Shining Crown: EGT’s fruit slot with two scatters

What you see on the reels

Shining Crown sits on five reels and three rows with ten fixed lines, so every spin covers the whole board. The symbols are pure fruit machine: cherries, lemons, oranges, plums, grapes, watermelons, the red seven and, above them all, the crown that gives the game its name. The background glows purple and gold, and the sound is that short electronic jingle anyone who has walked past a row of EGT cabinets will recognise.

There is no story and no free spins round. The game lives on line wins and on two scatter symbols, which is what keeps it interesting longer than its look suggests.

The dollar and the star

Two scatters share the reels. The dollar appears on fewer reels and pays when three land anywhere; the star can show up on every reel and pays from three upwards too. Neither needs a payline, so a spin with no line win can still return something. Watching for these two is half the game: when both turn up on the same spin, the result often beats any line hit.

The gamble button

After any win you can take the money or press Gamble. A face-down card appears and you guess red or black. Right doubles the win, wrong loses it. It is quick and very old school, and in the Shining Crown demo it costs nothing to see how often you would really press it.

How to test it for free

The Shining Crown demo opens with 1,000 virtual credits, no sign-up and no download. Because there is no bonus round to wait for, short sessions tell you a lot. Play 150 spins at the equivalent of £0.10 a line and count how often scatters pay compared with line wins. Then raise the stake and repeat: the balance moves faster, but the pattern is the same.

If you enjoy the stripped-back feel, the Hot series from the same studio uses a similar recipe with different line counts. The same game runs for real money at the casinos listed below.