Rainbow Jackpots Power Lines: Overview

NetEnt owned developer Red Tiger has gone back through its catalogue and brought back the slightly older slot Rainbow Jackpots in remade form. It isn’t ancient, though. The first release landed in 2016 and became popular with players who enjoy slots that are light, green, and drenched in Guinness vibes. The Irish-themed title returns with most of its features and core stats largely unchanged, but with a significant rework to how it plays. It introduces a new mechanic called Power Lines which, much like their earlier trials with the Power Reels mechanic, changes the grid on every spin. That part feels new—shame the rest of the package didn’t evolve as much.

Anyone who played the original Rainbow Jackpots should settle in immediately. The grid is still wrapped in a similarly carved frame, and the same pipe-smoking leprechaun pops up now and then to influence spins. Rolling Irish hills fill the backdrop, and a jaunty tune rounds out the mood. It’s cosy and recognisable, even if it’s not especially fresh. Before spinning, players need to set their stake, with options ranging from 10 p/c up to $/€100 per spin. Low-stakes fans will notice the minimum bet has been lowered compared to the first game. On the downside, the RTP has also been reduced, dropping by almost half a percentage point to 95.68%. Other notable stats include the potential being broadly similar, hit rate sitting at 3/5, and volatility staying at 4 out of 5.

The layout may be bigger, but the fundamentals are unchanged: hit 3 or more matching symbols on a payline to get paid. There are now 6 reels, opening the door to larger combinations, and each reel can show anywhere from 2 to 7 rows, adding more variety. Because the grid shifts constantly, those 2 to 7 rows translate into between 4 to 49 win ways respectively.

The paytable symbols are familiar, though their look has been tweaked a little. You’ll find 10 – A royals in a bright Celtic-style font, plus three premium icons—a top hat, a lucky horseshoe, and a golden shamrock. Even with the expanded setup, the overall potential is roughly where it was. To balance the added rows, reels, and win ways, Red Tiger has reduced symbol values. The Golden Shamrock, the top-paying regular symbol, now returns 8 times the stake for six of a kind, whereas the original paid 24 times the stake for five. The wild beats that with 15 times the stake for six, and it also substitutes for any standard pay symbol.

Rainbow Jackpots Power Lines: Features

Alongside Power Lines, most of the original’s feature set also returns. Several are randomly triggered when the friendly leprechaun appears with his enchanted pipe. These are known as Lucky Leprechaun features, and they include randomly triggered Symbol Swaps and Super Symbol Swaps. A Symbol Swap happens when the leprechaun blows a high-paying symbol onto the reels from his pipe. After that, the selected symbol rains down across the reels to deliver a guaranteed win. Super Symbol Swap works the same way, but instead of normal symbols, it drops super-sized versions ranging from 2×2 to 6×6.

As with Symbol Swaps, Free Spins are available in two versions. The standard free spins round starts when 3 scatter symbols land anywhere in view. Sometimes, if only 2 scatters appear, the Lucky Leprechaun’s pipe can blow in an extra scatter to activate the bonus. During free spins, the Symbol Swap feature is more likely to trigger, and there’s also a higher chance of additional free spins being awarded.

The second bonus variation is Super Free Spins. These begin when the Lucky Leprechaun blows a Super Free Spins symbol onto the reels. The rules remain the same, except Super Symbol Swaps and Super Free Spins are the versions that show up.

Beer is a staple symbol in Irish-themed slots, and here it powers two bonuses. First is the Beer Bonus, triggered when 3 Beer Bonus symbols land anywhere in view on the reels. As with free spins, the pipe can reveal a third Beer Bonus symbol if only two land. Once activated, players pick one of three beer glasses to uncover a multiplier of their stake. The second is the Triple Beer Bonus, triggered when the pipe reveals a Super Beer Bonus symbol. This time, instead of selecting one multiplier, all three multipliers are added together and paid out. Neither Beer Bonuses can be triggered during free spins.

Rainbow Jackpots Power Lines: Verdict

In a few respects, the Power Lines edition is an upgrade; in plenty of others, it feels like more of the same. Yes, there are extra rows, reels, and win ways, but the end result mainly appeals to die-hard fans of the original (assuming many remain). Overall, it doesn’t bring enough genuinely new ideas. It certainly doesn’t elevate the experience in the way Megaways does, for instance. Still, going back to the original does make it feel noticeably tighter and more boxed-in.

Another drawback is that, beyond free spins and Symbol Swaps, the remaining features are extremely difficult to activate. That feeds into the tricky issue of potential. The paytable lists a max win potential of only 1,224 times the stake, which is simply too low for anyone other than players content to spin something that just ‘looks fun’. Consider a full grid of shamrock symbols as a useful example. In the original, that outcome pays 480x the stake. The catch is that only a complete 6×6 grid in the Power Lines version pays more. Any other grid size will pay less. Yes, filling a 6×2 grid may be easier, but it’s worth remembering if you’re thinking about giving the remake a go.

Overall, while the Power Lines mechanic adds a touch of variety, most of the numbers and payouts have essentially stayed the same—or even stalled—which takes a lot away from the game’s overall appeal.