Dragon Kings

It’s difficult to ignore the allure of ancient civilisations. They laid the foundations for many of today’s greatest societies, implementing laws and traditions that persist to this day. Who hasn’t heard of the Art of War, or the teachings of Confucius? These old societies also had their own beliefs, a rich mythology to draw from, filled with legends, monsters and stories to draw inspiration from. And when China opened its doors to allow its citizens to play slots, a great deal of developers joined the gold rush, making oriental themed slots to target this new and ripe market. While it’s not new anymore, judging by the steady stream of oriental titles, we’re rather willing to bet it’s very profitable. Dragon Kings offers gamblers a 5×3 playing field with 10 fixed paylines. The title also has a small myriad of special features ready for prospective gamblers to sink their teeth into. Wilds with multipliers, a special sixth reel that houses a magical pearl and several dragons alongside the Dragon King which rewards certain features and gives access to the title’s beefy fixed jackpots.

We’ll admit, the visuals in most titles themed around China don’t really appeal to us like they used to. Red and gold are obviously important colours to the Chinese, but seeing them in nearly every title is just as exhausting as the mass of green was when Irish games were particularly popular. Still, there’s no denying there’s something cool to gawk at here. We quite like the backdrop image, which breaks up the red and gold monotony by including furious waves splashing against rocks beneath the reels themselves, and while it’s not filled with cool animations, it still manages to look gorgeous.

On the gameplay side of things, the Betsoft release is mostly focused on the various bonuses you can find within the title itself. This isn’t a guarantee, by any means. All the aforementioned dragons have their own small features, and can appear during normal gameplay, meaning that you aren’t locked behind collecting three Scatters to see them. We wouldn’t call them frequent, but they happen every so often to brighten your day and your wallet. The inclusion of the sixth reel could have been something interesting, but as it stands right now, it’s a complete non-factor unless one of the features is activating, which we feel is somewhat of a wasted opportunity. One thing which we liked and felt the need to mention is the option to buy the feature. If your luck is rotten or if you want to skip the grind, you can just pay upfront to activate the feature.

You can play Dragon Kings for as little as $0.10 up to $10 per spin, which should appease a great deal of gamblers except high rollers who might be hoping for bigger wagers. Even as it stands right now, big wins are certainly possible, as the highest possible jackpot is 280,753 coins and that’s not counting the four fixed jackpots you can win. The title has an RTP of 95.20%, which is about average for these titles. It’s certainly something to keep in mind if you’re going to try and chase the fixed jackpots, especially since we also aren’t certain as to the title’s volatility. From what we’ve played, we’d place it in the medium range, but we’re not certain.

There are plenty of cool symbols to be found on the playing field. Forgoing the regular playing card icons, you can also find a golden coin, a jade statue, swimming Koi fish, and golden ingots. Alongside these, you can find four different dragons, each with a different colour and a different bonus attached to him.

Winning the different jackpots requires you to tame the dragons. For the lowest jackpot win, the bronze, you need the Dragon King to appear, and one more additional dragon, as well as a magical pearl, which can only occur on the sixth reel. As you collect more unique dragons, the fixed jackpot increases – to silver, then gold, and finally, diamond if you collect all four unique dragons. And they do have to be unique – two red dragons don’t count, for example.

And speaking of the magical pearl, it can also play a role when three or more Scatters occur – if its present, it will double the amount of extra turns the player receives.