John Hunter and the Quest for Bermuda Riches, from here on shortened to 'Bermuda Riches' so we can get through this alive, is a cluster paying grid slot from developer Pragmatic Play. It's also a continuation of the wildly popular John Hunter series, which sees the Indiana Jones lookalike traipse the planet getting into wild escapades on a search for riches. This time John is on the Atlantic island of Bermuda. This isn't a destination that crops up in slots much, so players with extensive bucket lists will be stoked they get a chance to cross out somewhere a little off the beaten path.
We had a quick google of Bermuda while reviewing the game, and the island is rather isolated. It's not mid-Atlantic, but you could say it is close to the middle of nowhere. This is possibly why it was used as a base for the Royal Navy and considered a premier offshore tax haven with what they call an 'investor-friendly environment.' The first thing that strikes about Bermuda Riches is its enormous game panel. While 7x7 is pretty normal for a grid slot, its sheer size is impressive. So much so that it blocks a lot of the background imagery, meaning we could be in any number of palm treed destinations. If you need a slot's location to really bring a game to life, flipping a mobile to portrait mode reveals a bit more of what's going on in Bermuda Riches than a desktop does.
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Having a root around behind the scenes turns up a highly volatile math model, which has been given a rating of 4.5/5 - so yeah, pretty unpredictable for players who like it like that. RTP comes in several forms, so is something to keep an eye out for, where the most desirable figure is 96.39%, rising by a mouse's hand to 96.4% when buying free spins.
Playable from 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin, all regular symbols pay in blocks of at least 5 matching tiles, connected vertically or horizontally. Winning clusters are blasted from the reels as part of the tumble mechanic, which fills any gap with new symbols, possibly leading to extra wins, only stopping when no new winning block hits. Seven regular pays appear, from low to high as diamonds, clubs, hearts, spades, telescope, goblets, and bejewelled rings. The latter three-picture premiums will get you a win equal to 90-150x your bet for a winning block consisting of 15+ symbols. Golden wilds land anywhere, too, substituting for all regular pay symbols.
Getting your hands on some of those Bermudan riches is helped by a few extra features – Cursed Wilds, a Money Collect Feature, and free spins.
When wild symbols hit, there is a chance they are transformed into Cursed Wilds. When this happens, either Cursed Wilds get a x2 multiplier, or wilds are added to the screen in random positions.
Money Symbols can appear on all reels; each one takes a random cash value. If one or more Money Symbol hits at the same time as a Collect Symbol, the Money Symbol values in view are awarded. If there is more than one Collect Symbol, the Money Symbols are collected again, once for each Collect. Another thing to factor in is there are several types of Collect Symbols:
Landing 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 scatters awards 3x, 5x, 10x, 20x, or 100x the bet, plus 12 free spins - 5 more free spins are awarded whenever 3 or more scatters land in the feature. During free spins, the same rules as the base game apply, with one addition. Whenever Money Symbols hit, their value is collected in a separate bonus pot – it does not matter if a Collect Symbol is present or not. When free spins end, a wheel with 3 winning and 7 losing segments spins. If players win, the amount of cash saved in the bonus pot is added to any other wins scored from free spins.
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Bermuda Riches' free spins round can be bought from the base game instantly for the cost of 100x the total bet.
For some reason, the Bermudan location brought Tahiti Gold to mind, though ELK did bring French Polynesia to life better than Pragmatic Play has done in Bermuda Riches. But hey, it's not about jet setting this time; it's about joining John and his whip-cracking ways through another adventure. Mr Hunter certainly brings plenty of star power to Bermuda Riches, where the relatively simple visuals and gameplay might have been easier to overlook if he was absent.
For the record, this is the first time John has appeared in a cluster paying grid slot, yet there are similarities between Bermuda Riches and John Hunter Tomb of the Scarab Queen. Both revolve around Money Symbol collections, and both end with the chance to win a bonus pot of cash. Scarab Queen's final act was arguably more exciting in the way it added giant Money Symbols to reels 1-4 for the final spin. In saying that, it can be extraordinarily nail-biting when free spins end in Bermuda Riches and the bonus pot wheel is rotating. Don't count on winning it too much, yet when successful, the bonus pot tops up a round of free spins nicely.
One final comparison between the two games is Bermuda Riches offers less than half the potential at 5,000x the bet. But Scarab Queen came out back in the day when Pragmatic Play games touted some eye-watering max win figures. The team seems to have toned things down since then to keep things more realistic.
After the positive trajectory John Hunter's been on since he burst on the scene, it's hard to see Bermuda Riches not being a success as well. It's got the big bright look prevalent in previous incarnations that Pragmatic Play does so well, and the new location makes a welcome change.
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