23 May

Microgaming Genie’s Gems Pokies Review

Genie's Gems Pokies ReviewToday, we’ll take a close look at one of Microgaming‘s older games, Genie’s Gems Pokies. This one was published all the way back in 2005. Being 12 years old already, there’s only so much we can expect from the graphics. The real question here is whether the features and paytable make up for the antiquated design.

Our Genie’s Gems pokies review will give you an unbiased perspective as to what’s on offer, and how profitable the game can be. I will tell you right away that it offers a much higher paytable than Microgaming’s more recent releases, but as for payouts, the low number of paylines makes it a hit or miss.

Genie’s Gems Pokies Review – The Basics

Genie’s Gems Pokies is, officially, a 5 reel, 5 payline game. I say “officially”, because that’s how it’s advertised, and that’s how many coins you’ll pay to activate them all. However, this is one of the first online pokies games to offer a 2-way payline function, meaning those 5 lines can pay left to right, or right to left.

So in essence, it’s really a 10 payline game, with half the cost. The lowest coin size is $0.05, for a minimum bet of $0.25 with all 5 lines active. For high rollers, the max bet is $25 ($5 per line).

As mentioned, the graphics are nothing special. It’s very colorful, though, with a cheerful blue-skinned genie whose mystical Arabian culture encompasses the theme. Other symbol include a blue diamond, genie’s lamp, magic carpet, domed temple, and playing card values of K, Q, J and 10.

Genie's Gems Pokies Review - Symbols

Genie’s Gems Pokies Review – Gameplay

The genie is the Wild. He has no special functions, like expanding, stacking, or multiplying winnings. His base purpose is to take the place of any other symbol to create a winning combination. However, the Genie is the highest paying symbol in the game, delivering a very generous 10,000x the line bet for 5 on a line.

The other symbols also pay out quite well when 5 align. The blue diamond is worth up to 5,000x, the genie’s lamp 2,500x, the carpet 1,500x, and the temple 1,000x, with the card values scaling down from 500x to 100x for a full line of them.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing else to speak of here. Genie’s Gems Pokies offers no special features, no scatters, no free spins, no bonus rounds, no multipliers, nothing.

Genie’s Gems Pokies Review – Overall

With absolutely no special features on the menu, Genie’s Gems Pokies gets really boring, really fast, especially for real money gamblers who are used to playing more modern, feature-rich games.

As for profitability, having such a high pay table, it shouldn’t be surprising that Genie’s Gems Pokies is a high variance game. With only 5 lines to strike winning combos on, it’s really a hit or miss – and more often a miss than a hit. You could be spinning the reels with no results for quite some time before anything worth collecting ever lines up.

However, because the paytable is so high, when the wins do come, they tend to pay out very well. Whether it happens soon enough to make up for all the losses incurred getting there – that’s the problem. I know two people who’ve won over $1,000 on this game, but it was never so lucky for me or any of my other mates.

I honestly feel like this is a classic 3-reel game with two extra reels. If you have a bankroll large enough to survive its high variance, and enjoy the sheer simplicity of classic pokies, you just might like it. Otherwise, give it a pass.