Book of Blarney GigaBlox

Book of Blarney GigaBlox: Slot Overview

Contrary to how it feels at times, it is still possible to be surprised in life even when it seems like you've seen it all. Here's an example. Titled Book of Blarney GigaBlox, independent game provider Reflex Gaming has not, repeat not, made a game that resembles Book of Dead or its many, many offshoots. Instead of jamming the reels with expanding pay from anywhere symbols, this is a game that does have a book, but one which awards a Water Wheel bonus, a Lucky Coins bonus, or free spins where the grid may expand, yet symbols may not.

Still, where some of the function may be surprising, the form is not. This is because Book of Blarney is an Irish-themed slot set in a land stacked in the generic imagery associated with this theme. Namely, lush green grassy hills, a rainbow, clovers, horseshoes, and a leprechaun fellow who is either extraordinarily happy you're here or who has ingested a heroically high dose of happy pills. Seriously, his jaw is going to be aching in the morning. Not much else to ramble on about. Book of Blarney looks like a leprechaun slot, done.

Boosted by Gigablox, Book of Blarney is played on a 6-reel gaming grid with 4 rows of symbols and 40 paylines, expandable up to 8 rows high with up to 100 paylines during free spins. Bets of 20 c to $/€100 can be locked in, and gamblers have the option of activating the Lucky Bet or three bonus buy options to skip the base game formalities. FYI, this is a slot where the math model is medium/high volatile and produces a default RTP of 96%.

Symbols land on the reels in a normal 1x1 size but also as Gigablox symbols of 2x2 up to 6x6 in dimension - this includes scatters. Eight of Book of Blarney's symbols are regular pays, consisting of J-A lows, then a hat, a horseshoe, a pot of gold, and a leprechaun as the highs. Lines of 6 matching lows pay 1.6 to 2 times the bet, while a winning 6 OAK high paying line awards 10 times the bet. Appearing on all the reels, wilds substitute for all symbols except scatters and have the same payout value as the leprechaun.

Book of Blarney GigaBlox: Slot Features

When hitting 6 or more Book of Blarney scatter symbols, 1 of 3 different bonuses is awarded from the pages of a book. These are the Water Wheel bonus, the Lucky Coins bonus, and the free spins bonus. The maximum number of book scatters that can land on a spin is 20.

Water Wheel Bonus

The number of scatter symbols equals the number of spins in the Water Wheel bonus. Players must first choose whether they want the lower or higher volatility option, which affects the available multipliers, though the RTP is the same for both. Low has x1, x2, x2, x3, x3, and x4 segments on the wheel while high has 5 x1's and an x10. On each spin, users pick a mushroom to reveal a cash prize of 1x to 10x the bet, while the Water Wheel spins to select a multiplier that is applied to the mushroom's value. The total accumulated prize when the feature ends is awarded.

Lucky Coins Bonus

Each triggering scatter transforms into a coin, which reveals a cash value of 0.5x to 25x the bet or a pot name. Pots are the Mini, Minor, Major, and Mega prizes worth 20x, 50x, 500x, and 5,000x the bet, respectively. Larger scatters transform into larger coins with larger awards on average. Each coin locks in position, and 3 spins are awarded on reels that land only coins or blanks. New coins are locked in place, and reset the number of spins. When no spins remain, or all positions are taken up by coins, the feature ends, and the win is awarded. Having a special x2 coin in view doubles the total value of the prize meter when all other prizes have been added. If more than one x2 coin lands, each one takes a turn to double the prize meter. Lastly, the Mega pot is added to the accumulated values (after coin prizes have been multiplied by x2 coins) and is not multiplied up.

Free Spins Bonus

The number of scatter symbols in view equals the number of granted free spins. Each win during the feature adds +2 free spins up to a maximum of 8 extra free spins. In addition, following a win, the reels expand by +1 row and add 15 paylines up to a maximum of 8 rows and 100 paylines.

Lucky Bet and Bonus Buys

The Lucky Bet 'greatly' increases the chance of hitting a bonus but costs an extra 50% per spin to activate. Or, players may buy free spins for 100x the bet, Lucky Coins for 60x the bet, or Water Wheels for 40x the bet.

Book of Blarney GigaBlox: Slot Verdict

Book of Blarney is not Reflex Gaming's first trip around the block with the Gigablox mechanic, as the studio previously wedged the feature into its Desperate Dawgs 2 slot. In a further plot twist, certain features found in Book of Blarney are also more or less the same as some of those in Desperate Dawgs 2, such as the Gunslinger bonus round, now known as the Water Wheel bonus, and the Bad Boy bonus, referred to simply here as the free spins bonus. The Lucky Coins bonus is new, however, though in saying that, it doesn't possess a heck of a lot of stuff 101 other hold 'n win features don't already.

This means Book of Blarney doesn't do much which wasn't already out there in one form or another, though it brings a bunch of disparate stuff together into one place to let players attempt to trigger them through the pages of a book or just buy them right away. Would you want to, though? Some might. The Water Wheel bonus is quite cheap but woefully under gunned. The Lucky Coin is fairly inexpensive as well, plus it is where the 5,000x Mega prize is a possibility, representing a sizable rainbow pot. Overall winning potential in Book of Blarney is surprisingly high, tipping the scales at 10,368x the bet, so numbers aren't an issue.

What's less exciting is the lack of creativity in the theme treatment, the recycled bonus rounds situation, and the generally low-frills presentation common in a Reflex Gaming slot. To be fair, the visuals arguably aren't as low-frills as they have been in the past; see Moley Moolah, for example (okay, it's debatable), but nor are they memorable, either. Neither is Book of Blarney on the whole; its generic presentation didn't do anywhere near enough to grab much attention. The perpetually smiling leprechaun chap is the stuff of potentially haunting memories, though.