8K Ultra Gold Ultimate

8K Ultra Gold Ultimate: Slot Overview

Software provider 4ThePlayer has thickened its portfolio of Money Ways slots with the release of 8K Ultra Gold Ultimate, a follow-up to the 2024 release 4K Ultra Gold. Apparently, the original didn't qualify for 'Ultimate' status, but its sibling strives to do so by shifting a few things around, such as swapping the free spins feature for a respins round, doubling the starting value of its top Boosting Fortunes prize, and other sundry alterations. Does it work? How about we find out, and be warned, players sensitive to bright lights might want to turn down the brightness setting on their device before venturing forth.

The predecessor was a riot of colour, and so is its 8K brother. Practically every inch of the screen is crammed with something, from the now eight Boosting Fortunes prizes on either side of the gaming matrix to the golden-rimmed grid itself and numerous buttons spread about the place for picking stakes or activating feature buys. Optically rambunctious, in other words, and if you like this sort of thing, then the loud visuals are only going to amplify the experience.

The game gets its ultra gold ultimate stuff happening on a 6x4 gaming area where there are 4,096 ways to win - left to right, from the leftmost side. 4ThePlayer dips and dives with its slot's RTP values, and 8K Ultra Gold Ultimate is one that maxes out at 94%, while its volatility is medium-high. When picking a stake, the minimum amount to bet is 10 c, while the highest is $/€30.

On the pay symbol hierarchy, we find 10-A card ranks, bells, dice, horseshoes, gold bars, and dollar signs. Six-of-a-kind royal wins pay 0.8 to 1.2 times the bet, whereas a 6-matching premium symbol win awards 1.2 to 5 times the bet. Wilds substitute all of the regular paying symbols and land on all reels except the leftmost reel.

8K Ultra Gold Ultimate: Slot Features

Quite a feast of features here, including Money Ways, Collect scatters, a Bonus Choice, two bonus rounds, Boosting Fortunes, and feature buys.

Money Ways

Cash Prizes can land on any reel worth 0.5x to 200x. If 3 or more of them land on adjacent reels from left to right like a regular ways win, they award their values. When a Cash Prize symbol lands, its value can increase before any wins are awarded. Wilds are able to substitute for Cash Prize symbols, too, but when doing so, they possess no value of their own.

Collect Symbols

Collect symbols land on the two leftmost and rightmost reels. Each Collect symbol that lands awards the values on all Cash Prize symbols currently in view. If Cash Prizes also form a ways win this is paid separately.

Bonus Scatters

Hitting 3 or more scatters triggers the Bonus Choice. Landing more than 3 scatters increases the Bonus Win Multiplier for the chosen bonus round to x2, x3, or x4 when triggered by 4, 5, or 6 scatters, respectively. Players may choose Collect Spins, Respins, or a random option.

Collect Spins

When activated, a wheel spins to award up to 25 Collect Spins. In Collect Spins, only Collect symbols and Cash Prizes may land. Collect symbols are present on the leftmost and rightmost reels, and ways wins with Cash Prize symbols are not allowed. Instead, on landing, each Cash Prize is multiplied by the Bonus Win Multiplier if the feature was triggered by 4 or more scatters. This bonus cannot be retriggered.

Respins

When activated, a wheel spins to award 3 to 6 keys, which are randomly used to open 1 or more reels. Reels opened by a silver key or a gold key start with a Reel Multiplier of x1 or x2, respectively. Multiple keys on a reel increase the Reel Multiplier, and Reel Multipliers are increased by the Bonus Win Multiplier if the feature was triggered by 4 or more scatters. The reels spin, and any Cash Prize symbols that land on open reels lock in place before their prize value is multiplied by the reel multiplier. If a scatter lands on a closed reel it will open it for the rest of the round.

If an open reel becomes full of Cash Prize symbols, all of the values on the reel are collected and held at the top, while the other positions are reopened to land new symbols. When this happens, the reel multiplier increases by 1x the Bonus Win Multiplier and is applied to subsequent Cash Prizes locked on the reel. 3 respins are initially awarded, and if a new Cash Prize lands or a scatter opens a new reel, the respins counter resets to 3.

Boosting Fortunes

There are 8 progressive Fortune Prizes, each linked to a corresponding Fortune Coin. A landed Fortune Coin increases its respective Fortune Prize, and the Fortune Bonus may trigger. The eight prizes are the 5x-20x Mini, 10x-30x Midi, 20x-50x Big, 40x-75x Super, 75x-150x Mega, 200x-350x Epic, 1,000x-1,500x Ultra, and 8,000x-10,000x Ultimate. Fortune Prizes can be increased, and the Fortune Bonus triggered during Respins or Collect Spins. When triggered, a spin takes place on a 3x3 matrix. If 3 or more of the same Fortune Prize land on the matrix, it is awarded. It is possible to win 1 to 3 Fortune Prizes in the same round. Fortune Prizes reset to their starting value when won.

Feature Buy

It is possible to trigger the Bonus Choice with 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatters for 55x, 110x, 165x, or 275x the bet, respectively. Or players may buy a single spin with a guaranteed collect win for 100x the bet.

8K Ultra Gold Ultimate: Slot Verdict

8K Ultra Gold Ultimate is a real smorgasbord of gaming ideas that have appeared in various forms in previous 4ThePlayer slots, all rolled into one. It's like the studio had a cook-up with whatever ingredients it had on hand, or to borrow from the current zeitgeist, if someone asked Gen AI to make a slot using parts from prior 4ThePlayer games. Money Ways and aspects of the Respins round, for instance, form some of the recognisable elements which have been mashed together to form a DNA broth that spawned 8K Ultra Gold Ultimate into existence. The result is a Frankenstein of a game that is obviously built from 4ThePlayer parts.

That was more of an observation than a complaint, just to be clear, and the result is a slot with a lot of features and a lot of things going on. Money Ways provides an interesting and potentially exciting way of collecting Cash Prize values, in addition to Collect symbols being able to award them as well, which is a benevolent touch. Exchanging the wild multiplier free spins of 4K Ultra Gold for the 4 Fantastic Fish-ish respins feature is no bad thing, giving players a different experience this time, and the Bonus Win Multiplier is a nice touch. What's a little odd is the max win has remained bang on the same as before at 12,000x the bet. A respectable total, no arguments there, but the doubling up from 4K to 8K, and so on, feels a tad let down by a lack of greater winning potential to accompany it.

4K Gold Ultra wasn't a slot that knocked a lot of socks off when it was reviewed around a year before this one, and despite modifications, neither did 8K Ultra Gold Ultimate. However, the original was, according to the game info, 'super successful', in which case there should be a decent crowd of punters ready and willing to take the 8K version for a spin.