You probably don't need us to tell you, but online slots often contain a number of items, objects, and concepts that turn up over and over again. One commonplace item you bump into on a regular basis is sparkly gemstones for a number of possible reasons. For one, gems are generally perceived as having a desirable value, both monetarily and aesthetically, and have turned up in a fair share of slots - a trend that is hard to see ending any time soon. Here's another one, this time from developer Pragmatic Play. It goes by the name of Gemine and, in a classic online slot twist of fate, is a reskin of another slot encrusted with gems from Pragmatic Play, Gems Bonanza.
Gems Bonanza had a sort of Aztec theme going on as if players were conquistadors or explorers doing their best to get their hands on local precious items or something like that. Gemine is less cultural, set deep beneath the surface of the earth in a cavern glowing with light due to the abundance of gems lying about the place. The vaguely mystical collection meter is there again, on the side of the screen, and this time, players are joined by a beardy miner chap, who appears on wild symbols. Gemine is more generic than the slot it was copied from, but eh, it gets the job done.
Gemine is a cluster paying grid slot played on a game board made up of 8 columns of 8 symbols. On each spin, which gamblers can wager 20 c to $/€100 on, 64 symbols drop in, with the goal of making clusters of at least 5 matching symbols. Matching symbols must be connected in a horizontal or vertical direction to be part of a cluster. Gemine is a highly volatile game, with a theoretical return value of 96.55%, or 96.51% when using the bonus buy option.
The tumble mechanic explodes all symbols in a winning cluster from the reels. Any spaces this creates are filled by symbols dropping downwards from above, and new symbols appear at the top of the grid where needed. If a new win is created after a tumble, then the tumble feature triggers again, ending when no new win is in view. Gemstones are used as all of the seven regular paying symbols. Hitting a cluster of 5 identical gems pays 0.1 to 1 times the bet, while at the other end of the scale, hitting a 25+ sized cluster is worth 50 to 1,000 times the bet. The miner wild helps in this regard since he can be used to substitute for any regular pay symbols, and he can be part of more than one win at the same time. However, the wild only appears as part of the Wild Miner or Lucky Miner feature.
One difference between Gemine and Gems Bonanza is the inclusion of a bonus buy. Other than that, it's basically the same – spin features, and the Gems Feature.
In the base game, on each spin, 5 special-coloured markings, one of each type, may appear behind symbols in random positions. When a win happens on top of a marked position, it triggers the applicable special modifier depending on the mark's colour. The triggered feature(s) occurs after all tumbles on the current spin end:
If multiple features are won on the same spin, they play in the following order – Mining, Wild Miner, Squares, Super Gems, and Lucky Miner.
On each spin, the number of exploded winning symbols is counted towards the Gems Feature meter. Collecting 114 points from a base game spin triggers the Gems feature. The meter goes back to zero when no more winning symbols explode from a tumble. The feature begins after all tumbles and modifiers end, starting at level 1. During the feature, at each level, all spin modifiers are guaranteed to be played once per level, in order, and all wins get an x2 multiplier. Collecting enough winning symbols during each level advances players to the next level:
The feature ends when not enough symbols are collected to advance to the next level or all features from level 5 have been played.
Players may buy the Gems feature for 100 times their bet. Bought rounds function the same as a naturally triggered one.
When Gems Bonanza arrived on the scene, it felt like Pragmatic Play's attempt to take Play'n GO on at their own game. It mirrored, to a degree, slots in Play'n GO's range, those ones where you collect winning symbols in the hopes enough of them accrue to trigger certain features at certain points. A classic example is the wide-eyed alien-populated hit Reactoonz - the first of several 'toonz' follow-ups. Now, three years down the track, collecting winning symbols to trigger modifiers is so deeply entrenched it doesn't seem like such a Play'n GO comparison thing. The format is more widespread than it once was. However, what hasn't changed in three years is Gemine's gameplay.
Fair enough, it's kind of hard to change when a studio decides to basically clone one of its previous releases. The biggest mechanical difference between Gemine and Gems Bonanza is the bonus buy option. This doesn't really alter the flow of the bonus section of Gemine, but it gives users the chance to jump right into level 1, with all the pros and cons that buying bonus rounds entails. Something to take into consideration is the lowered winning potential, now capped at 7,500x instead of 10,000x.
Hey ho, another day, another revamped slot. Well, it's more a redo/re-release than a revamp. Pragmatic Play has no qualms remaking games from its extensive and rapidly expanding range of slots either; after all, Gems of Bonanza's core had already been regurgitated in the form of Santa's Wonderland a while back. As for Gemine, it is a pretty so-so example. It's wrapped mining rather than a Central/South American theme around the gaming, and there's a bonus buy, but apart from that, meh.
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