LIKED
I like the look and size of the individual sporting icons. They are nicely presented, are big in size and not looking cluttered, not like the icons in Break Away, the ice hockey game, with some icons being cluttered and looking messy. That snowy animation of the background scenario in this Winter Gold game completes the winter atmosphere very nicely indeed, making me feel very cool, relaxed and comfortable playing the game. Only a very few Microgaming games can do this to me.
The logo 'Winter Gold' is the Wild symbol, paying 5000x the line bet for getting 5 of them. Sadly, it only does substitution of other symbols except the Scatter symbol, and doesn't do anything else like doubling of wins, becoming stacked or expanding on the reels. Still a dumb symbol to me. The Gold Medal is the Scatter symbol, paying a very good 400x the total bet for 5 of them, and getting 3 or more of these Scatters trigger the Bonus Wheel Feature. A spin of this Bonus Wheel determines the prize to be awarded, either an instant Coins win, a Free Spins game, a Bobsleigh race, a Biathlon race, a Ski Jumping race or a Speed Skating race. The Free Spins game can be up to 20 free spins with up to 4x multiplier, and can be retriggered too. Nice! Win up to 18,000 coins, or 60x the total bet amount, in any of the 4 race event.
As for the other symbols in the game, the highest paying symbol is the Bobsleigh, paying 1250x, followed by the Speed Skating symbol paying 1000x, then the Ski jumping symbol paying 750x and the Biathlon symbol paying 500x, all per line bet for getting 5 of each kind. The lower symbols pay from 150x to 60x the line bet for 5 of each kind. A good paytable.
Playing this Winter Gold game was indeed fun and entertaining for me. I have played it many times over the years, but not quite getting any nice big wins from it. All my previous and current wins could not exceed the 100x total bet amount. Maybe it's just not my luck, which never seems to be good with any of Microgaming games, strangely enough, or those big wins were simply eluding me all this while. But the consistent payouts of between 25x up to 50x the total bet amount aren't so bad and should be quite satisfactory enough for most. For me, it must always be more! Hehehe.