It is triggered when any three Wilds land at the same time.
- Dead or Alive Free Spins round - Besides the Wild multipliers, during these free spins activated when any 4 Wilds land simultaneously the grid expands to 6x4 size, enabling up to 4,096 ways to win.
Both of these bonus rounds can be accessed at any time via the Buy Bonus option. The price of purchasing Wanted Free Spins is 80x the bet, while Dead or Alive Free Spins can be bought for 200x the stake.
In addition, the slot has a Mystery symbol able to drop on any position on the grid. Upon landing, the Mystery symbol transforms all instances except Wilds into the same random pay symbol.
Wild Wild Gold slot also comes with exciting features. On the contrary to its rival, here the Scatter has a dual role, acting both as a Scatter and a Wild. As a Wild, it substitutes for any paying symbol in the winning line, increasing the chances of creating a winning combo.
As a Scatter, it is responsible for triggering the bonus round with 10 free spins when three or more of a kind are in view. During free spins, one regular symbol is chosen to be a special Expanding symbol that expands to cover all reel positions and remains active until the end of the round.
This symbol activates when two or more high and medium symbols appear on different reels or when three or more low-paying symbols land on different reels. In the case of retriggering the free spins, the Expanding symbol can be chosen up to 9 times.
Another exciting feature in this slot is the Gamble Round, present in the base game. After every win, the player can decide to use that win as a stake and gamble for a chance to multiply it. If you gamble and guess the color of the playing card correctly, the stake is doubled but if you guess the suit, your stake increases 4 times. However, if your guess is wrong, you’ll lose the win used as a stake for a gambling round.
This game also has the Buy Bonus option but with many variations. Here players can choose the number of Expanding symbols they want to be in play during free spins. Depending on how much these special symbols you want, the price varies from 110x the bet for 1 up to 485x the bet for the maximum 9 Expanding symbols.
While this is quite an upgrade to this option compared to its commonly seen version, still the winner of this round is The Wild Gang. Mostly due to the fact it has two types of free spins round and 4 different types of Wilds which increase the chances of hitting bigger wins.
Round 3: Visuals and Audio
As you can notice so far, both of these games revolve around the Wild West slot theme. And both are great representatives of the genre with all the symbols you expect to see.
However, the visuals in this release by Pragmatic might seem a bit too familiar. Although detailed, the design of symbols and overall esthetics is similar to the other provider’s slots with this theme.
On the other hand, Popiplay’s game provides a unique view of the theme by giving Western icons a robotic look. Symbols like revolvers, sticks of dynamite and caravan wagons are intertwined with robot horses, robo-sheriffs and robo-miners, elevating the theme and whole appearance to a completely new level.
Due to this mixture of futuristic and traditionally Western elements, Wild Wild Gold is the winner of this round. There’s no doubt about it that is a more original game visually speaking and a breath of fresh air to this slot category.
And The Winner Is…
Wild Wild Gold gave quite a fight but in the end, The Wild Gang takes the win in this episode of slot wars mostly due to higher winning potential and more bonus features. Both of these games are excellent representatives of the Western genre, so don’t hesitate to saddle up and try them.