Lucky Little Gods

The Chinese New Year has come and gone, but Microgaming certainly did not want to miss out on such a momentous occasion. Given the increasing amount of Chinese gamblers year after year, the market is expanding to cater to them, and Lucky Little Gods is just more proof in a string of many other Asian themed games that proves as much. The slot is based around the Chinese Gods of Fortune, as well as their apprentices, who are often celebrated at the New Year by the Chinese people, who hope for good luck and profit in the upcoming year.

The Microgaming release is playable for $0.30 up to $300 on each spin, which shows the company’s dedication to appease all audiences with this medium volatility title. Alongside regular gameplay, you have three different forms of Scatters, a free spins bonus waiting to burst like a pair of firecrackers, alongside the assistants of the Fortune Gods who are running around the reels at random times to bring wins to gamblers who aren’t so fortunate to win the other prizes.

The visuals are clearly made to appear cutesy and cartoonish, using a chibi style that is popular in anime to depict the characters. It’s not as visually impressive as some other Microgaming titles, we have to admit. The backdrop, while cool looking, is static, and the animations are fluid, but simplistic, which was probably due to the chosen art style. For some reason, the desktop version also uses the mobile interface, which isn’t that difficult to navigate with a mouse and keyboard, but presents a mild annoyance that seems like a very odd oversight for such a big company.

As far as gameplay goes, Lucky Little Gods sits in a comfortable medium volatility space. The wins just aren’t high enough to push it into high volatility, and we can’t help but wonder if that was the original intention with this Microgaming release, considering you can wager up to $300 on each spin. It seems that the developers certainly tried to lure in the high rollers to give their game a try, but with somewhat infrequent bonuses and a smaller jackpot than plenty of other releases, it doesn’t seem that Microgaming really thought things through.

This slot is playable for $0.30 up to $300 per spin, which is a huge spending difference. There is no progressive jackpot to chase after. Instead, the highest possible jackpot you can win is 433x your wager, which isn’t bad, but it is far from the highest jackpot we have seen, even when you consider all Microgaming titles. Considering how high the developers have left the maximum bet, it may be an effort to court high rollers who don’t want to risk as much on higher volatility titles. We’re not sure if the strategy will work, but we’re satisfied to get something new to play, so we’re not complaining too much.

Given the expanding size of the Chinese gambling market, plenty of companies have done renditions of various Chinese deities and famous mythological creatures. Although the chibi artstyle isn’t our personal favourite, it does help make by now familiar faces stand out a bit more than you might usually expect. The symbols are comprised of the Gods of Fortune, their assistants, and Chinese symbols in different colours which act as fillers. There are several Scatters on the playing field, each with different effects.

The Golden Tree can appear on the first and fifth. When it does, it pours its coins on the symbols beneath it, duplicating the coin reward for that icon. The Treasure Pot only appears on the third reel, and rewards between 20x to 100x total bet when selected. Finally, firecracker Scatters reward 8 free spins, and additional Scatters that appear while the bonus is triggered extend the free spins by one more. For the duration of extra turns, both first and fifth reel are Wild.