Romanov Riches

The house of Romanov was the dynasty which reigned over Russia from 1613, when their family was put into power by the aristocratic assembly, which usually assisted the ruler in making controversial decisions. After the previous dynasty met its end, the Romanovs took power, ruled the country and led it through three hundred years worth of history, before Tsar Nicholas II was forced to abdicate his throne following the February revolution in Russia. The main dynasty would, soon after, meet its demise at the hands of the Bolsheviks who took over the country, while other Romanovs would end up fleeing abroad and into exile. While the dynasty still exists today, the succession for the former throne is disputed, due to disagreements on how certain family members married. But if there’s one thing all royalty have, however, are jewels, gold and other stored away riches, but no one has been able to find the rumored wealth of the Romanov family. To the finder go the spoils – and this Microgaming release will help you on your journey.

We have to admit, we expected a lot more when it comes to visuals from Microgaming. While it’s not uncommon for the company to off-load some of its products to other studios, it’s usually quite clear when the swap happens, and the partner studios that are published under Microgaming name bring some great graphics to the table, as well. It feels more like the artists didn’t have enough time to make anything interesting or that they simply didn’t have so many ideas for this title. The background image is set on an expensive looking purple cloth, with bead necklaces and various jewels scattered about. There are no animations when winning combinations occur or in the background itself, and symbols themselves can feel somewhat uninspired. The user interface Microgaming uses is the same one they always use, with the very notable absence of the Autoplay button on the right side of the Spin. Beyond that, the buttons changed colour to a more purple variant, in order to keep with the rest of the colour scheme.

The game is played on a 5×3 playing field with 15 fixed paylines which only pay from left to right. Gamblers cannot turn some paylines on or off at will to decrease their minimum wager, as a result. The title offers its players medium volatility, striking a balance between small, frequent wins of low variance, and rare, but huge jackpots of high volatility games.

Gamblers can bet between $0.20 up to $100 per spin by increasing or decreasing their coin size and the amount of coins per payline. This betting spread is awesome for gamblers, as it allows every type of player, from the more casual to serious high rollers to find a bet level they’re comfortable playing with. The RTP for Romanov Riches is 96.08%, which is above average for video slots.

Symbols include playing card icons 10, J, Q, K and A, as well as four gems with different colours – a red one, a purple one, a blue one and a green one. Special symbols include Wild, which takes on an iconic snowflake shape and Bonus Scatter which just has the word Bonus written on it.

When you have at least two fully stacked reels filled with one symbol, you activate the re-spin feature. Full symbol stacks must start with the leftmost reel and remain locked in place as the remaining reels re-spin, allowing for the possibility of expanding the stacked symbols by landing an adjacent fully stacked reel next to the existing one. The bonus ends when no more stacked reels appear or gamblers get five stacked reels.

Collecting three, four or five full stacks of the Bonus symbol activates spins on one, two, or three bonus wheels, respectively. The first and second bonus wheels offer cash prizes, while the third grants a multiplier that’s applied to the wins from the first two wheels.