Rainbow Burst

Rainbow Burst: Slot Overview

In the galaxy of slot themes floating around the aether, some come and go, some stick. One that continues to linger is the ever-popular Irish/leprechaun style of gaming. Parts of the gambling population don't seem to be able to get enough, and game makers are more than happy to keep slinging these sorts of slots onto the market. One designer making another contribution to the busy leprechaun slot collection is Polish-based studio Nailed It! Games, in conjunction with partner Games Global. The studio has gone and made Rainbow Burst, a game populated by a dancing leprechaun, his collection partner, rainbows, plus all manner of features old and somewhat new-ish.

Pick leprechauns to colour a slot, and you're kind of straitjacketed with what imagery to use. Not always, but load one of these games, and you're likely to see a version of what Nailed It! Games has done here. Namely, an out-of-doors setting where we find a wooden housed gaming grid, chests, a grassy green hill, and a mischievous leprechaun. Probably because these sorts of slots have been around for ages, they often look a bit dated even when they're fresh off the production line. Rainbow Burst has this quality, though its animations provide a dash of modernisation. The music's pretty cool, too, a sort of electro-Celtic Riverdance mash-up, which was one of the biggest contributors to Rainbow Burst's energy and overall enjoyment.

Leaving aside the Celtic shell for a moment to take a look at the stats, we find a medium volatile math model available in four RTP configurations – from 96.15% down to 86.90%, depending on the market. On the 5-reel, 3-row action area, 10 paylines are incorporated for landing winning combinations along, left to right, from the first reel onwards. At the top RTP level, the hit rate has a figure of 28.07%. When ready to participate, Rainbow Burst offers stake choices from 20 p/c to $/€40 per spin.

Rainbow Burst's symbols are a plain-looking lot, tasteful, but a bit plain. On the lower side are green-backed 10 to A playing card ranks, followed by a three-leaf clover, a harp, a horseshoe, and a mug of frothy beer. Hitting a winning line made up of 5 matching symbols pays 8x the bet for the card ranks or 25 to 100 times the bet for the premium symbols. Golden 'W's are Rainbow Burst's wild symbol, able to replace any of the regular paying symbols. Wilds land on reels 2, 3, and 4.

Rainbow Burst: Slot Features

In a nutshell, Rainbow Burst is all about collecting money symbols called Rainbow Prizes, and there are different ways this occurs, both in the base game and during free spins. Here's how it functions.

Rainbow Symbols

Rainbow symbols are stacked and appear on reels 2, 3, and 4, possessing prizes of 1x-3x, 5x, 10x, 50x, or 1,000x the bet. These latter 3 values are displayed as Mini (10x), Midi (50x), and Max (1,000x). In the base game, Rainbow symbol stacks are 3 symbols high. If the Collect symbol lands on reel 5 at the same time as Rainbow symbols do, then the value of the Rainbow symbol prizes are collected. Collect symbols can only land on the fifth reel.

Rainbow Respin

If at least one Rainbow symbol stack lands covering a whole reel, a Rainbow Respin is triggered. Respins can land new winning combinations and/or new Rainbow symbols. Rainbow symbol prizes not collected on the triggering spin are stashed in the Leprechaun's pot. If the Collect symbol lands on a respin, it also collects the entire Leprechaun's pot. The feature ends when there are no more respins, and any uncollected prizes left stashed in the pot are lost when going back to the base game.

Free Spins

Landing a bonus symbol on reel 1 as well as a Collect symbol on reel 5 triggers 8, 12, or 16 free spins – the number of spins is displayed on the bonus symbol. Free spins can also be retriggered in the same way. During free spins, the Rainbow symbol stacks grow by +1 on each free spin.

Rainbow Chests

In the base game, the Iron Rainbow Chest is active; in free spins, the Golden Super Rainbow Chest is active. The state of each is maintained between spins and free spins rounds. When a Rainbow symbol lands as a stack taking up the whole reel, a rainbow is added to the active Chest. Each time a rainbow is added, it provides a chance to trigger the Rainbow Burst. Chances increase with each added rainbow.

Rainbow Burst

When triggered, players are guaranteed to win either the Mini, Midi, or Max Rainbow prize. The middle three reels merge, and only the three previously mentioned prize symbols appear on it. When triggered by the Rainbow Chest, a multiplier of x2 or x4 may land on the first reel. If triggered by the Super Rainbow Chest, a multiplier of x2, x3, or x5 may land on reel 1.

Rainbow Burst: Slot Verdict

It's not very often a leprechaun slot comes along that really wows us, and sorry to say, Rainbow Burst continues the trend. So far, most of the slots we've reviewed from Nailed It! Games like Dog Days or Gold Mine Stacks 2 have pleasantly surprised with small touches of clever ingenuity up to full-blown one-off unique experiences like Rome Supermatch. Rainbow Burst is possibly the least experimental release from this studio we've tried so far, perhaps Nailed It! Games reined in the ingenuity this time to match the common as-it-gets theme.

There are one or two twists here to the features, to be sure, so players who like money symbol collect awards may be intrigued by things like the Rainbow Burst feature. You are guaranteed to win something after all when this feature triggers, though more often than not, that's likely to be the Mini at 10x the bet or, if luckier, the Midi at 50x the bet. The best case scenario is lining up the game's trinity - triggering the Rainbow Burst when the Golden Super Rainbow Chest is active, then landing the 1,000x max prize as well as an x5 multiplier on reel 1 to collect the 5,000x the bet top prize. Technically possible, but the need to line up several different parts adds a quest element to the game players may love or shy away from.

To sum up, we'd have to say Rainbow Burst didn't exactly knock our socks off or blast the beer mug from our hands. On the whole, till now, Nailed It! Games' willingness to tinker with features or perform gymnastics with gaming mechanics has been refreshing to see. The same can't really be said about its theme choice, which has tended to be pretty common slot stuff. Playing Rainbow Burst only increased the desire to see the studio branch off and try something different. Not necessarily anything controversial, Nolimit City style, but subject matter that shows off a more unique side of Nailed It! Games' personality, to go along with its experimental gameplay, could be interesting.