Polynesian Pearl Pokie Machine
Played out over 5 reels and multiple lines, Polynesian Pearl is a classic online pokie from Aristocrat that features various symbols from the South Pacific, rewarding players with some bonus treats when the right ones land in the right places.
It’s an example of a pokie where traditional paylines have been replaced with a format which sees winning combinations formed by 3 or more of the same symbol landing on adjacent reels running from the left side, with their positions on the reels unimportant.
Aristocrat call this ‘Reel Power’, but all players need to know is that it can lead to more winning spins than they would get if the symbols had to land across specific lines.
Pearls Of Wisdom
Polynesian Peral is a somewhat straightforward pokie that doesn’t have much in the way of innovative features, although thanks to the Sliding Wilds some extra rewards are possible during a free spins bonus game.
Other than this, we see a conventional game with a nice theme that should appeal to anyone who likes pokies based on underwater adventures. The background image of the sea floor and some colourful corals sets the mood and the actual reels are a light blue colour which offsets the symbols nicely.
How much those symbols are worth is detailed in the paytable, along with information about how some of them trigger special features and what happens when they do so.
Polynesian Pearl
Unable to connect to MySQL: SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] No such file or directory
Aristocrat like to use the playing card symbols 9, 10, J, Q, K and A for the lower value end of their games and this one is no exception. It seems a shame that no-one thought to spend a bit of time and effort making them fit in with the theme and surely it wouldn’t have taken too long to add some seaweed or the odd barnacle to them.
But we have what we have and it’s hardly the end of the world. The 9 and 10 symbols pay 5x the line bet for 3 of a kind across the reels, with 4 of them being worth 15x and getting either of them right across the reels will return 100x the line bet to players.
The K and A are the most valuable card symbols and are worth 15x, 30x or 150x for 3, 4 or 5 on adjacent reels.
Moving up in value to the picture symbols, we have a seahorse, fish, an ornate goblet overflowing with jewels and a dark-haired girl. She could be a mermaid, but we only see her head, so it’s anyone’s guess.
Whatever she is, she’s certainly valuable, with just 2 examples paying out 20x the line bet, while a full row of 5 equals a huge payout of 1500x.
Bonus Features
The pearl of the title turns up as a wild symbol which can substitute for any other, apart from the scatter, to complete winning lines, although it only appears on the middle 3 reels. This means that landing a K, for example, on reels 1 and 3, with the wild on reel 2, counts as 3 K’s and pays out accordingly.
A big ruby is the scatter symbol which isn’t a scatter in the conventional sense, as it has to land on adjacent reels to be worth anything, rather than in any positions. But it still pays multiples of the total bet when 3, 4 or 5 stop across the reels, with 5x, 10x or 50x being returned to players, who are then taken to the free spins bonus game.
15 free games will be awarded, but to make them a bit more interesting, any wild symbols that appear will become a Sliding Wild, moving down 1 row at a time on each spin. So a wild that stops on the top of the 3 rows of symbols will hang around for 2 more spins, although if a wild stops on the bottom rowit drops off on the next spin.
If there’s a wild in view on the last free game, players get 1 more spin added on, and the feature can be re-triggered with 3 or mare scatters landing at once, with 15 additional spins commencing once any left in the current round have finished.
The Verdict
Polynesian Pearl may not be overflowing with bonus features, but it’s a good all-rounder that has the potential for some nice payouts, both in the base game and particularly in the free spins game. Playable from just 0.25 per spin, it should be within the reach of most players and with all parts of the reels permanently activated, they should see plenty of winning combinations lining up for them.
It follows a popular theme and apart from the playing card symbols, it’s very well put together, so should be worth diving in to.