Sun Quest Pokies
Simple, traditional symbols decorate a simple, traditional pokie from Microgaming. Sun Quest has 5 reels with 9 paylines and sees cherries, oranges, lemons and strawberries lining up to create winning combinations, while a couple of bonus symbols reward players with wild substitutions and scatter payouts.
Despite the name conjuring up images of sunshine and warmth, there’s not much to give us any type of theme, as this game is one of those where players see old-school symbols doing little more than spinning around.
An interesting wild feature is about the only innovation in this game, however, many players like the easy format that it offers, so it’s not a criticism.
Playing Sun Quest
A simple game demands a simple layout and that’s exactly what we get with Sun Quest. There’s no attempt at a background image, or fancy designs for the control buttons, as it’s all a plain orange behind the reels and the standard Microgaming series of buttons underneath the game that are used to decide how much to bet per spin.
The game title is the only concession to style or flair and is written in a swirly gold script, with a little Sun shining through the letter Q in the middle.
One unusual point that’s worth mentioning is the bet range, as it starts at a relatively high 0.25 per spin and ends at a relatively low 18.00. Players can also choose an Expert option which sends the reels spinning away for a pre-determined number of times and stops them at certain win or loss levels.
Sun Quest
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A payout table details how everything works, what players will win and what bonus features are included. Symbols start with the lowest value cherries that pay 6x, 13x or 50x the line bet when 3, 4 or 5 come to rest on an active payline, on adjacent reels, starting from the left side.
Moving up in value, players will see strawberries, lemons and watermelons to give the game a fruity flavour, while more is won by landing images of gold bars, bells, a purple 7 and a shiny diamond that’s worth 12x the line bet for landing just 2 examples in the right spots and 1000x for getting 5 across the reels.
Although most of these have nothing to do with the theme, at least the wild symbol shows us a nice image of boats and palm trees at sunset. It will help players to get extra winning combinations by acting as all but the scatter symbol and while it only appears on the middle 3 reels, the one unusual feature is that it doesn’t need to be on a payline to create a win and instead can be in any positions on those reels.
The scatter symbol is a bit odd, as it’s just a jumbled, but colourful ‘Scatter’ word set against some random shapes. But never mind, as it will pay out multiples of the total bet whenever 3 or more land anywhere on the reels. Landing 3 of them will equal a 5x payout, while 4 at once equals a 20x win and if 5 scatters appear at once, players get 50x their stake back.
But that’s all it does, as unlike scatter symbols in many other pokies, this one doesn’t trigger a bonus round such as free spins, a pick a prize game or anything else.
There is, however, a big payout when the gold coin symbol lands across a line. Just 2 of them is worth 12x and getting 5 of them right across results in payment of the jackpot prize for this game, rewarding lucky players with 10,000x their line bet.
The Verdict
Anyone looking for an all-singing, all-dancing pokie that dazzles with loads of extra features will want to look elsewhere. For a 5 reel game, this one is about as simple as they get and is more like a classic 3-reeler in the way it plays out.
However, this isn’t necessarily an issue, as 3-reel games have been popular for years and there’ s no reason why this style wouldn’t work on a 5 reel machine. It’s not totally devoid of features either, with the wild substitutions made easier by not needing them to land in any particular positions, so this game should certainly be worth a visit, even if it’s just a brief one.