Play Riches In The Rough for Free

During our time we’ve played plenty of typically pretty games, with tiaras, pink cushions and cuddly kittens all in a row. But in Riches In The Rough we’re talking about unrefined, raw beauty, the kind that takes time to discover, and that makes the experience all the more joyous to play.

Seeing as this is meant to be a low-key game, we weren’t anticipating such a well implemented interface. Much of the layout is the same as many other Genesis Gaming titles, such as Hear Me Roar, which normally results in a sense that the brand played it safe. But when you compare the two, you realise that this gemstones based title is a lot more dynamic in its depth and portrayal of the imagery. Here the tiles look almost tangible, like you can reach out and touch them.

When you’re mining, anything can feel like a good find, even if you only uncover coal; it’s fuel for your fire back when you’re back at the cottage. However, sometimes when you dig hard and long enough, you discover a treasure that changes your life, bestowing great wealth onto you. This is the bonus icon.

Labelled in big red letters, you can’t mistake which icon this is, nor can you when you notice that the scatter can play anywhere, not just from left to right like the other symbols. This tile gets you a lot of coinage too, with as much as 800 gold pieces available to the person fortunate enough. That isn’t all though, for this image can unlocks free games where wilds become multipliers.

So how do you get from a lump of dirt to a diamond? Well for starters, you’ll need to have gotten at least three of the scatter icons lined up on your grid. This shouldn’t prove too hard, as there’s 243 ways to play, and scatters pay in any position. Once you’ve achieved this, you’ll be given either 8, 15 or 20 spins, depending on the number of icons you secured.

The real magic comes when the wilds start to show up; wilds are great already because they sub other icons, but in Riches In The Rough they turn into multipliers. Therefore, the more wilds you can convert during this time, the more chunkier your payout will be. Furthermore, you don’t need the wild to remove an icon for the multiplier to come into effect, you just need to wild to be part of any winning combination.

Year of the Rooster is another sterling example of how gold can be discovered in the most unlikely of places. This Genesis Gaming activity may have an oriental theme based around Chinese good luck, but you still don’t expect fireworks to hide money inside. A little similar to the notion of breaking earth and finding gold, and so you can get sameness from another source, without even moving away from the brand. For some people familiarity breeds contempt, but for others it’s what they strive for.

For us, we find that Riches In The Rough is a lot more appealing in theory than put into practice, even despite its redeeming features. The level of money that can be won is substantial, but there’s just no meat on the bones of this grid - where’s the variance? This a question that is asked a lot when it comes to Genesis titles styled like this one. It appears to be the only downside the brand truly has.