Charming Gold: Hold ‘n’ Link

Charming Gold: Hold ‘n’ Link Review

The developers are yet to make their real breakthrough and establish themselves as industry leaders, but they are already a force to be reckoned with and their releases typically deliver in terms of quality. That’s why we simply couldn’t pass on Charming Gold: Hold ‘n’ Link without investigating. With that, let’s start by saying that the action takes place across 5 reels, 3 rows and 243 ways to win.

Thematically, Charming Gold: Hold ‘n’ Link is more or less a fairy tale slot with a fairy tale atmosphere. There’s a fair maiden to take you on a voyage and the color palette tends towards pink with the background, which might not be everyone’s cup of tea. The production values are undoubtedly solid, though, so we aren’t willing to criticize the designers in any regard.

The volatility of Charming Gold: Hold ‘n’ Link is medium, while the most that you can win in one go is 1,300x your bet. That’s reasonable, though naturally nothing to be overly excited about. The slot’s hit frequency clocks in at 30.15%, which means a win slightly less than once per three spins on average. The betting range, meanwhile, caters mainly to low rollers, as it goes from £0.20 to £20. Finally, we should also note that the game’s theoretical RTP is 95.95%, which is just about average.

Charming Gold: Hold ‘n’ Link Slot Features

The pay symbols of Charming Gold: Hold ‘n’ Link are, as per usual, split into low-paying ones and high-paying ones. The low-paying symbols feature card ranks from Jacks to Aces and they are a bit bland, but it all gets better with their high-paying counterparts. These show coins, horseshoes, four-leaf clovers, lucky charms, and ladybirds.

Aside from those pay symbols, you can also look forward to four special symbols - Heroine Wilds, Orb Scatters, Spheres, and Burst symbols. Heroine Wilds are there to substitute for other symbols and complete winning combos, while the other three special symbols are there to trigger the slot’s gameplay features.

Find 3, 4, or 5 Orb Scatters to trigger the Free Spins feature with 5, 10, or 15 free spins, respectively. You can get extra free spins by finding more Orb Scatters during the feature, but the main twist is that there are full stacks of Spheres on the last reel during free spins. That makes triggering the other gameplay features much easier.

Spheres can land anywhere on the field, but that’s not the case with Burst symbols. These appear only on the middle reels during both the base game and free spins. Whenever one lands together with at least one Sphere symbol, it will trigger the Burst feature, bursting all Spheres and awarding you all their prizes in the process.

Land 6 or more Spheres/Burst symbols at any point to trigger the titular Hold ‘n’ Link feature. All triggering symbols will stay on the board and you’ll get 3 respins, with new Spheres that land always resetting the counter back to 3. Your goal is to collect as many Spheres as possible, as you’ll grab all their values at the end of the feature. To add to the intrigue, you can also get spheres with Mini and Minor jackpots, which are worth 10x and 30x your bet, respectively (the paytable suggests something else, but we’ll go with the in-play values). And, if you fill the entire board with Spheres, you’ll win the Grand jackpot worth 1,000x your bet!

Review Summary

If you’re a fan of Hold and Win features, you’ll surely be pleased by what Charming Gold: Hold ‘n’ Link brings to the table. It’s pleasant to look at, it’s quite relaxing, and it gets more out of the titular feature than most other slots – what’s not to be liked?