The Native American theme has often been approached by slot developers, and “Little Chief, Big Cash” is Microgaming’s attempt at covering this topic. They’ve done well enough design wise, though some things I’m still not happy about. The cash aspect and the Native American angle go together rather well, especially thanks to the casinos that have been opened in reservations, but you don’t really see the gambling part in this game, or the cash for that matter. It’s simply a Native American themed slot, nothing more.
You will discover that the game has 5 reels with 25 bet lines on them. It does quite well when it comes to features, giving you the usual wilds, scatters, bonus games, free spins and multipliers. It also looks good payout wise, the jackpot being worth $60,000.
Features of Little Chief, Big Cash
The slot’s features are far from impressive, but they do their job and you will not find that it’s lacking any of the major symbols. You have the usual wild, you have a scatter, you can trigger a bonus game, and with its help you get access to the free spins and multipliers.
Little Chief is shown in the symbol that acts as the wild. The wild ability allows this symbol to act as another one, and this kind of substitution action takes place whenever certain conditions are met. First of all, the wild has to appear in the exact spot where a regular symbol is needed in order for a new combo to form. That also means that the rest of the matching regular symbols have to be in position already. Ideally, all your combinations should be formed this way, with Little Chief helping out, as he applies multipliers to the wins as well, doubling their value. Little Chief is the one to offer the top jackpot as well, which happens when you form a combination formed only out of wilds.
As for the scatter symbol, the Coyote is the one that takes this role. It’s a bit of a funny looking symbol, but it can be of great help, especially since it offers its own prizes. You can walk away with payouts of up to 100 times the bet, when you have up to five Coyotes on the reels. The scatter ability means that the exact position of the Coyotes doesn’t matter, only their presence in sufficient numbers.
Big Cash Feature
The slot’s only bonus game starts up when the Coyote scatters appear a minimum of three times. You get 10 free spins to start with, plus any other spins that you win in the bonus game that follows. All free spins have 2x multipliers for their prizes.
The bonus game starts first though, showing you a view of a Native American village, with five teepees. You pick from the teepees until you get the Coyote, which is when the free spins start. Before you reach the Coyote, hopefully you will get additional free spins or cash prizes from the tents. Even if you find the Coyote from your first try though, you still have those 10 free spins.
Betting options and jackpots
The coin bet range is between $0.01 and $0.50, and you can use up to 500 coins in your bets. Each line receives a maximum of 20 coins, though you can use only one if you want to. The line bet doesn’t go past $10, while the maximum bet stops at $250.
A 6,000x jackpot is not a bad reward, but it’s not impressive either. In this case it means up to 120,000 coins, or $60,000 cash.
Design and symbols
If you don’t look too closely at the symbols, the design is quite good, but unfortunately you have some weird looking icons as well, with Little Chief looking like a caricature, while the Coyote looks more like a wolf. Playing cards made out of wood complete the image, and overall I have to say that the reels area is far from impressive. The background picture is much better though, with an image of the prairie and the clear blue sky.
Symbols: Little Chief (wild, 6,000x), Coyote (scatter, 100x total wager), Chief’s Daughter (2,000x), Dream wheel (1,000x), Hat (500x), Tomahawk (200x), Ace (150x), King (150x), Queen (125x), Jack (125x), 10 (100x) and 9 (100x).
Is It Worth Playing?
It’s not the most appealing Native American themed slot you will see, but it does better when it comes to its features and even the payouts available inside. If the graphics don’t bother you, give it a go.
The Little Chief, Big Cash slot machine is offered through the Microgaming platform, so if you want to play it for real or just to practice, look out for casinos that use it.
