This is the latest of Crystal’s
creations. It has a high playability similar to it’s predecessors but the
game play is different. The feature involves going Hi-Lo around a board. To get
the feature you must get a cherry gamble to at least 1.20 or fill the feature
trail letters. You can land on either a CASH square which totals up in the
bank, a NUDGE SPIN square which gives you the number of nudges shown, a feature
square which advances up a ladder on the left hand side or you can land on a
GOLD BAR square.
Before you play this machine you must have a clear
objective. You can play to get a ‘Four of a kind Win series’ feature
and collect for a small profit. You can play for the jackpot by collecting
NUDGE SPINS. When you collect this the reels spin and the best nudge win is
shown. You can respin the reels at the cost of one nudge. To get the jackpot
you can only collect this when you have at least 24 nudge spins offered. I have
found that when this feature tempts you with £125 refuse it because the
£250 will follow at about 20 nudges, but this also seems to vary slightly
between machines. The GOLD BARS are an insurance feature. When you gamble on
the Hi-Lo and collect at least 3 gold bars you are guaranteed a gamble when the
feature loses. Or alternatively, you can collect a feature and the value of the
gold bars is added to the bank also. Once you land on a FEATURE square this is
the only opportunity you have of collecting that feature. You will often find
it is quite easy to climb as high as GOLD BAR BLITZ. This feature offers you a
Hi-Lo gamble to add gold bars to the ones you may have collected. It is common
for this feature to pay nothing. When I play this machine I play it for 24 or
25 nudge spins. If the nudge spins go higher than 25 but you cannot land on
them then this is an indication that they will not pay the jackpot and your
only winning chance is a gamble. There are 3 symbols which pay the jackpot,
STARS, CASH POTS and TREBLE BARS. If you get any of these on nudge spins you
can get after play. Within one or two features you can collect ‘Four of a
kind Win series’ which will be about £50. It is worth noting that on
this machine that gambling the GOLD BAR BONUS to £200 or more seems to
leave the machine very happy. I have had over £50 out after the jackpot
this way and just recently I had a second jackpot - a total of £450 out
of one machine! Collecting any feature on this machine will set the feature
back to playing badly. Collecting or gambling gold bars does not affect how
well the feature game is playing. Another point: on the latest Crystal machines
the pots are paid out rather infrequently so it is a little harder to tell how
much money has gone back into a machine. An important poiut about Buccaneer.
This machine does not tease as much as the Bullion. Generally you will find
when forcing it that the nudges will suddenly jump to over 17 or 18 and it will
not be many features before you are offered 25 nudge spins. This is usually
enough for the jackpot. This is a very good machine to play in CIU clubs and
consistently earnt me a lot of money.
