Rags to Riches Online Slot Game

Overview

Rags to Riches is a 5 reel, 20 pay line slots game that allows you to change the bet per line from $0.05 to $20.00. This makes the minimum bet a nickel and the max wager worth $400.00 per spin.

The first thing that impressed us about Rags to Riches is how, true to its name, this slot shows both sides of life. You will not only see symbols like gold bars, cigar cases, Cognac, and a private island, but also images of a cardboard box, old sneakers, hot soup, and a skateboard.

The private island is the top paying symbol in this game, delivering you 10,000 coins when it appears five times in an active pay line.

Some of the symbols also depict a hero in this story, which is a bum who rises up to become very wealthy.

This slot does a good job of portraying the theme with storytelling animations. Here are some examples:

• The sneakers turn into dress shoes.
• The cardboard box turns into a mansion.
• The Skateboard changes to a luxury car.
• The hot soup changes to lobster.

The graphics are also pretty realistic for a slot that's from 2008. And while they may not trump the highly detailed 3D slots we see today, they're at least comparable.

As for special symbols, a Rags to Riches logo serves as the scatter. Only, this isn't a true scatter because you merely get your original bet back when two logos appear during a losing spin.

Rags to Riches doesn't have a wild symbol, which is a little rare for a quality slot machine like this one.

One downside to this game involves a weird delay from the time you push the spin button to when the reels finally begin spinning. Perhaps the only solace is that once the reels do start spinning, you don't have to wait long until they stop.

Bonus

If you get three Rags to Riches scatter symbols anywhere on the reels, you'll trigger the bonus round. One very important note here is to make sure that you play all 20 pay lines, even if you're only betting a nickel, because you can't unlock the bonus round otherwise.

In our experience, it took quite a while before we were able to get the bonus round. But once you do trigger the bonus feature, it's quite a treat since you're taken to a second screen, where the goal is to advance a bum to elite status.

The way that you advance steps is by correctly guessing whether a random number between 1 and 49 will be higher or lower than the number shown onscreen. If you guess the exact number or tie, this is considered a loss.

This is actually pretty easy in the beginning because you are shown numbers like 39 and 34, so obviously the smart strategy would be to guess lower. As you advance further, though, you'll get more numbers in the mid 20s, making it about a 50 / 50 shot to correctly guess high or low.

Each stage of this bonus round features six steps, and you must make at least 5 out of 6 correct choices to complete the stage. Two wrong guesses ends the bonus round and leaves you with a small consolation prize.

This decision is a little harder than it seems because you typically build a small fortune in a single stage. For example, the second time we played the bonus round, we accumulated 1,600 credits at the end of the first stage.

Of course, the primary motivation to give up your guaranteed winnings is to go for even larger prizes and possibly even trigger the Jackpot round. Assuming you can complete all the stages without a single incorrect guess, you'll move on to this round.

One more point worth covering about the bonus game is the sequence that you guide the main character through. You start the first stage as a bum on a park bench before finding a shopping cart along the way.

When you guide the bum through the initial stage by making at least 5 out of 6 correct choices, you begin the next stage driving down the street in an expensive sports car.

We thought that this progression was just one more interesting element to what's already a great slots bonus round.

Jackpot Round

As mentioned above, the ultimate goal in the bonus game is to make it to the jackpot round where the progressive jackpot awaits. At the time of this writing, the progressive prize is worth over $118,000.

The Jackpot round takes you to a treasure map with 16 areas; only one of which contains the jackpot.

Given that you only get to select one area of the map, you have less than a seven percent chance of hitting the jackpot. The most likely scenario is that you'll win some other prize, which will then be added to your bonus winnings.

Overall, we love the combination of Rags to Riches' Jackpot and bonus round. They're fairly sophisticated features that force you into tough greed versus rational decisions.

After all, the odds of you making it through all the 6 step stages in the bonus round without getting a single wrong guess, then choosing the one treasure area out of 16 spots are very slim.

We realize that the odds of winning any six figure jackpot aren't very good. But when you have the opportunity to keep 1,600 credits, like we did, this will be better in the long run than continually taking slim chances at the progressive jackpot.

Summary

This isn't just your average slots game about a lavish lifestyle. Rags to Riches accomplish the rare feat of having a clear theme and story that plays out on the reels.

Everything from the animations to the bonus round does a good job of showing the young man's journey from the streets to riches.

Speaking of the bonus round, this is actually one of the best and most detailed that we've seen in any slots game, let alone one designed in 2008.

The jackpot round only adds to the experience with another second screen bonus game. Unfortunately, you won't see the Jackpot round much because it's hard to make it here.

As for complaints, we thought that the delay between you pushing the spin button and the reels actually spinning was an odd technical flaw. We also aren't big fans of how Rags to Riches doesn't feature any wild symbol or a true scatter.

But really, if you can get past these downsides, Rags to Riches is a very good slot to play for anybody who wants a new take on the common millionaire theme.