Year of the Dragon King Slot

For this slot review, I Entered the House of the Dragon. Well, this is how the game is sold on the load screen. The game is called Year of the Dragon King, a slot designed and made by Pragmatic Play. In my review, I bring you details about the gaming performance, software, bonus features, and potential payout. 

With this review, as with all reviews from Casinos.com, you will have access to the demo version of this game. You can play the slot for free and explore Year of the Dragon King without restrictions, and no downloads or sign-ups are required. You can play this game from your laptop, tablet, or mobile. If you find that you enjoy the game, then Casinos.com can also give you to the top casinos online where you can play Year of the Dragon King as a real money slot.  

The title of this game should be clue enough as to the theme, but just for clarity's sake, it’s based on the Chinese calendar, 2024 being the year of the dragon. Asian-themed slots are perhaps the most common theme in gaming, so what harm will another do? 

The game is set against the backdrop of rocky mountains with large silhouetted dragons swooping in the distance. The slot grid fits within a temple monument and provides three rows and five reels to play on. There are 20 non-adjustable paylines to help you win from, with the patterns available to view within the game’s paytable. The gaming symbols used include coins, lanterns, A, K, Q, J, and 10. 

So far, there is nothing about this game that stands out or is different from the millions of other Asian slot machines online already. But you will notice two very obvious features on the side of the reels. The Bonus Buy and the Ante Bet.

First, you need to load the game and immediately set the cost of play to the value that suits your budget. The cost per spin starts from $0.10, and players can pay up to $250 per spin ($375 with Ante Bet). Once you have set your limit to play, you only need to press the spin button to begin, with autoplay being the alternative option. 

To land a general win, you need to match three or more of the same symbols across one of the twenty paylines. This is very basic gaming, and it’s this way for pretty much every online slot machine. There is nothing complex about this game, which is why first-time players folk to the slots over more complex card games.

Winning by landing three or more symbols is just one way to be paid. You have, of course, the in-game bonus rounds and features.

Let us now look at the in-game bonuses that can be triggered to help you be more successful when playing the Year of the Dragon King slot game.

The Mini Slot Machine Bonus: During play, the reels may light up red, blue, or green. When all reels match a color, you'll trigger this bonus feature. During the Mini Slot Bonus, prizes are awarded when hitting winning combinations. With each win made, an additional free spin is awarded. The round is over when no win is made. Now, depending on the color of the reels that triggered the round of play it depends on how the bonus game will perform.

• Five green reels = x1 multiplier increasing with each win.
• Five blue reels = x2 multiplier that increases by x2 for each win.
• Five red reels = x5 multiplier that increases by x5 for every win.

These mini-reels are contained within the dragons, and 1 to 5 of them may appear across the reels. The more you have, the better, as it prolongs the game. The winning combinations are formed around three different eight symbols: red, yellow, and blue. 

• 3x red = 20x payout of bet.
• 3x yellow = 5x bet total.
• 3x blue = 2x bet value.
• A mix of any 3 = x1 of bet total.

You can opt to access the mini slot bonus game via the Bonus Buy slots feature. If you play the green bonus, the cost is 60x your wager. If you opt for blue, the cost is 140x your wager, and red is 350x. There is a fourth option at 100x the cost factor, and this is random, so you don’t know what might land as the bonus game.

When you see a game like Year of the Dragon King, you can immediately think, “Jezz, not another Asian slot,” and that’s not being slot-ist or slot-o-phobic; it’s just that there are so many of them. Does Year of the Dragon King do anything different? Well, my first impression is that Year of the Dragon King doesn’t actually do enough. The mini slot bonus isn’t new and does appear in other slot games. It’s this feature that is the game's only saving grace. And sadly, it’s the only bonus feature. Granted, you can play ‘different’ types of rounds relative to the multiplier, but I expected more because Pragmatic Play slot machines often come with such grand gameplay and luxurious features. 

The game looks good, with its sunsetting mountain views, but after 20-odd spins, my interest waned, and I tried out the Bonus Buy. Playing at the default price of $2 per spin, I paid $280 on the Blue Dragons bonus. In return, I landed three dragons, winning a total of $176. This loss further annoyed me, and yes, my opinion of this game is very low.

The RTP rating is 96.08%, which is standard for modern slot games. This is just a theoretical payback rate, which is measured by the number of times you play and the amount of money you’ve deposited into the game. The volatility rating of Year of the Dragon King is set to high.  A high-volatility slot game is trickier to succeed in. It can become costly to play and is better suited for high-roller players. 

The maximum payout is capped at 5,000x the rate of which you bet per spin. This means that by spinning at a cost of $375, you could win up to $1,875,000 in return, which explains why the volatility is high. 

For me, the game is kind of flat. It offers very little, and I feel that as the game is about celebration, there should be more when it comes to the bonuses. The slot just lacks a lot, and there are many games out there that provide more entertainment. That said, you won’t find many ordinary slots in the online casino market that come close to this game's jackpot. 

If, like me, you find the demo of this game unfulfilling, then I recommend these alternative slots. Mega Moolah Megaways by Games Global, Viking Runecraft 100 by Play’n GO, and Dark Summoning by Hacksaw Gaming. These new releases perfectly encapsulate entertainment with gameplay and theme.