With 100 lines across the 5 reels and 4 rows of symbols, Heart of Vegas is one of those pokies where players should be able to spin up lots of wins. It’s been designed to look like an older game, although the software behind it is right up to date and it has a couple of tried and tested bonus features, including an exceptional free spins game that can help to boost win rates even further.
Heart of Vegas is part of the trusted and reliable Aristocrat Gaming range, so players know that fair payouts and completely random results will come as standard at the many online casinos that now feature the games from this Australian-based developer.
The name of this smart-looking pokie comes from the overall theme, as well as the bonus symbols which are the Vegas sign and a heart. Logical really.
The 5-reel, 4-row format fills the screen with images from the golden age of Las Vegas and seem to be themed around a jazz club, with cocktail glasses, a trumpet, spotlights and a necklace making up the higher value symbols, while the playing card icons 9, 10, J, Q, K and A pay out the smaller value prizes.
Being a 100 line game, players will find that the minimum stake is a relatively high 1.00, but those with bigger budgets can adjust up from there to suit their requirements.
The biggest wins in normal play come from landing a stylishly drawn picture of a lady with a typical 1920’s style about her. She will appear stacked several high on a reel, helping to make up some valuable winning combinations.
Wins come from landing examples of the same symbol across a payline from left to right, with the 9 and 10 being worth 20x, 40x or 200x the bet per line when 3, 4 or 5 land across one, and the lady being valued at 10x for just 2 examples and up to 1000x for a full line of 5.
That’s the standard gameplay dealt with and it’s a fairly easy affair, but there are a couple of bonus symbols that are designed to add a little variety to the run of the game, starting with a big red heart which is wild. This will replace all except the scatter on a line if it’s possible to complete a winning combination, although it won’t appear on reel 1 at the left side and hasn’t got any value on its own.
The famous ‘Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas’ sign is the scatter symbol, landing anywhere on reels 1, 2 and 3 to launch a bonus game and paying out 4x the total bet before the bonus round commences.
10 free spins are triggered, but rather than being simply a matter of spinning the reels in the same way as the base game, for each one an extra wild symbol is added which stays in place for the remaining spins in the round.
Although it again only appears on reels 2, 3, 4 and 5, by the end of the spins players are guaranteed to have 10 wilds on the screen, which will lead to multiple payouts and makes this round one of the better free spins games available.
Landing 3 or more scatters during the free spins will add 5 more to the end of any still left to play out, although the extra heart wilds feature will start again from scratch and of course, stop with just 5 wilds in place.
Heart of Vegas is a stylish pokie that doesn’t throw lots of extra features into the mix, but what it has is some extremely rewarding free spins. These are the undoubted highlight of this game, but even normal gameplay can be quite exciting, as frequent wins add extra funds to a players balance.
Perhaps the fairly steep entry point of 1.00 per spin could put some players off, but it’s compensated for by having 100 lines of action.
The theme is also somewhat underwhelming, with the playing card symbols not really contributing much to it, and only the Las Vegas sign really highlighting what it’s all about, but apart from this relatively minor issue, Heart of Vegas is a classy pokie that people should try out, even if it’s just for the big rewards in the free spins game.