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If you’ve spent any amount of time spinning modern slots, you know the drill: a quiet base game that makes you work for your supper, followed by a bonus round that holds all the real firepower. Mascot Gaming’s Jester’s Coin Tricks leans heavily into this exact formula.
Played across a standard 5×3 grid with 10 paylines that pay both ways, this circus-themed release mixes classic fruit machine vibes with some heavy-hitting modern features. But does the gameplay actually put on a good show, or is the Jester just stringing us along? I took it for a session to find out.
The Base Game: Nudging Wilds and Elusive Collectors
The base game here is a bit of a grind. The paytable is split down the middle: standard fruits sit at the bottom (three lemons will net you a measly 0.2x your bet), while circus props carry the real upside.
The base game’s saving grace is the Wild. He only appears on the middle three reels, but when he lands partially in view, he nudges until he covers the entire reel. Even better, every step he nudges adds +1 to his multiplier. Because it’s a three-row game, the max multiplier is x3. Since the wild covers all 10 lines, catching a premium symbol, like the Juggling Pins, which pay a massive 500x for five-of-a-kind, through a fully nudged wild is where the base game’s true potential hides.
During my session, however, wins thinned out pretty quickly. I hit a dry spell of nine dead spins in a row, and my best base game hit was a modest 4.5x from a mask combination passing through a x3 wild.
The “Look But Don’t Touch” Coin Feature
Alongside the standard symbols, you’ll see gold coins landing with cash values attached. The trouble is, in the base game, these coins are completely useless unless a “Collect” symbol lands on the exact same spin.
In my session, coins landed constantly, but the Collect symbol was nowhere to be found. I had boards loaded with tempting values, one spin teased me with 22x, another with four coins totaling over 26x, but without the collector, they are just expensive wallpaper. It’s a bit frustrating, but it definitely builds anticipation.
The Hold and Win Bonus: Chasing the Grand
The coins aren’t just base-game teasers; they are your ticket out of the grind. Landing six or more coins anywhere on the grid triggers the Hold and Win Bonus.
The standard symbols vanish, leaving you with an empty grid where only blanks, cash coins, the Collect symbol, or Jackpot coins can land. You get the standard 3 respins, resetting every time a sticky coin hits the board.
The Jackpots are where Jester’s Coin Tricks shows its teeth:
- Mini: 500x
- Major: 1,500x
- Grand: 10,000x
Interestingly, the Grand isn’t a coin you can land. You have to fill all 15 positions on the grid to trigger it. Mascot Gaming lists the game’s absolute max win at 12,000x your bet. Nothing in the game spells out how the last 2,000x above the Grand gets there.
The Risk Wheel
For the high-risk players, Mascot has included a post-win gamble feature. After any winning spin, you can take your payout to the Risk Wheel for a chance to multiply it up to x1,000, or lose it all. It’s offered after wins you play by hand (not in Autoplay) and can be switched off in the settings, and it’s a nice option to have if you want to try and turn a 0.2x lemon win into something actually worth withdrawing.
If you are a fan of traditional Hold & Win mechanics and don’t mind enduring a few dead spins to get to the main event, the Jester is definitely worth a few tricks.