Samurai Ken

We have to admit, we love ourselves some samurai. Much like knights, samurai play a big role in Japanese culture. There was even a time in history in which different samurai clans warred with one another for dominance over Japan, a period known as Sengoku Jidai. But despite the large war, samurai stories remain great in Japan. Great warriors who beat back invaders, slew dragons and protected the countryside from bandits and robbers.

It’s a great theme to transform into a slot and it would no doubt be a good chance for Microgaming to impress its Japanese audience with a game aimed just for them. And it’s pretty great… until you realize the samurai is an anthropomorphic tiger for some reason. Despite this, Samurai Ken offers gamblers a 5×3 playing field with 20 fixed paylines. Alongside this, the slot also offers players sticky re-spins after every win to extend the winning combination, and a free spins bonus which is a clash between the samurai and the evil dragon.

We have to admit, the animations and the visual style are great, and we’d expect nothing less from a Microgaming title. That said, the samurai being an anthropomorphic animal instead of a human really rubs us the wrong way for some reason. During free spins and during the screen transitions, you see a lot of great animations put forward. The only reason that really comes to mind as to why they made Samurai Ken a tiger instead of a human is specifically to make those visuals look fiercer at times.

The gameplay side of things is much clearer, though. Getting a sticky re-spin on every win is a huge thing, as it essentially allows you to keep extending the win you’ve already gotten into something bigger, potentially even filling the entire reel. So long as more is added to the winning combination, the re-spins keep coming, and you get paid at the end. This is a major feature of Samurai Ken that sets it apart from any other slot on the market, and we mean that in the best possible way.

You can wager between $0.20 up to $40 per spin, giving you lots of options in how much you want to bet, and allowing casual players and high rollers alike to get some solid wins and experience the features while appealing to their budgets. As we already mentioned, sticky re-spins are a huge thing, and when you pair them up with free spins, you line things up for some perfect, mind-blowing wins. Just need to make sure your luck doesn’t run dry by then.

While there aren’t a lot of icons, they look really cool. Some of them are obviously cut outs from the fighting scenes, such as the dragon’s eye, claw and the sword being drawn, while others reveal more about the motivations of the characters, such as the samurai armour, the gold treasure, and the samurai and dragon, themselves. Winning three Scatters on the first, third and fifth reel at the same time rewards players with free spins. The amount of turns you get is randomly decided by the battle between the samurai and the dragon. When the meter hits one of two ends, the battle and the free spins are finished.