Fortune Pandas

Fortune Pandas: Slot Overview

A wee bit back, software provider Slotmill shocked regular fans by releasing Raging Riches, a slot with the US market firmly in its sights. It would appear the studio has set another regional area in its sights, the region in question being Asia this time (and general Asian-themed slot fans, of course), and the slot they've come up with is Fortune Pandas. Despite the name, this game does not have any obvious relation to Slotmill's Cash Pandas. For one thing, it actually features panda bears instead of racoons, and a different set of features accompany the switched-up species use.

The pandas in this game find themselves in a tastefully, if pretty standard-looking setting where a 5x4, 20 payline gaming grid sits beneath a curved at the edges roofed structure. To the sides of the grid can be seen a misty mountain and other tastefully designed constructions. The pandas themselves are joyful characters dressed up like people and appear on wild symbols in what is an unadventurous-looking slot, but a pleasing one to behold all the same if this theme ticks the right boxes for you.

To get amongst the black and white panda goodness, players must first pick a stake where choices vary from 20 c to $/€60 per base game round. Fast Track bonus buys are available, as is uber-fast Burst Mode, as well as the Xtra-Bet. Switching on the Xtra-Bet increases the base bet by 50%, increasing the chance of triggering the free spins bonus by 3 times. Fortunes Panda's default RTP clocks in at 96.01%, and the math model volatility is high.

Its pay symbols are Asian patterned Jack through Ace card ranks awarding 3 to 5 times the stake for 5 OAK, followed by a fan, a bag, coins, and a scroll, worth 10 to 28 times the bet for a 5-of-a-kind winning combination. Various wilds land in the game. All substitute for any paying symbol, and have the same payout value as the scroll symbol. In the base game, regular wilds land on the leftmost, middle and rightmost reel, while the stacked wild may land on reels 2 and 4.

Fortune Pandas: Slot Features

Wilds are where it's at in Fortune Pandas, landing in single or stacked form. They brighten up the base game as well as the 3 bonus rounds, which can be bought from the Fast Track menu.

Random Wild Feature

This is a base game only feature which causes regular wild or stacked wild symbols to randomly appear on the reels.

Free Spins Bonus Games

Landing 3 scatters triggers the free spins bonus games. Scatter symbols only appear on the leftmost, middle, and rightmost reels in the base game. When entering the round, a coin flip determines whether the sticky wild bonus game, the nudging wild bonus game, or Super Free Spins bonus game plays out.

Bonus Games

• Sticky Wild Bonus Game - This feature awards 9 free spins with sticky wild symbols on all reels. Regular wild symbols remain in position when they land till the round ends. A full reel of wilds merge into a sticky stacked wild symbol, which awards +1 extra free spin.
• Nudging Wild Bonus Game - This feature awards 7 free spins with sticky stacked wild symbols on all reels. Any stacked wild that lands partially in view will nudge to cover all positions on its reel. A full reel of stacked wild symbols awards an extra free spin and is sticky until the end of the round.
• Super Free Spins Bonus Game - Players win 12 free spins with this feature, where regular wilds and stacked wilds appear. Single wilds appear on the leftmost, middle, and rightmost reels and work as in the base game, while stacked wilds appear on reels 2 and 4, working as in the Nudging Wilds bonus game.

Fast Track

The Fast track provides the opportunity to buy a game round guaranteeing a random regular wild costing 30x the bet or a game round guaranteeing a random stacked wild trigger for 40x the bet. In addition, players may buy the sticky wild bonus game for 80x, the nudging wild bonus game costing 100x, or Super Free Spins for 400x the bet.

Fortune Pandas: Slot Verdict

Here's an odd bit of trivia for the day. Apparently, if the Internet is to be believed, a group of pandas is known as an 'embarrassment of pandas', or a 'cupboard of pandas', or a 'bamboo of pandas'. Strange terminology, but there you go. Fortune Pandas is a less strange phenomenon, and it doesn't seem as though Slotmill picked the game to test-drive scandalous technical innovations. This is a reliable if a tad cautious, Asian-themed slot, which plasters its gaming board with some of nature's most adorable specimens and wild symbol interactions that get a sticky boost when the bonus phase is in action.

As is often the case, you don't need to be a fan of Asian slots to be entertained by Fortune Pandas, but it might help. Even still, sticky wilds are such that they can trigger thrilling sequences of events no matter the theme or skin coating them. Bonus rounds during the review could actually be quite exciting, depending on the number of and location of those sticky wilds. Regular wilds are good by themselves, but full reel stacked wilds are what you want, on account of them making a whole reel sticky till the round ends, plus the fact they grant additional spins. Since scatters don't land on free spins, it's the only way to draw the feature out.

Draw it out or stick to what was initially awarded, and who knows, Fortune Pandas' wild features might come together to amble its way towards the maximum 6,688x the bet full potential. Slotmill has played around with full reel wilds before, in the Deadwood inspired Chilli Bandits slot as an example, and sticky wilds in Brew Brothers, for instance, both to good effect. The features work well in Fortune Pandas as well, which ended up being a handsome Asian-themed, panda-populated slot that might not be where the studio has cut loose on innovation, but which has been sturdily constructed all the same.