Play Little Goblins for Free

When you enter the forest, the object of the game will be obvious. The goal, of course, is to land multiple symbols on successive reels, from left-to-right. To be in with a chance of winning big, you’ll need to stake coins with a value of at least 0.03. The maximum coin denomination is 3.

The reels are set upon a background of tree leaves. Icons include the usual playing card symbols, which have been modified to look like sentient beings: OK, so they’re pretty much unchanged save for a couple of beady eyes tacked on. Other symbols include a wart-chinned old man, a blue critter, a red critter, a green critter and a sort of potato-coloured critter with red pupils. The spud-esque symbol is the game’s wild, and as such replace all symbols in the game except for the scatter. At maximum bet, the wild also pays 15,000 for five, 1,500 for four, 150 for three and 15 for two.

The Little Goblins scatter is the demented-looking green critter with twin rows of sharpened yellow teeth. As well as being able to trigger free spins – just land three or more anywhere on the reels – it leads to some decent wins. It pays 2,700 for five, 900 for four, 210 for three and 60 for two.

Other well-paying symbols include the wart-chinned man, who pays 1,800 for five or 900 for four. The red critter, meanwhile, pays 2,400 for five and 1,200 for four. The game’s lowest-value icons are the playing cards, which pay just 300 for five at the top end.

As you play along, you’ll be treated to ‘forest music’ – some accordion, some guitar, some drums. It’s quite a relaxing soundtrack, actually. Anyway, you can mute at time if it’s not to your liking. When the reels spin, the music continues in the background, though it’s overpowered by the click-clacking of the reels, which sounds like Gatling gunfire. This doesn't quite have the cute appeal of traditional forest games such as Pixies of the Forest.

The animations are relatively simple, though sometimes, when hitting a combination of wilds, the symbols will do something funny: if you hit a combination of green critters, it’s the sound of a child crying. When you hit Spin, you’ll see red and yellow flames flash up from the control panel. The potato-coloured icon also pops up from behind the grid every once in a while.

After any regular win, players can participate in a Double or Nothing gamble game. If you’re insanely lucky, you can win up to ten times in a row before the feature self-terminates – or until your balance totals 10,000. At that point, the game will concede defeat.

As stated, Little Goblins includes an expanding symbol. You may be unfamiliar with such a function, so bear with me. Before your round of free spins begins, hit stop to designate which icon will be the one ‘expanding’ during the feature. Note, that the icon excludes the wild or scatter. After each free spin, regular winnings are counted; then, providing the expanding symbol that you’ve chosen appears three or more times, it will lengthen vertically over the entire reel. All winnings are counted once more, along all the active pay-lines.

Is it worthwhile running to the nearest land-based casino and plugging your coins into Little Goblins? Well, that depends on how demanding a gamer you are. We were quite taken with this one; it’s a visual feast, for one thing; we liked the music, the inclusion of a double or nothing gamble round and the presence of both wild and scatter symbols. There’s also some big money to be won, particularly if you play at maximum bet. Try it on for size, you don't like it the casino will no doubt have a range of new slot games for you to try.