The Wild West has been a never-ending source of inspiration for slot developers, and Red Tiger’s The Good, The Bad, and The Rich steps into this well-trodden territory with an unmistakable nod to the iconic spaghetti Western, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
Though the game doesn’t have any official connection to the 1966 film, the title alone sets the stage for a gritty and gold-laden adventure in the dusty American frontier.
Players are dropped right into the world of The Good, The Bad, and The Rich, where they find themselves in a very typical Wild West town: a dusty street lined with wooden buildings, a town bank right in the middle. Tumbleweed rolls on the ground, and further on, sacks of cash lie about, rather obviously unwatched-the whole a visual decision that comes off more cartoonish than realistic for a setting full of outlaws. During the free spins feature, the backdrop shifts to a sort of sunset hue, at least offering some minor variance in what is otherwise a static background. The visuals here do their job well enough, though they don’t particularly stray far from well-worn Western paths in its design.
The Good, The Bad, and The Rich is played on a 5×3 grid that operates with 25 paylines under regular conditions. The slot does introduce one interesting twist with one of its features, though, where for the time being, it will shift to a 243-ways-to-win format. This dual mode adds an extra layer of excitement, especially for players who like variable mechanics.
Players can place bets of anything from $0.10 up to $8 before spinning the reels-a figure low enough to attract casual gamblers, while still being sufficient for a player who’s got some experience in the games. The volatility is high, while the top RTP comes to 96%, standard yet respectable, and very much in tune with the greater part of Red Tiger’s releases.
The paytable is divided between low-paying symbols, represented by Western-styled 10-A card royals, and high paying symbols represented by horseshoes, cowboy hats, bags of coins, pocket watches, and cash registers. High-paying symbols come with pays up to 6x to 20x the bet for five-of-a-kind while the wild symbol substitutes not only for all regular symbols but also pays for a full line of 20x the bet.
One of the standout features of The Good, The Bad, and The Rich is the overarching progression system that sits atop the reels.
It’s here that players need to collect 10 Progress scatters to unlock one of the three features available in the game. The scatter symbols appear on reels 2, 3, and 4, with each bet level tracking progress individually. While this gives some sense of progression, the system does mean that patience is required to wait for certain features to unlock, and until that time, features cannot be accessed.
Once features unlock, these trigger on the next spin and can also activate randomly on future spins. If a feature triggers but doesn’t result in a win, then it remains active until such time as a successful payout does occur. Features in detail follow below:
When triggered, all low-paying royal symbols are removed from the reels. This provides a higher possibility of landing a high-paying combination. In case no win is recorded, the royals stay excluded for the next consecutive spins until a win is secured.
This feature adds a random set of wild symbols to reels 2, 3 and 4. Like on the royals removal feature, if no win is achieved, the random wilds remain until a winning spin is achieved.
This feature morphs the game from a payline format to 243 ways to win, with symbols coming in stacks of three. This dramatically increases the chances of larger payouts. The feature remains active until a win is obtained.
3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols hit anywhere on the grid reward 10, 12, and 15 free spins. The frequency of unlocked features in the game is more frequent in the free spin bonus round. Furthermore, with every feature that triggers, players also get +1 extra free spin from the activated feature, which prolongs the bonus round and increases chances for decent wins.
Note that both the Progress scatters and regular scatters do not occur during the free spin feature, saving the unlocking of new features for the base game. Still, the frequency at which existing features occur makes the free spins engaging but rewarding to progress through via the base game.
The Good, The Bad and The Rich does a reasonable job balancing its progressive system with more traditional slot machine gameplay, but at the same time it’s hard not to imagine that the smart name came before – rather than inform – an overall design paradigm.
For players who enjoy the thrill of unlocking features and building momentum, the progression system offers a compelling hook. That said, the time required to unlock all three features might test the patience of less committed gamblers. While the features themselves-royal removal, random wilds, and the switch to 243 ways to win-are undeniably useful, they lack the wow factor needed to set the game apart from others in the Western-themed genre.
High volatility means that, yes, payouts can be high, up to 10,462.7x the stake. But getting there will be a bumpy ride that will need persistence and some luck. Players who like Wild West slots and have no issues with slow build-ups will find The Good, The Bad, and The Rich a competent-if not earth-shattering-slot.
All in all, it may not be the game to rewrite the Western slot genre, but The Good, the Bad, and the Rich has enough variation and potential to be worth a couple of spins-just don’t expect to unlock all its goodness without sticking around a little while.
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