Lucky Tiger Gold

Lucky Tiger Gold: Slot Overview

Lucky Tiger Gold is a continuation of a 3x3 Asian-themed series from Pragmatic Play and developed via its partner studio, Fat Panda. It follows in the footsteps of the original Lucky Tiger and the follow-up Lucky Tiger 1000, which stuck to the same mechanics as the first but was able to drop a whopper of a new top multiplier value in there. Lucky Tiger Gold follows up by retaining much of the DNA that came before, while adding new parts. This time, the top possible multi and the winning potential have remained the same, but the respins feature has been altered by the addition of Coin symbols revealing various effects instead of wilds.

Lucky Tiger Gold does and doesn't look like the ones that came before. A red, green, and gold structure frames the play area, while a blurred image of the East appears in the background. Quite an attractive vision of traditional Asia, too, as if gamblers have walked into a temple complex or a sprawling palace. You can almost feel the harmonious wisdom seeping out of the screen, before remembering this is a slot and not the study of an ancient text; 'Man who says it cannot be done should not interrupt man doing it', or some such sage advice.

Locked into the temple structure is Lucky Tiger Gold's 3x3 gaming grid. It has 5 paylines, and 3 OAK winning combinations only are possible. When picking a bet, the choices range from $/€0.05 to $/€240 per spin, and players can expect a theoretical RTP of 96.5%, where the volatility is high.

Six pay symbols land in the game. They are gourds, scrolls, drums, sycees, frogs, and Maneki-Nekos. Three-of-a-kind winning combinations pay 0.6x to 20x the stake. Wilds land on all three reels as well. They substitute all symbols except Coins and pay 50x for a winning combination.

Lucky Tiger Gold: Slot Features

Lucky Tiger Gold adds to the respins round found in previous Lucky Tigers slots with a new Coin revealing symbol. This is to go with random base game multipliers.

Base Game Multiplier

In the base game, when a full screen of matching symbols hits, the winning combinations are multiplied by a random value of x5 to x100.

Respins

The Respin feature can trigger at random on any spin. Before the round starts, a pay symbol and a full-screen multiplier are chosen at random. During the round, only the chosen symbol, Coins, or blanks may land. When a new pay symbol or Coin lands, a new respin is triggered. When Coins hit, they randomly award Extra Life, Multiplier Upgrader, or Symbol Upgraded:

• Extra Life - An Extra Life is added to the pool. If a subsequent respin results in no new Coin or pay symbol, an extra life is deducted to trigger a new respin.
• Multiplier Upgrader - The full-screen multiplier is progressively upgraded to a maximum of x1,000. Possible values are x5, x10, x15, x25, x50, x100, and x1,000.
• Symbol Upgraded - The chosen pay symbol is upgraded to the next highest value pay symbol.

The respins feature ends when no more pay symbols hit after a respin or when the grid is full of the chosen symbol. At the end, if the screen is full of the chosen symbol, all winning combinations are multiplied by the full screen multiplier attained during the round.

Lucky Tiger Gold: Slot Verdict

After taking Lucky Tiger Gold for a whirl, the assumption is that gamblers who liked the previous two Lucky Tiger slots will be all over this one as well. It doesn't represent the same numerical leap that occurred between Lucky Tiger and Lucky Tiger 1000, but changes have been made. It's unlikely that enough change has occurred to alienate the fan base, and if anything, some statistical changes to match the mechanical upgrades wouldn't have gone amiss. As in the previous game, Lucky Tiger 1000, the 25,000x the bet max win is a lofty total, and the x1,000 multiplier might be devastating. The top multiplier is only available in the respins round this time, though; nevertheless, there is quite a lot of power here for a 3x3 slot to wield, should it do so.

The new bits aren't apparent until the respins feature is active. There, the new Coin symbol replaces the wilds which used to hit, triggering one of three different effects. This is not a revolution by any means, but it's something for returning fans to look forward to. Extra lives are useful to keep the ball rolling, upgraded symbols too, and the multiplier upgrade might help players inch their way closer to the desirable x1,000. When big picturing the game, respins remain a matter of landing pay symbols, sticking them, and hopefully filling the grid in order to apply the round's multiplier; nothing's really changed much in that regard.

With Lucky Tiger Gold, Fat Panda, and Pragmatic Play seem intent on capitalising on the success of the previous two releases with a third that does more or less the same stuff, but offers alterations to encourage curious fans back for another look. As far as 3-reel Asian slots with big volatility and potential go, it's a pretty compelling choice.