March 24, 2022
Slot of the Week: Irish Eyes 2
There's still a little Irish luck left in the pot after the St. Paddy's Day festivities, so grab your green hat and have a few spins of popular sequel slot Irish Eyes 2 for a few more clover-triggered wins!
Almost as old as the original game, Irish Eyes 2 represents a toning down of the vibrant style of its predecessor for something a little more authentic, while still retaining the magic and win potential that made Irish Eyes so popular.
Join us as we tour this sequel slot to see what's changed, what's stayed the same, and how you can unlock its secrets.
In Short:
- Irish Eyes 2 is a 5-reel, 25-payline online slot by NextGen Gaming.
- It is available to play at 10 New Jersey online casinos including Golden Nugget, SugarHouse, Unibet Casino, and Pala Casino.
- The main feature of this slot is free games with tripled wins.
- The maximum payout of a single line in Irish Eyes 2 is $5,000.
The Basics
Irish Eyes 2 is a sequel slot that was launched by NextGen Gaming in 2013, about a year after the original Irish Eyes slot. This iteration of the popular lucky Irish theme feels a little less stereotyped and a touch more realistic, with just enough magic to keep things interesting.
The game sports 25 paylines across 5 reels, just like the original, but this time there's only one special feature to play for. Even so, Irish Eyes 2 is one of those slots that you'll find at many online casinos, remaining a firm favorite with players.
First Impressions
Irish Eyes 2 is set in a lush green forest, which you can just make out in the background behind the reels. You might also be able to spot the piles of gold coins sitting pretty at the bottom of some of the trees.
If you've played the first game in the series, you might notice that the developers have toned down the vibrant lucky leprechaun theme a bit, trading in all the colors of the rainbow for more muted and traditional gold tones, especially in the ornately twisted frame of the reel set. The celtic design of the game's logo remains largely unchanged, reflecting the shift in focus to something a bit more heritage.
The sound effects of this game haven't changed much, with reel spins accompanied by an array of tubular bell sounds and wins announced by a short Irish style musical outburst.
Symbols
The symbols gracing the reels of Irish Eyes 2 are a mix of stereotypical and traditional, with wins awarded for lining up three or, in some cases, two matching symbols along one of the game's 25 paylines. The symbols can be broadly categorized into three groups: high-paying, lower-paying, and special symbols.
The highest paying symbols in the game are the gold Claddagh ring, the green hat, the pipe, and the four-leaf clover.
On the lower end of the scale you've got the card value symbols of A, K, Q, J, 10, and 9.
One of the two most important symbols in Irish Eyes 2 is the red-haired lady, which plays as the game's wild symbol, standing in for all other symbols except the scatter (below) to help you make up those winning lines. Even better, the wild carries its own set of payouts and serves as the game's highest paying symbol in its own right.
The ever-tempting pot of gold is this slot's scatter symbol and your key to unlocking the special feature. This symbol carries its own payouts, but even better, landing at least two of them anywhere on the reels at once triggers those rewards, hence its scatter name.
Irish Eyes 2 Features
Cutting back on the features in the original, Irish Eyes 2 offers just a single special round: the Free Games feature. However, this is a bit of an upgrade in a sense too, as this bonus round offers more potential for rewards than its predecessor. Let's take a look.
Free Games
As mentioned before, the pot of gold scatter symbol is this slot's feature trigger, with 3 or more of them unlocking free games as follows:
- 3 scatters = 10 free games
- 4 scatters = 15 free games
- 5 scatters = 20 free games
Upon triggering the feature, the little leprechaun will emerge and do a little jig on the screen as day turns to night and your free games are totted up. Like the original game, all wins during your free games are tripled!
Irish Eyes 2 Payouts
Irish Eyes 2 is a variable game, meaning you get to choose how many paylines you want to play per spin, from 1 to 25. Your choice will, of course, affect the payout potential of the game, but payouts are also influenced by how much you bet per spin, how many matching symbols you've lined up along one of the active paylines, and what those symbols are.
It's also worth noting that payline wins are only multiplied by your line bet, not your total bet. Scatter wins, on the other hand, are multiplied by your total bet per spin.
Here is a breakdown of the Irish Eyes 2 payouts:
| Symbol | x1 | x2 | x3 | x4 | x5 |
| Wild | 2x line bet | 10x line bet | 200x line bet | 1,000x line bet | 5,000x line bet |
| Claddagh ring | - | 5x line bet | 60x line bet | 500x line bet | 1,500x line bet |
| Green hat | - | 4x line bet | 50x line bet | 250x line bet | 750x line bet |
| Pipe/Clover | - | - | 20x line bet | 100x line bet | 400x line bet |
| A/K | - | - | 15x line bet | 75x line bet | 200x line bet |
| Q/J | - | - | 10x line bet | 50x line bet | 150x line bet |
| 10/9 | - | - | 5x line bet | 20x line bet | 100x line bet |
| Scatter | - | 2x total bet | 4x total bet | 15x total bet | 100x total bet |
As you can see, the most you can expect to win from a single line in Irish Eyes 2 is 5,000x your line bet for matching five Wild symbols. The maximum bet per line is $1 in this slot, resulting in a maximum single payline win of $5,000.
Remember, though, that you'll often trigger more than one line of matched symbols per spin and that those payouts are tripled during the free games feature!
Irish Eyes 2 RTP and Volatility
How do the payouts of Irish Eyes 2 compare to those of other games? In order to make such a comparison, we'll use the industry standard metrics of Return To Player (RTP) and Volatility (Variance).
The RTP of a game is defined as the percentage of played funds that is paid out to players over the long run (i.e. millions of spins). Think of it as the opposite of the house edge, which is the cut the casino keeps. Irish Eyes 2 has an RTP of 95.04%, which is shade under the original game's RTP of 95.1% and short around 1% of the industry average of 96%.
The volatility of a game is the balance between small, frequent wins versus larger, less frequent ones and where on the scale the payouts of the game lie. The payouts of low volatility slots tend to be small and frequent on a fairly stable basis. In contrast, payouts from high volatility slots are much more sporadic, with a lot of variation in both size and frequency.
Though there's some debate over the volatility rating of Irish Eyes 2, we'd class it as medium, meaning you can expect a fairly good balance between small, frequent wins and larger, less frequent ones, which makes for a good gaming experience!
Ready for Another Fortuitous Gaze?
Irish Eyes 2 revisits the classic game and washes out some of the stereotypes and gaudiness that made the original somewhat tacky in places. The result is a much fairer balance of genuine Irish charm and heritage with just a few familiar tokens thrown in for good luck. Each symbol is much more traditional Celtic in design, with a hint of sparkle representing the magic that we've all come to associate with Irish myths and folklore.
Though the developers opted to remove one of the original game's features, we feel Irish Eyes 2 is all the better for it, especially considering the maximum free games have been upped to 20 over the original 12, while keeping the tripled wins appeal.
Irish Eyes 2 can be found at many New Jersey online casinos including Golden Nugget, SugarHouse, Unibet Casino, and Pala Casino.
Ready to receive the riches of that hypnotic gaze? Check out our detailed reviews of the New Jersey online casinos linked above and join the one that appeals to you the most. Claim the site's welcome offer, if you fancy it, then open Irish Eyes 2 and go for more green!
