Emerald King - Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Introduction

Pragmatic Play has released a huge number of games in the past couple of years, and as their popularity in the online gambling community continues to grow, so does the number of releases they push out every month. Emerald King is one of the latest slots to come from the software provider’s development labs and, unsurprisingly, it takes on an Irish theme, with a Leprechaun - the Emerald King - being the focal point of the game.

Format and Graphics

Emerald King is built around a 5-reel, 3-row format and there’s 20 paylines. The paylines are “fixed” in place, which means you’re unable to change the number of lines active on each spin. Like most Pragmatic Play slots, Emerald King offers a wide variety of stake options and you’ll find yourself able to wager as little as 0.10 and as much as 100 credits on every spin. You’ll find the usual array of in-game tools including autoplay and turbo spin, and there’s a detailed paytable and game rules section if you want to see how much symbols pay or how the bonuses and features work.

Unfortunately, design-wise, Emerald King just isn’t quite cutting it for us. The reels are overlaid on what looks to be a mountainous scene and there’s two castles placed either side of the reels. There’s a funky Irish-inspired soundtrack which is pretty entertaining - but don’t expect anything too impressive on the graphical side of things here.

RTP and Volatility

Emerald King has an RTP of 96.51%, which is a tiny bit above average in today’s slot market. It’s also classified as volatile, so the 20,000x top prize makes sense.

Emerald King’s Symbols And Payouts

Unfortunately, we feel as though Pragmatic Play have come up a little short when it comes to the symbol design in Emerald King. So many of the game developer’s slots are developed in stunning, crisp HD - and they put so much design and development work into their games that we’ve become somewhat used to seeing high-quality graphics and imagery throughout.

Emerald King, on the other hand, looks pretty basic when you turn to the symbols. They use the same playing card values that we see in games released five years ago - Wolf Gold for example - and they just look a bit… boring. The game’s lower-paying symbols are all playing card values, including 10, jack, queen, king, and ace.

There are, however, some higher-paying symbols - although again, we’re not particularly impressed with the design of them. The mid-paying symbols include Cherries and Grapes - and another mid-payer is the Emerald King himself, awarding a payout of 2.5X, 5X and or 25X for forming a 3-of-a-kind, 4-of-a-kind or 5-of-a-kind combo of him respectively.

Emerald King’s best-paying symbol is the wild, which is represented by a Pot of Gold. The wild substitutes for all other symbols in the game (there are no scatter symbols so you don’t need to worry about that), and it also has its own paytable. The wild symbol awards a payout worth 50X, 100X and 500X your stake if you manage to form a 3-of-a-kind, 4-of-a-kind or 5-of-a-kind combo - so there’s actually some pretty decent win-potential here, especially as the wild symbols are stacked - like all other symbols.

Colossal Symbols

The final thing to note here, is that symbols can appear individually (meaning three symbols land on each reel), but they can also appear as colossal symbols. This means they can land as 2X2 or 3X3 symbols. It’s pretty rare to get the 3X3 (especially on the first three reels) but the 2X2 symbols seem to appear fairly frequently, and they can contribute towards some decent wins if you get everything lined up correctly. The wild symbol can also appear as a colossal symbol, which is a plus.

Emerald King Bonus Features

Emerald King has a couple of bonuses to be aware of - and this may come as a surprise to players who load the slot up without knowing much about it. Given its rather classic look, design and feel, you’d be forgiven for assuming it was simply a “line-pays” game, but, as you’ll see below, that simply isn’t the case. Let’s take a look at the bonuses and features you’ll find inside Emerald King.

Win Multiplier

Perhaps the most noticeable thing you’ll find when playing Emerald King is that each time you have a losing spin, a multiplier increases by 1X. Every consecutive spin that isn’t a win sees this multiplier continue to increase by 1X, and you’ll see the current multiplier level in the top right-hand-corner of the screen.

There’s no limit on how high this multiplier can go, and once it reaches 5X+ you can hit some really big wins! It’s a strange mechanic, as - in a weird sense - you’re actually hoping not to win while playing. At least, not until the win multiplier has increased by a significant amount. Once you do form a win, the multiplier resets back to 1X.

Max-win 20,000x

Volatility High

Top RTP 96.51%

Mini Slots

On any base-game spin you may see one of the slot’s reels turn green. If all five reels turn green on a spin, you’ll trigger Emerald King’s main bonus round - the “Mini Slots” feature. You will then be awarded an instant payout of 2X, and you’ll be awarded up to 15 free spins which take place on a new bandit-like slot machine with just one payline. This machine is called the “Mini Reel” and the reels are made up of blue, yellow and red “7” symbols - the other positions are simply empty spaces.

If you manage to land three mixed-coloured 7 symbols you’ll win a payout worth 2X your stake, while landing three of the blue, yellow or red 7 symbols awards a payout worth 10X, 15X and 20X your stake respectively. 

There’s also the chance that, when the mini reels pop up on your screen you’ll see then presented in a 2X2 or 3X3 format. If this happens, any wins you manage to form during the bonus are multiplied. This multiplier value is random, and you’ll see it appearing in the top right-hand-corner of the screen, in the same place where the base-game Win Multiplier appears.

Our Verdict Of Emerald King

Emerald King is quite a unique slot from Pragmatic Play - and that’s because it combines both an old-school look and feel with the game developer’s modern-day graphics and animations. While, at first glance, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s just yet another retro-inspired slot that offers little besides big line-wins, Emerald King has a lot going for it - and this first becomes apparent when you see the colossal symbols making their way into the mix.

We’re a little disappointed to see Pragmatic Play relying on an Irish theme, however. To us, it feels a little bit lazy - and, as it’s something we’ve seen so much from the game developer in the past, we thought they may have wanted to pull something else out of the bag, especially given the fierce competition that exists in the online gambling today.

That being said, Emerald King is a game worth playing - and with a maximum win of up to 20,000X your stake there truly is some big win-potential here. Just be warned that the game is volatile, and it’s quite common for the slot to go through long periods of not paying much - so we advise you to stake a little smaller than you would usually do on Pragmatic’s games!

Disclaimer: Emerald King trademark / license is owned by Pragmatic Play. This site is not endorsed by Pragmatic Play.