Dragon Dance Slot Review

Dragon Dance was released around Chinese New Year, and it has brought the Orient to the reels once again. The slot is very red, the Chinese colour for luck and wealth. The slot is not themed around any one aspect of Chinese culture, but rather a mixture of all things Chinese in a bid to sum up thousands of years of history on five reels.

Developer

Microgaming developed Dragon Dance. They are a slot developer who contrary to their name, are one of the biggest developers of online slots. Their claim to fame is that they released the first online casino in 1994, essentially kicking off what is now a billion dollar industry.

Microgaming has developed over 800 games. They release good games and they release bad ones. When their titles stand out, it is because they offer exceptional gameplay. Microgaming is renowned for doing the basics right and their games always have great jackpots and win frequently. Their games fall down aesthetically this can damage the player’s experience.

Design

The reels in Dragon Dance are set in a traditional Chinese temple. The overall design of the slot is a lacking. It is not an ugly game, but Microgaming has not spent too much time polishing this one.

It is what it is, and hopefully it will have some redeeming gameplay and features. There is a lot of red and gold, which agrees with the theme. The panel is under the reels and it neatly houses all of the games controls. The panel is a simple grouping of boxes that Microgaming has used before.

A custom panel will always look better, but this panel agrees with the theme and is easy to use. At the bottom of every reels, there is a Reel Respin Button. This is to do with the games special feature and will be discussed in the following sections.

How to play

Dragon Dance has conventional gameplay. It is very simple and a complete beginner can pick it up in a matter of minutes. The Spin Button spins the reels. It is found in the centre of the panels.

When the reels stop, the symbols will land in a random sequence. Wins are paid from this sequence if the player was lucky enough to have a matching symbol line up across adjacent reels, in accordance with a payline.

There are 243 paylines in the slot. Anytime a slot has 243 paylines a matching symbol counts towards a win, anywhere on the next reel. The player’s win is dependent on the amount and value of the symbols, and the size of their wager.

Special Features

The player can spin the reels individually, after a spin. The Reel Respin Button is found at the bottom of each reel, pressing it will respin that one reel and pay all wins, which the respin might make.

The player can respin any reel as many times as they would like. There is however as cost associated with doing so. The cost varies and is dependent on the likelihood of the player’s spin returning a win, and the size of that win. To put it simply, it will cost a lot to spin a reel, if the spin will win the player lots of money.

This is a very lucrative feature, with a little luck. It gives the player a second, third or as many extra chances as they would like at making that big win. Although there is a large cost associated with the feature, the adventures and player will find that respinning for big wins is a fast way to make a lot or lose a lot of money.

There is also a free spins game with a 3x multiplier. The player is given 15 free spins played at the value of the bet that unlocked them, for landing three Firecracker Symbols. The Firecracker Symbol is a scatter, and it will win if it lands anywhere on the reels.

Maximum Payout

Dragon Dance has a jackpot of 8,000 coins. This is not that good for Microgaming and only equates do about 160x stake. With the free spins game this is 480x stake, assuming the 3x multiplier.

Summary

This game has great features and gameplay, but is let down by its aesthetics. Dragon Dance is still a worthwhile title, which will float a bankroll and keep player entertained. However, the fussier slot player might find it a bit of an eye sore.