Gold Collector

Gold Collector HyperHold: Slot Overview

Developer All41 Studios rolls out their HyperHold feature, bolting it onto a mining theme for their slot Gold Collector HyperHold. If you haven't come across this feature yet, HyperHold is essentially a hold-and-win style bonus round, though one with a few rule changes to justify the trademarked name. The alterations aren't a paradigm shift, by any means, but if you like this sort of thing, they might be worth a look – provided the rest of the game measures up. That is a pretty big proviso when designing such a generic game so let's see how it fares.

Gold Collector HyperHold feels a little out of character for All41 at first. Their slots generally come with pretty decent eye candy, whatever the rest of the game might be like. Not so Gold Collector HyperHold, which isn't the most visually exciting game you'll come across. Actually, that's putting it lightly. Downright plain are another two words to describe the transparent 5-reel, 50-payline grid, as it looks out on a pitch-black tunnel, framed by a stone entrance. A jolly yet stock Western soundtrack completes the picture, making the game feel more like a box-ticking exercise than a joyful expression of creativity.

Available on any device and powered by Microgaming, Gold Collector HyperHold offers stakes from 10 p/c to $/€100 per spin. Judging by the stats, Gold Collector HyperHold appears aimed at a more casual clique in the gambling community. For starters, volatility has been set to a medium setting while being paired with unexciting though not terrible potential. The game keeps you busy though, and players can expect a default theoretical return of 96.40%, as well as hit winning combinations more often than once every four spins, or 28.11% of the time.

Since the rest of the game throws few curveballs, it stands to reason the paytable is completely standard as well. First up are 5 low-pay 10 to A stone-carved card symbols, followed by more lucrative spades, picks, lanterns, gold carts, and that beardy prospector type who must be one of the most familiar faces in slots. Landing 5 picture symbols on a line produces a win worth 5 to 15 times your stake. One final regular symbol is the wild, which appears on reels 2, 3, or 4 to help complete wins by replacing any pay symbol.

Gold Collector HyperHold: Slot Features

Gold coins with mountains on them are what you want to access the HyperHold feature. Unlike the other non-pay symbols, gold coins appear on any reel, with 3 or more in view triggering the feature. When activated, only the reels holding triggering coins are active for the next stage of play, and a spin meter appears above each one. 3 spins are awarded, and if new coins land on the active reels, their respective meter is reset back to 3. The round ends when all positions are filled or spins are gone.

In addition, each reel has a fixed jackpot attached to it. If each position on a reel is filled, the corresponding prize is awarded. Reels 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 have jackpots of 10x, 20x, 50x, 100x, or 1,000x the bet respectively.

Landing 3 scatter symbols on the three middle reels awards 8 free spins. Other than the fact they are free, nothing new occurs during free spins. It is possible to trigger the HyperHold round from them, and free spins may be retriggered when 3 scatters appear.

Gold Collector HyperHold: Slot Verdict

When the testing was done, there wasn’t a whole lot to get excited about over Gold Collector HyperHold. From the dull looks to the uninspired theme choice to the bland features, it's basic gaming in just about every regard. All41 (or Microgaming presumably) might have trademarked the name 'HyperHold', yet it is more or less a regular hold-and-win feature with a few rule tweaks. The adjustments don't make Gold Collector HyperHold a must-see by any account but could provide enough titillation to entertain players who really go for these sorts of bonus games.

Having reel-specific jackpots is not entirely unique either, though not something you see every day, which adds a modicum of intrigue. Nor do individual reels holding their own spin counter appear often, if ever in a streak respin bonus. The downside of doing so is that reels drop out of use one by one, thereby diminishing the number of potential coins you can land.

Less demanding gamblers who aren't fussed by cutting edge graphics, effects, or gameplay, might get a kick out of Gold Collector HyperHold if mining is their area of interest. Otherwise, it's nigh on impossible to think a reason to recommend Gold Collector HyperHold over other higher-performing slots in this genre, like say, Nolimit City's Fire in the Hole xBomb. The two games are light years apart in every regard, displaying the studios' different approaches to slot design. Whereas one provider is pushing the envelope, the other is quite comfortable coasting within it, turning out okay, yet ultimately forgettable experiences.

Then again, not every budding miner wants to take on a vicious beast of a game that can ravage as likely as reward. Some are content with a gentler ride. Also, Gold Collector HyperHold’s jackpot system might be enough to pique the interest of mining connoisseurs prepared to put up with dull visuals and lacklustre gameplay. Still, unless you are desperate to play every mining slot on the market, there is little reason to dig deep to find Gold Collector HyperHold.