Crystal Golem by Print Studios - Online Slot Review

Crystal Golem is an enchanting journey through an underground world inhabited by mysterious creatures and unnamed forces driving the growth of luminous fungi. The surroundings span a view of a crystal-filled cave bathed in soft pinkish light, creating a serene, almost hypnotizing atmosphere. Little lake waves lazily below, evaporating subtle clouds of mist dotted with fickle glimmers trying to escape to the top and disappearing in that effort. Peaceful sounds enveloping the entire scene intensify the tranquil feeling and induce a relaxing sensation.

Symbols on the reels follow the mystical art direction, showing strange runes etched into stone blocks, 3 different types of magical mushrooms, a crystal bat, and a stone snake. The more significant images represent the titular Crystal Golem acting as Wild and a bright gem exploding into freedom as a Scatter. All high-value and special symbols are subtly animated, making the entire scene alive even when the reels are motionless. When regular wins start landing, or special features are triggered, the intensity of animations increases to build up the anticipation further.

How To Win On Crystal Golem Slot - Features & Mechanics

The stone blocks carrying most symbols roll through a traditional 5x3 grid with 20 pay lines running across. To form a base win, you'll need 3 matching images consecutively on one of them, starting from the leftmost reel. The pay table offers relatively modest payouts for such a setup, especially considering the shortest sequences that pay between 0.10 and 1 time the bet. There's much more focus on the longer combinations, which reach 20x for a 5-of-a-kind hit on the top-paying regular symbol and 50x for a full line of Wilds. The lower-than-usual value of the bottom payouts links tightly to the fact that reels also cascade, allowing for more single wins within a single sequence and the game's innovative assisting feature.

SuperSpinners™

Crystal-shaped boxes sit on the reel dividers in a 2-3-2-3 arrangement starting from the first line between reels 1 and 2. On every game round, the inside spins and may reveal a value from a 2-20 range (although it can also be empty). Any win that crosses through SuperSpinner will be affected by its multiplier. Acquiring multiple instances in the same line sequence will multiply the win a respective number of times. For example, a 5-of-a-kind hit on the stone snake symbol that pays 20x, going through 2 crystals, one with a value of 2 and the other of 5, will pay 200x (20 x 2 x 5 = 200). Once a win disappears, any contributing SuperSpinners will randomize again for any successive cascades.

 Crystal Golem Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 Scatters (either at once or collecting in view via multiple cascades) awards 8, 12, or 16 free spins. In the bonus round, some of the SuperSpinners randomly become charged, which visualizes by enveloping them in green mist. Any Wild that lands in a position touching said active crystal would evolve and upgrade its reel so that any Wilds landing on it acquire an extra "life" and remain on the reels until they partake in 2 consecutive wins. Touching a charged SuperSpinner for the second time on the same reel will provide another final upgrade, allowing Wilds to remain in view for 3 wins. Additionally, activating the boost once on every column awards 4 extra spins, and having all of them fully upgraded grants another 4. Instant access to the bonus round is available for a fixed buy-in of 100 times the active bet.

Crystal Golem On Mobile

The magical underground world is at your fingertips thanks to the latest HTML5 technology, allowing the slot to be playable on all mobile devices. The alluring design of mysterious caves looks equally fantastic in landscape and portrait modes. In the horizontal view, there aren't any differences from the desktop variant, while the portrait orientation presents an immersive vertical scope of the caves, diving from the cave's rocky ceiling all the way below the lake's surface.

Final Thoughts

Slots with a traditional 5x3 pay lines setup may feel like yesterday's news on most occasions, but it's a story worth checking when they come in such a fascinating package as Crystal Golem. The game perfectly captures a mysterious yet somehow soothing atmosphere of an unknown world hidden somewhere beneath the surface of our (or maybe even not) planet. The idea of ancient beings living and evolving in those depths, perhaps preparing for some spectacular event, gathering their strengths throughout the centuries, may feel uneasy. However, it's more likely that they are here to help us. And assist us they do when you access the bonus round and realize that the game's potential grows as Crystal Golems thrive and let their ancient powers take over the caves in a sensational dance of arcane energy. It's truly a breathtaking performance.

The slot's mechanics feel both straightforward and peculiar when you launch the game for the first time. On the one hand, there's an ordinary matrix running a cascading mechanism on 20 pay lines. On the other, however, strange boxes are sitting between the reels, showing random numbers on every spin. It's that kind of novelty that may initially feel slightly confusing but becomes crystal (yes, pun intended) clear after several wins. The restrained payouts of the regular combinations make much more sense when you grasp the meaning of SuperSpinners and calculate that the lines have been cleverly designed in such a way as to always cover 1 or 2 multipliers. And since the max you can get in a single crystal is 20, hitting this cap in both means a 400x boost. Extra spins and upgraded Wilds in the bonus round create further changes to build up the wins and reach the max win potential of 20,000 times the bet.

Crystal Golem firmly grasped our attention from the first second in this captivating environment of mysterious caves inhabited by fascinating creatures. Print Studios proved that going back to the basics and spicing things up with one powerful feature is sometimes enough to deliver top-quality online gambling entertainment.