Ancient China Slot
Head to ancient China and explore traditional cultural imagery, lilting Chinese music and cute pandas in this exotic new slot game from Portomaso Gaming. The game features 40 paylines, along with wild symbols, scatters, free spins and bonus round to give plenty of ways to win in the Orient.
Players who enjoy evocative imagery and adventure slots will love spinning the reels in this Far East inspired slot title.
Exploring the Orient
Before beginning your exploration of the Orient, you need to select your stake. There are 40 paylines in this slot and you can play as many or as few as you like each spin by clicking on the red ‘lines’ button to give maximum flexibility. You can also alter your coin bet to play 1 to 5 coins per line, while you coin value can be changed from €0.01 to €0.20. This gives a minimum bet per spin of €0. 01 and a maximum bet per spin of €40.00. This is a good betting range which should satisfy all but the highest rolling players.
The theme transports players to the ancient Chinese world of Buddhist monks, Chinese lanterns, pandas, beautiful vases, delicate fans, martial artists, and Chinese letters. The theme actually feels just as Japanese as Chinese due to the symbol of a dark-haired woman wearing white make-up, who reminds us of a traditional geisha; the symbol of the martial artist, whose stance with his sword reminds us of a Japanese warrior or ninja; and the traditional Japanese cherry blossom in the background.
In addition to the symbols, the Far East theme is also apparent in the lilting stringed instrumental music and the background scene filled with red Chinese lanterns. While you spin the reels the dominant sound is the fruit machine noises, while clanging bells accompany every win.
Rewards from the Far East
The payouts in Ancient China as not all that generous, though there are plenty of features to make up for this lack of coin. The best symbol on the regular board is the panda, which pays 100x your bet for 5 matching symbols. The fan also pays up to 100x your bet when you hit 5 symbols and this also acts as the wild symbol for the game. This means the fan stands in for all the other symbols except the scatter and bonus symbols to create more potential wins.
The next symbol to watch for is the Chinese martial artist who pays up to 75x your bet for 5 symbols, while the woman and the green climbing plant both pay up to 50x your bet for 5 symbols. The Great Wall of China pays 35x your bet for 5 symbols, the vase pays 30x your bet for 5 symbols, the Buddhist monk pays 25x your bet for 5 symbols, the Chinese letters pay 20x your bet and the pink cherry blossom pays 15x your bet.
Chinese Dragon Breathes Fire into Free Games
The Chinese dragon symbol is the scatter and spinning 5 of these colourful icons anywhere on the reels together awards 25x your total bet. If you hit 3 or more Chinese dragons you can trigger the free spins round. This means you get 15 free spins with tripled payouts. This is a particularly generous round because no matter how many scatters arrive, you always get the maximum 15 free spins while the 3x multiplier can make a serious difference to your bankroll.
Yin/Yang Bonus Game
If 3 of the black and white yin/yang symbols appear on the screen together, you can trigger the bonus game. This is a domino game where you have to select dominoes to reveal bonus prizes - but watch out for the crown, which ends the round. The number of yin/yang symbols that trigger the round determines the maximum payout you can expect from the domino game.
If you spin 3 yin/yang symbols, your max win will be 250 coins, while if you spin 4 yin/yang symbols the max win jumps up to 700 coins. The highest you can win in the bonus game is 1050 coins, and this is only possible if you spin 5 yin/yang symbols to trigger the round.
A Slightly Disappointing Chinese Adventure
Ancient China is a decent slot machine for fans of adventure themes with an Oriental flavour. The gentle atmospheric music in the background is pleasant but this turns into a grating cacophony of loud bells when you spin the reels and hit a win. The images in the game are attractive, though it feels as though the developers have gone for a general Far East theme rather than strictly Chinese, as some symbols feel more related to Japanese culture, such as the cherry blossom and geisha.
The wild symbols arrive regularly to boost the wins but the free games from the dragon scatter were highly elusive and we did not manage to trigger any during our session. The bonus game is a bit of fun with the dominoes and adds a nice interlude, especially if you can trigger with 5 bonus symbols and choose some lucky dominoes.
