Four grinning Donnys line up across a payline in the Donny Dough slot, and the game reads the numbers on their faces from the left, adding some and multiplying with others. That line paid 174 times the bet in our session. That is Lootlines, and it runs the whole game. A row of Multi-Dough symbols pays on its own, the golds adding to the total and the greens multiplying it, and where each one sits changes what the row is worth.
Donny appears on the reels as a Multi-Dough symbol, and he arrives in 4 versions. Two of them add. A gold value printed on him runs from 1x to 10x, and a gold question mark carries a hidden amount set at 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x, 100x, 250x or 500x. The remaining 2 multiply, and the game marks those in green, with the x ahead of the number, not trailing it. A green value covers x2 to x5, and a green one hides one of 8 fixed multipliers between x6 and x25.
A row of 3 or more pays on its own, with no matching symbol needed, provided it starts on reel 1 and continues over touching reels on one of the 14 lines. Lootlines then works along that row, totting up as it goes, and a green symbol multiplies whatever has been counted before it. Where more than one line pays on the same spin, the totals are added together. A Donny on the leftmost reel always adds, whatever colour he shows, because he opens the count instead of changing it. A green x3 there is simply a 3.
A green multiplier on reel 1 is worth its face value and nothing more, which is the one position where colour stops mattering.
It takes 3 scatters marked FS to start the Sticky Dough Bonus, and you get 10 free spins. Every Multi-Dough symbol that lands here stays where it is. It stays until it joins a winning row and clears on the spin after that, so symbols that never connect keep piling up and the grid fills with values waiting for a Donny on reel 1 to set them off. Landing 2 extra scatters in either bonus adds 2 spins, and 3 extra adds 4.
Strike Gold needs 4 scatters and runs 10 free spins. A strip of 4 light bulbs sits over every reel. Whenever a Multi-Dough symbol takes part in a win, a bulb lights over the reel it landed on, 1 per symbol, to a limit of 4.
Donny’s Hat is what turns the bulbs into symbols. Land the hat while any bulbs are lit, and the reels re-spin. Each reel gets one fresh Multi-Dough symbol for every bulb above it, which can build rows the round could not make on its own. The rules guarantee the hat on the last spin, but it only sets off the re-spin if bulbs are lit.
The menu holds 4 options, 2 charged per spin and 2 sold outright. The per-spin pair stay on until you switch them off.
BonusHunt FeatureSpins is the one we kept switched on for most of this review, charged by the spin rather than as a lump sum up front.
The grid runs 5×4 with 14 fixed lines on it, read from reel 1 rightwards over touching reels, and each line settles on its single best run. There is no wild at all in this game. No symbol on the grid substitutes for another, so a line pays on what is in front of you. You can spin for as little as €0.10 or as much as €100, and free play covers all 4 modes.
The game gives back 96.26% as it stands. Switch a purchase on, and it shifts slightly in your favour. BonusHunt runs at 96.31%, Ka-Ching at 96.36%, Sticky Dough at 96.33%, and Strike Gold, the dearest thing on the menu, at 96.30%. The game is rated medium volatility, 3 lights of 5 on the information screens, though the buy menu grades its own rounds separately and puts Sticky Dough a step above. The most a round can pay is 10,000x your stake, and reaching it stops the round on the spot, discarding any spins still to play.
Figures shown from a €1 spin. They scale with your stake.
| Symbol | 3 (€) | 4 (€) | 5 (€) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pink gems | 2.00 | 5.00 | 10.00 |
| Safe | 1.00 | 3.00 | 7.50 |
| Money bag | 1.00 | 3.00 | 7.50 |
| Coin stack | 0.50 | 2.00 | 5.00 |
| Cash bundle | 0.50 | 2.00 | 5.00 |
| Club, diamond, spade or heart | 0.20 | 1.00 | 2.50 |
Lootlines is the reason to play, and its best trick is paying in ordinary spins, not only in a bought round. A row of Donny faces can add and multiply into a win worth having on a normal spin, which is unusual for a game this reliant on its bonuses, and it gives the base game a point most feature-buy slots lack. When Donny is absent the paying symbols are small, a full row of pink gems worth 10x, so the quiet spells drag. Both bonuses give it more room and each can reach 10,000x, one by holding symbols on the reels, the other by lighting a bulb-and-hat finish. The 3.6 reflects a fresh mechanic held back by the wait between Donnys, and by a Strike Gold buy that asks 200x where Sticky Dough asks 90x for a fractionally lower return.
The two rounds look like a straight upgrade, the dearer one better. What separates them is direction. One round hoards Donnys, the other cashes them in.
Sticky Dough hoards. Values collect on reels 2 to 5 while the first reel refuses to co-operate, and a blank spin is quietly loading the next one. Ours ran 12 spins after an early retrigger added 2 to the 10. When a Donny finally arrived on the leftmost reel, the row it completed came to more on its own than the €90 the round had cost. The 12 spins came to €405 in total, off a single buy that went our way.
Strike Gold spends. A bulb is only ever put there by a win that has already paid, so the ending is only as good as the round that led to it. A round that opens cold gives the hat almost nothing to place. Two we bought at 200x came back €40.20 and €33.40, the hat arriving on cue both times to find the strips mostly dark.
Strike Gold does feel like the bigger round while you are in it, and that comes down to how it is staged. The reels sit in a grand hall with a sweeping staircase, magenta drapes and giant playing cards on the walls, and Donny works the session from the right with dollar signs spinning in his eyes and a cigar in his teeth. Both rounds swap that hall for a huge close-up of his grin behind the reels. Only Strike Gold brings out the marquee bulbs and the drum roll, and an eighties game-show soundtrack does the rest. The extra 110x buys the staging rather than a better round.
