Cai Hong

Once shrouded by distance, the mystical land of the Far East. Then it became one of many colonial lands on which Europeans landed to build their empires, which led to bitter wars that have shaped its history. Today, a global superpower of its own, projecting power world-wide with its economic might and massive population. China has become quite influential in recent years and its economic growth and strength has been reflected in a great deal of things, most notably western companies turning their heads towards the country with interest to enter its markets. As such, we’ve seen a whole slew of slots built with China in mind, around its great historical figures or cultural icons that are shrouded in mysticism. Cai Hong deals in much the same – the god of wealth who has come to bestow blessings on these 5 reels and 30 paylines. It offers a variety of bonuses, such as Wilds which double all winnings they are part of, alongside a free spins bonus that starts small and has the potential to grow real big with the right conditions.

Considering the word Cai Hong directly translates to rainbow, it’s amusing to see a cheeky rainbow in the backdrop, showing that RTG are well aware of the power of puns. The rest of it isn’t as impressive visually, however. The icons are mostly bland, there are not a lot of animations being thrown around and the static sky in the backdrop could have gone with at least some wind blowing to simulate something going on. Small details like that help a lot.

For the gameplay side of things, the slot is based around hitting the free spins as quickly as possible. It can take a while until a good win lines up, and without the special features, it’d be rather difficult to get it to appear. Unlike a lot of other RTG releases, this one has fixed paylines for both the good and bad that decision brings. You’ll be playing with high volatility, which means that there’s a long waiting time between major wins, but when you win one, it leaves your pockets a lot heavier than what you’ve entered with.

You can play Cai Hong for as little as $0.30 up to $30 per spin. It certainly offers a wider range than the usual fare that RTG produces, but with the high volatility included, we can’t imagine there’s going to be too many gamblers playing it at the max bet, unless they have real deep pockets. If you’re playing for keeps like we are, you’ll probably want to keep to the lower end of the wagers for a while, as it can take a few hundred spins or so for the RTG’s release to warm up and start giving out wins.

The unique symbols are fine enough. There’s not a lot of animation tied to them, but the tiger, chicken, ox, rabbit and dog look rather nicely, alongside the god of wealth and the Scatter symbol. What’s less pleasant to look at are the 9, 10, J, Q, K and A icons, which just have a flat yellow colour and don’t even try to fit into the theme of the slot like the remaining icons.
Winning three or more Scatters rewards 8 free spins with double prizes, with several bonus picks depending on how many Scatters triggered the bonus. These bonus picks then have the option of increasing free spins and multipliers, with a theoretical maximum of 33 free spins and a 15x multiplier for all the symbols. When you add the 2x multiplier from any Wild win on top of that, things can get really crazy, really fast.