NextGen’s Golden Mane slot heralds straight from the world of fantasy feel good and there is an element of the fantastical about the theming of this game. This is a slot set for the horse lovers out there, or simply those people who love a chunky free games feature teamed with a more chilled slot game. NextGen have followed in the tradition of other popular titles like the Gorilla Go Wild slot and Foxin’ Wins Again with this high quality game.
Here in Golden Mane slot we are in the middle of perfection, in the land where stallions run free on the open plains including Golden Mane, one of these perfect beasts, and slot play is relaxed and more of a pleasant stroll than a tension-filled game play. This is the player’s chance to virtually run freely through the reels to unleash some big bucks from this golden arcadia.
The reels are set in the idyllic wilds where horses run free. The player is lulled by the top-notch graphics showing us a view of golden fields and trees, the romantic blue tinged mountains, and of course a perfect blue sky as far as you can see. It really is pretty blissed out! The reels are in a posh wooden frame, it’s almost like a horsey trophy! NextGen also do a game called the Golden Rooster Slot– but that’s based on the farm. In Golden Mane, the animals are free!
Gameplay is accompanied by inspirational and relentlessly positive sounding music that rises and falls adding a pleasant dimension to the game, this was a plus for me rather than a distraction.
Golden Mane is a 3 row, 5 reels and 10 pay-lines slot game which is pretty tidy for a Next Gen game (even the Shangri-La slot machine has 15 lines). But that’s because this game is pretty high variance. You can expect it to flip between hot and cold- if you can play through the lean times you may well hit a bumper session.
Unsurprisingly the high value icons are all pretty horse related. The highest values are a white and a black stallion. Alongside these animals are snow-peaked mountain and a beautiful golden tree. The lower value icons of the game are the A through 9 of the card deck.
The game’s Wild is Golden Mane itself and this substitutes for all symbols except the Scatter. The Scatter is a lucky horse shoe but this only appears on reels 2, 3 and 4. Keep your eyes peeled for extra Scatters during the base game these can randomly appear making a Scatter Run – producing more chances to make winning combos. Now that’s better than a nose bag of hay!
If Lady Luck is on your side and you can land 2 or 3 scatters on the reels then you can win 2 or 6 free games respectively. What is a nifty addition to the game is that during the first 4 free games other symbols can become Wild to help make more wins for me, me, me! Now that’s worth a gallop!
During the first free game the white stallion becomes a Wild, during the second free game the black stallion stands in for the Wild, the third game turns the mountain into a Wild and the fourth turns the tree into a Wild. These extras all help to push the player in the direction of more loot.
Golden Mane is simply a great little chilled out slot based in a very relaxed natural setting that has enough extras to keep me interested and thinking about how to crack into those generous free games. A keeper of a slot and one I can tell that I’ll be back to before too long, in fact, wild horses couldn’t keep me away!