Year of the Dragon King

Year of the Dragon King: Slot Overview

According to Wikipedia, the dragon is the fifth in the 12-year cycle of animals making up the Chinese zodiac in relation to with the Chinese calendar. 2024 was a Year of the Dragon, as is each year plus or minus 12 years on either side. Apparently, there is a spike in birth rates in countries using the Chinese zodiac as some believe 'Dragon babies' are lucky and possess traits that lead to better outcomes in life. It'd be interesting to see empirical evidence backing up or refuting this viewpoint, or is this one of those things science is better off keeping its nose out of? Either way, here we are with Year of the Dragon King, an online slot from Pragmatic Play and Reel Kingdom.

Year of the Dragon King is, obviously, an Asian-themed slot rammed with images from the genre. This includes visual cues such as a misty, rocky, mountainous landscape, lanterns, coins, and, oh yeah, dragons, of course. Not as many dragons as some players might be desiring, perhaps, with very little to none in the base game, so draco-files will have to wait for the bonus game to trigger before getting their fix.

Step one is choosing a bet from 10 c to $/€250 per paid game round. Next is activating the ante bet, if that's how you'd like to gamble, as it increases the bet by 50% to double the chance of triggering the bonus feature. It'll pay to be in the mood for a highly volatile slot, rated 5 out of 5, and one where the default RTP, no matter how Year of the Dragon King is played, is 96.08%.

The gaming matrix consists of 5-reels, holding 3 rows each, and crossed by 20 paylines. All pay symbols award wins from left to right, starting from the leftmost reel. Ten to Ace card ranks comprise the low symbols, awarding 2 to 3 times the bet for a 5 OAK hit, while lanterns and coins are the 2 higher value symbols paying 10 to 25 times the bet for a 5-matching symbol win. Wilds are there on all reels to substitute any regular pay symbols, and they possess the same value as the coins symbol.

Year of the Dragon King: Slot Features

Year of the Dragon King might have dragons, but one thing it does not have is a ton of its features. One is the Mini Slot Machine bonus; the others are bonus buys.

Mini Slot Machine Bonus

Randomly, on a spin, the background of random reels may turn green, blue, or red. If all reels turn the same colour, the Mini Slot Machine bonus is triggered. At the start of the feature, 1 to 5 mini slot machines appear on the grid. These slot machines spin, awarding prizes for winning combinations that land on them. Every time a win hits, another spin is granted on the respective mini slot. When a non-winning spin occurs, the respective mini slot is locked. When all mini slots are locked, the feature ends.

Mini slot machines have one payline and land blanks, blue 8s, yellow 8s, or red 8s. A line of any coloured 8s pays 1x the bet, 3 blue 8s pay 2x the bet, 3 yellow 8s pay 5x the bet, and 3 red 8s pay 20x the bet. Depending on the colour of the triggering reels from the base game, each mini slot also has a multiplier:

• A 5 green reel trigger – mini slots have a multiplier starting at x1 for the first spin, increasing by +1 for subsequent winning spins. The multiplier applies to all wins for that mini slot machine.
• A 5 blue reel trigger – mini slots have a multiplier starting at x2 for the first spin, increasing by +2 for subsequent winning spins. The multiplier applies to all wins for that mini slot machine.
• A 5 red reel trigger – mini slots have a multiplier starting at x5 for the first spin, increasing by +5 for subsequent winning spins. The multiplier applies to all wins for that mini slot machine.

Buy Bonus

For players raging to get the mini slots spinning, it is possible to trigger the bonus round with 5 green, blue, or red reels for 60x, 140x, or 350x the bet, respectively. Or, for 100x the bet, the bonus is triggered by randomly coloured reels. In all cases, 1 to 5 mini slot machines will be awarded.

Year of the Dragon King: Slot Verdict

It was kinda odd reviewing an Asian-themed slot from Reel Kingdom that wasn't related to the Floating Dragon range. Year of the Dragon King was a kinda odd game all around. Not like freaky mind-bendingly odd, but you know, it goes about business a little differently than others. It did bring to mind 8 Golden Dragon Challenge, though (also from Reel Kingdom), since that game also had a bonus round built on spinning a bunch of mini slots, which continue to spin, awarding wins, until no new win hits, thereby locking the non-winning mini slot. Another game which rang bells through the far distance of space and time was The Reel King range due to the vaguely similar lighting up of reels to trigger the bonus alongside a mini slot element.

On with Year of the Dragon King then, or rather, let's skip over the base game since it was pretty boring with not much in the way of major thrills happening. Not that major thrills occurred during the Mini Slot Machine bonus either, but at least from the bonus round, the game's max win of 5,000x the bet becomes a theoretical possibility. Not easy, though having all 5 mini slots spinning at once will likely be more helpful. Year of the Dragon King's novelty factor was intriguing to start with, but after seeing mini reels spin a few times, the novelty did wear off pretty quickly.

To be fair, Year of the Dragon King was quite fun when numerous mini slots were spinning away, doing their thing after being triggered by red reels, thereby getting the best multiplier trail possible. Still, the specific way Year of the Dragon King operates makes it a take-it-or-leave-it situation.