Doubles Pokie
Online casinos have been around since the mid to late 1990's, and looking at the Doubles pokie game from the Yggdrasil developer, you could be excused from thinking it was 1997 all over again. The symbols of traditional cherries, watermelons, lemons and Sevens are very 'blocky' in appearance, but don't be put off by this, as it's actually got some fun graphics and the distinctive bonus rounds that have become something of a speciality for Yggdrasil.
There's a very old fashioned 5 reels and 3 rows of symbols layout, although paylines have been replaced by the 243 ways to win system, whereby any symbol appearing on at least 3 adjacent reels from the left hand side will bring in some cash. This makes it a low variance pokie, which in plain English means players get lots of wins, but not so many high value ones. Games like this are actually more popular, as going through spin after spin without winning anything, and watching your balance get slowly depleted can be a bit of a downer, so pokies where wins turn up more often will keep punters entertained for longer.
Doubles
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Lots of Symbols For Varied Wins
Players can stake from just 0.01 to 50.00 per spin, and each symbol has its own value, with the Grape being worth the least, going through Lemons, Oranges, Watermelons and Cherries before arriving at Stars, Horseshoes, Sevens and finally the highest paying Diamond symbol. Each can appear as a single or double, and this is where the real twist of the Doubles pokie comes into play, as if you land the two single Cherries and one double Cherry for example, it becomes the same as four Cherries, and carries a correspondingly hefty prize.
Of course if you get a full line of double Cherries, that's the equivalent of a line of ten symbols, which isn't bad for a five reel pokie, and the payouts reflect this. Sticking to the Cherries as an example, just because I like cherries, getting five in a line is worth 80 coins, but if you were lucky enough to get ten Cherries, the win is substantially more, with 1,000 coins as a prize.
Extra Doubles in the Free Spins Game
As well as the double symbols feature, there's a Free Spin symbol that can start extra games that come with a nice difference. Before the free spins begin, players get to pick anyone of the standard symbols, and any time it appears during the round, it will be as a double. That can lead to lots more winning combinations in the bonus games, so pick the Watermelon, and as well as the doubles turning up at their usual frequency, any Watermelons will become extra Doubles.
The symbol chosen will decide if you win lots of smaller prizes, or fewer bigger ones, and it's really up to personal preferences which path is taken, although in the end the payouts pretty much average themselves out. Pick the Grape symbol and you're very likely to get at least a few winning free spins, but won't exactly be rolling in cash when you do, but if you choose the Diamond, then the odds of winning a payout are lessened, but it will be a decent sum when it appears in favourable positions.
The number of free spins awarded depends on how many symbols trigger them, with three equalling 10 games, four is worth 20, and if five Free Spin symbols land at once, then 40 spins will play out. In theory, the round can be retriggered by more Free Spins symbols, but in practice they don't appear that often, so any player who gets the round over and over is pretty lucky and should probably buy a lottery ticket as soon as possible.
Doubles is still a fun game however, and its old-school design shouldn't be a barrier to having a go, as there's lots of smaller wins to be had, and when the free spins start, the wins can be quiet decent.