Gem Splash: King's Court Slot by Playtech

Open on the royal court. A dark-haired king in gold armour stares out from the reels as the wild, standing in for the paying symbols around him: a rampant golden lion on a shield crest, a crown, a signet ring, a pale horse in a red-trimmed bridle, then A-K-Q-J royals underneath. The board sits inside a blue jewelled border, castle turrets fading into the dark behind it. Don't expect much from those line symbols on their own. The crest and crown pay modestly, the royals barely register, and the court is really just the backdrop. The gems are the game.

Blue octagonal Gem Splash tiles land as targets on the reels. Above them, gem tiles stamped with a cash figure, the Gem Drops, fall in from the top and edge down one row each spin. When a Gem Drop finally sits directly over a Gem Splash target, its printed prize is paid. Miss, and its value ticks up before the next drop, so a gem that keeps falling is worth more by the time it reaches a target than it was when it first appeared. That slow descent is most of the base game's tension.

Three or more scatters award six free games, and this is where King's Court splits from the rest of the series. Every reel fills with stacked Gem Splash targets, top to bottom, so the falling gems have somewhere to land almost wherever they come down. Hits that were occasional in the base game turn constant. The drops grow bigger too, blocks up to 4x4, and a single oversized gem pays once for every target sitting under it. Land three more scatters during the round and you get another six games.

Over all of it sits the Gem Splash Jackpot. Any spin at any stake can randomly earn entry to the jackpot game, and a larger bet shortens the odds. It pays either a fixed amount worth 10x to 100x your total bet, or one of three progressives, Minor, Major or Grand. Fair warning: those three read as "Not available" in the free demo, since the pooled progressives only pay out in real-money play. Regular spins top out around 500x, with the jackpots banked separately on top. No buy feature and no ante, so the scatters and that random jackpot draw are your only ways up.