Irish Eyes
For some reason slots over the years have time and again gone down the route of being Irish-themed.
Now why is that? The first obvious explanation relates to the famous phrase about the ‘luck of the Irish’. Winning on slots mostly relies on luck so it’s easy to see how the luck element and Leprechauns, pots of gold, rainbows and the like fit in well with slots.
Beyond that, maybe it’s just a case that all things Irish seem jovial and upbeat and if we’re not going to play slots for the thrill, enjoyment and pleasure of it, we might not as well not bother.
Irish Eyes is currently celebrating its 10th birthday as a popular slot by Nextgen Gaming where there are two popular bonus features waiting to be activated, plenty of quirky symbols and some big wins on offer if…you guessed it…the luck of the Irish is with you today. Let’s talk you through it all.
Paylines and Symbols
It’s a 5x3 slot with a maximum of 25 winning paylines. It’s up to you how many you want active ahead of each spin.
If you’re a bit new to all of this, what the paylines mean are that you can secure a win on any given spin in up to 25 different ways.
Having lots of active paylines gives you the best chance of securing regular wins but it will also cost you more to have them active on each spin. So, it’s up to you if you’d rather play fewer spins with lots of possible wins, or lots of spins knowing you’ll pick up less payouts on the way.
In terms of symbols, 10s and 9s are the lowest-paying ones, followed by Jacks and Queens, next it’s Aces and Kings.
These are followed by the four-leaf clover which pays out 500x your bet should you get five of those. You’re unlikely to come across five four-leaf clovers just like that when going for a stroll out in nature but then again, this is a game, so just go with it!
The pot of gold is worth the same as the four-leaf clover and top of the tree as the highest-paying symbol is the rainbow. Four secure you the sort of payout that will help will pay for a fair few rounds of the famous Irish black stuff at 500x your stake, while five rainbow symbols could go some way to you buying the whole distillery- they pay 1250x your bet.
The Wild symbol, represented by the enigmatic mischievous Leprechaun, can appear on any reel. The one and only symbol it can’t substitute for is the Scatter one- more on that in a bit. You’re also about to find out what happens if you get our little green friend pop up on Reels 1and 5, Spoiler alert: it’s certainly the most welcome of appearances.
Free Spins
We’re almost halfway through our review of Irish Eyes and we’re yet to talk about those eyes at all, Well, now’s the time. The beautiful blue Irish eyes belong to the flame-haired girl who is a little of a bit of a Mona Lisa: whichever angle you look at her from she always seems to be looking straight at you. Which shows that anything that Leonardo da Vinci may have one, Nextgen Gaming can do, too!
But she’s not there just there for that; she’s your passport to the free spins round and you’ll need three sightings of her from left to right on the reels to trigger the first of the two bonus features.
Activating it means that 12 free spins are coming your way and in addition to those being on the house- like a generous landlord buying the regulars all a round – all wins secured during them are always tripled, meaning that a decent free spins round will see you in clover: whether of the four-leafed kind, or otherwise.
As if that isn’t enough good news to take in, there’s a bonus within the bonus; the 12 free spins can be retriggered if three of those three sets of Irish eyes make a further appearance during the round.
Pick and Win feature
The Leprechaun isn’t just a quirky character rom Irish folklore, he’s also a rather hard-working Leprechaun in that it has not one, but two roles, to play here.
We’ve already told you that it substitutes for all symbols bar the Irish eyes but of even greater interest and potential to your bankroll is its second job. If it appears on Reels 1 and 5, in any position, you’re about to get to play the pick’em Feature.
You’re invited to pick up one of the two Leprechauns on the reels and in doing so, a cash prize will automatically be revealed.
It can go all the way up to 100x the value of your stake on the spin that triggered it. It goes without saying that the higher the stakes you’re playing for, the bigger the payout that a 20x, 50x or 100x win in this bonus feature will give you. But remember, the reverse is also true. A slightly lean run of spins for high stakes can leave a bit of a dent in your balance so rather like with the aforementioned black stuff, maybe you shouldn’t go at it too hard to begin with.
Very occasionally, when the luck of the Irish is really coming your way, you may be invited to Pick Again and that can only be good news for you; chances are an even better win is about to leave the bank of 32Red Casino and head into your own bank.
Finally, there’s no reason why this feature can’t also be activated during the free spins round seeing as our Leprechaun mate doesn’t discriminate between the base game and the free spins round in terms of when it wants to make an appearance on Reels 1 and 5. If that happens, you pick’em as normal, pocket the cash win and just carry on playing the remainder of your free spins after that.
If your next question is: “are all Pick’em wins also trebled in this round the same way regular wins are?” then the answer is sadly no, they’re not. But even without this extra boost, the smart money is on you walking away with healthy win should that happen.
Final thoughts and recommended games
So that’s pretty much all you need to know about Irish Eyes, a slot that a decade after first hitting the world of online casinos, just keeps on giving: entertainment, excitement, plenty of references to all things Irish and of course, some good wins if you get the rub of the Irish green. Other slots here at 32Red Casino following the well-trodden path of the Irish-themed slot are Irish Luck and Irish Pot Luck while Irish Riches Megaways uses, the clue is in the name, the Megaways feature of giving you a load more ways to win than usual.
If you’re considering a trip to the lovely, lush, green pastures of Ireland where friendliness and humour is as much in the air as a somewhat persistent rain, go ahead, we recommend it.
If not, any of the slots just mentioned, in addition of course to Irish Eyes itself, are all a decent second prize.