Shamrock Miner

Shamrock Miner: Slot Overview

Top of the mornin' players, fancy a trip to Ireland in search of pots of gold and all that with a mischievous leprechaun, again? If so, here's one to try by the name of Shamrock Miner from game supplier Play'n GO. Now, Play'n GO has a number of Irish slots under its belt already, so it knows a thing or two about utilising a mug of beer here, a green top hat there. For Shamrock Miner, they've made a game with cash symbol collects and free spins with expanding reels plus an increasing multiplier element.

We had to pinch ourselves when Shamrock Miner first lit up the screen. It just didn't feel like a modern Play'n GO game. The background, depicting rolling green hills and a couple of trees, looks like a stock desktop image, while the game grid and its symbols had a cheap ring to them. It was hard to tell if Play'n GO went down the old-school route on purpose or just rushed things. Given its pedigree, you'd think it was the former, but with its busy release schedule, question marks arose. Whatever the reason, Shamrock Miner isn't the finest-looking slot the studio has ever released. The ocular clash between the high-def background and low-def grid created a distinctly low-budget feel, like a sci-fi film with an okay story but terrible CGI. Or is it the other way around?

Moving on to the nuts and bolts of the thing, where Shamrock Miner's default game panel contains 5-reels holding 3 symbols each. At this level, players are equipped with 12 paylines, and when additional rows are added during free spins, 5 extra paylines are added with each extra row. Influenced by the dozen default paylines, bets start at 12 p/c per spin, rising to $/€60 – all available on both desktop and mobile devices.

To the symbols now, which begin with colourful 10-A card royals as the low pays, and four gemstones as the highs. Landing a five of a kind winning line awards 10 times the stake for five low pay symbols or 50 to 200x the bet for five premium symbols.

Shamrock Miner: Slot Features

As to features, Shamrock Miner offers some money symbol collection action in the base game and bonus game – with the chance of scoring multipliers in there as well. During free spins, wilds are collected, potentially leading to greater multipliers, bigger reels, and extra free spins.

Cash Symbols

Look out for the Cash Symbols which display prize values and are collected when they land at the same time as wild symbols. On the left side of the reels is a cash multiplier value. In the base game, it is possible to get a cash multiplier of up to x10. As well as collecting cash symbols, wilds also substitute for any normal paying symbol.

Free Spins

Bundles of dynamite are the scatter symbol, and landing 3, 4, or 5 of them awards 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. In free spins, wilds collect the values of cash symbols as in the base game. Now though, when wilds hit, they themselves are collected on a meter above the reels. For every 4 wilds collected, +10 extra free spins are awarded, plus the value of the random multiplier increases up to x30, and the reels expand by +1 row up to a maximum of 7 symbols high.

Shamrock Miner: Slot Verdict

Leprechaun slots have been around for a while now, and despite being a slot category that is saturated with options, developers continue to top it up. Will we ever reach a point when game providers collectively think they've done all they can with the genre and drop it? Maybe one day in the far distant future, but for now, they roll off the line with impressive regularity. How did Shamrock Miner pan out?

It wasn't long ago, maybe a week or so previous to this game, that we reviewed Fortune Rewind and marvelled at how Play'n GO's busy schedule could turn out clever slots full of inventive touches. On the flip side of the coin, you've got slots like Shamrock Miner, which felt kind of rushed and more of a shelf filler release. It just didn't seem like a Play'n GO slot, or at least, it didn't feel like a project the team was hugely vested in. Reasons for this impression are the average looks and rehashed features, which, while not terrible, have little in the way of inventiveness about them. If you went in cold, you'd be forgiven for thinking Shamrock Miner was a game made by an up-and-coming studio that had set out to copy something like Big Bass Bonanza while disguising it in leprechaun garb.

Maybe we're being too hard on the game, and given the current trends, it's entirely possible leprechaun specialists will be all over it. From a visual standpoint, it's not great, but mechanically and in terms of entertainment value, Shamrock Miner has a lot going for it. Wild/money symbols collects are as enjoyable here as most other places – more so in some ways because of the multiplier, which is active in all phases of play. The collection system in free spins helps boost the multiplier while also growing the grid, a one-two combo some might appreciate. Potential doesn't let the side down either, coming in at 5,000x the bet.

Leprechaun slots remain popular, and perhaps Play'n GO made Shamrock Miner look like this on purpose in a bid to chase the nostalgia dollar. Who knows, Shamrock Miner may appeal to players after something that looks like it came from yesteryear with Big Bass Bonanza/Fishin' Frenzy type of gameplay set in the Emerald Isles. Others who don't fall into this category may get the impression that Play'n GO phoned this one in.