Giovanni’s Gems is a slot game from the BetSoft online gaming design team. They are based in Valletta, Malta, and over the past ten years have become one of the premier creators of high-quality online gaming products and platforms on the planet.
The storyline
Giovanni’s Gems revolves around our hero, the effervescent Giovanni the gem hunter. The game is based on the adventure undertaken by the indomitable Giovanni as he discovers a cave hidden in the depths of the forest. The cave is littered with uncut gems and it is your job to assist our fortune hunter in the task of gathering as much of this treasure as possible.
As you enter this magical cave you will come upon an amazing rainbow formed out of uncut gemstones. Complete with a pickaxe, a sack and a torch, you will set about digging gems from the rocks.
An unusual 7×7 grid format
Instead of the run of the mill 5×3 format, Giovanni’s Gems comes with a grid of 7×7. The graphics are absolutely first class. As you can imagine, the reels display a variety of gems. The low payers are the Amethyst, a piece of Citrine, a Sapphire, and a lump of coal. The high payers are the Emeralds and the Rubies. A diamond will also turn up, but we’ll get to that a little later. Other symbols include a flaming torch and a pickaxe.
To get to the prize money you must form clusters consisting of five or more matching symbols.
While there are no wilds in Giovanni’s Gems, there is a scatter, symbolised by our illustrious little gem hunter. If you land three or more scatters anywhere on the grid you get a pay-out. But when you get five or more it sets the slot’s free spin feature into action. The number of spins you get is dependent on the number of symbols you’ve landed.
The diamond feature
The diamond feature in Giovanni’s Gems is a beaut. When a lowly lump of coal lands next to the winning pay-line, it gets transformed into a sparkling diamond. This produces a pay-out, the size of which depends on how many pieces of coal become diamonds.
The double-up feature
For those of you who like to push their luck, (let’s face it, that’s what online gaming is all about), this slot has a nice little double-up feature. It comes in the form of a virtual coin toss. You must choose heads or tails. Get it right and you double your prize money – get it wrong and you get nothing.
Setting the stakes
When you play Giovanni’s Gems you can increase your stake from 30 to 150 coins per spin according to the bet level, the range of which is from one to five. You can also set the coin value from £0.02 to £1. It means that the lowest bet is £0.60 while the biggest is £150.
In our view
BetSoft have done their usual and provided us with a game that contains superb graphics and a half-decent sounding soundtrack. The RTP is not as high as some slots, but at 94.94% it will keep you enthralled while you work your way towards the slot’s amazing 1-million coin top prize.