Alchemy Gaming has seen decent success with their underwater adventure, Aquanauts, and Amazon – Lost Gold is a more conventional follow-up that comes with a very similar set of features. The progressive Rolling Reels multiplier has been removed from the base game though, and the max win has been reduced from 50,000x to “only”5,000x your stake. This is a watered down remake in other words, but it comes with modern looking and pleasing visuals.
The Echo Rolls feature had more of a sting to it when you could rack up a decent win multiplier before it kicked in, but you can still land okay wins from the innovation in Amazon – Lost Gold. At least you know you’ll win something when it triggers, and the bonus round comes with 1 of 3 upgrades from the wheel like before. You can pay for extra upgrades in this remake as well, via the Upsizer feature, but there is no doubt that we prefer the superior Aquanauts over Amazon – Lost Gold.
The premium animal symbols pay between 1.33 and 2.67 x your stake for 5 of a kind wins, and the Wild symbol can appear anywhere to step in for pay symbols to help complete and/or improve wins. TheWildalso pays 5x your stake should you land 5 wilds on the same payline. Winning symbols are removed and replaced via theRolling Reels mechanic, and this process repeats for as long as you keep winning.
TheEcho Rollscan trigger at random times after any given win, and this guarantees another win. Basically, the empty positions will be filled with a randomly chosen matching symbol, or wilds. The Echo Rolls feature can be enhanced in the bonus round, which means you can get only wilds or premium symbols to fill the empty positions.
You need3 scattersin view to trigger theBonus Wheel, and this also gives you8 free spins. You win+2 additional spinson top of thatper additional triggering scatter, and you also win+1 extra spin per scatter during the feature. The Bonus Wheel spins up front to give you1 of 3 extrasas follows:
Thebonus round win multiplierstarts at x1, and it increases by+1 per rolling reels win. If you get the multiplier enhancement from the bonus wheel, the progressive win multiplier increments by +2 or +3 instead as already mentioned.
TheUpsizer featurebecomes an option after the Bonus Wheel feature has played out. It gives players in certain jurisdictions the option of upgrading the bonus round. This feature is not available in the UK, however, and the upgrades are clearly marked by price tags in the menu.
TheBuy Bonus featureis also available in some jurisdictions, but not in the UK for sure. If available, you can purchase the Bonus Wheel spin with 8 free spins for50x the stake.
You get a brief and uneventful taste of the base game, and nothing really happens until we purchase the bonus round at 0:42 into the 3-minute highlights video. We got +4 extra spins from the bonus wheel, and you can see for yourself how we fared by hitting the play button below.
There’s no denying that Amazon – Lost Gold is close to being a reskin of Aquanauts, and that it comes with a significantly reduced potential. How realistic the 50,000x max win is in the original game is a question we’ll leave out of this, but let’s just say that5,000xseems more achievable. The semi-transparent reels gives this release a modern look, and the pace is pretty decent as well. We have no quarrels with the visual presentation as such, but there isn’t anything new to see here if you’re tried the original game.
You get rolling reels to keep you going in the base game, and the occasional Echo Rolls feature that can lead to top-up wins once in a while. Things can heat up in the bonus round though, and not least if you get the incrementing win multiplier. The Upsizer feature can be tempting to nudge the odds more in your favor, but then again, there are plenty of games out there where you don’t need to pay for extras. We don’t see any reason to choose Amazon – Lost Gold over Aquanauts, really, but players looking for a more common theme and a 10x reduced potential might see things differently.
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