Luna Fortuna: Slot Overview
Editor’s note: This game has been cancelled
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If that’s the case, the team over at Play’n GO will be blushing like giddy school boys and girls once they’ve copped an eyeful of this release from Red Tiger titled Luna Fortuna. The studio has shamelessly copied almost everything about Play’n GO’s popular slot Moon Princess, including grid set up, features, and even characters. As most veteran players know by now, Play’n GO are no strangers to cloning games themselves, so there’s that. The two games are completely unalike when it comes to key stats, however, making one of them a more favourable choice. Let’s take a look.
Released in 2017, Moon Princess was inspired by the anime series Sailor Moon, so we get plenty of Japanese cartoon style in Luna Fortuna. This is predominantly through the three tall leggy ladies with outrageously short dresses, named The Guardians of Love, Stars, and Storms. Not only are they the main characters, they also play pivotal roles in the features. Using a cluster pays mechanic, they stand next to a 5×5 grid, backgrounded by revolving scenes of hilly countryside, clouds, or outer space. It can come across as a little bizarre if anime isn’t your thing, but if it is, you’ll feel right at home.
If you’re a hardcore gamer, you’ll likely not consider the stats to be Luna Fortuna’s strong point, so let’s get those out of the way. As is often the case in a Red Tiger product, default RTP is a little below average on 95.72% while volatility hovers around low/medium. The main issue in the numbers department is the 1,318x potential, which has been reduced compared to Moon Princess. So much so, it will be a turn off for some players, no matter how much coquettish cartoon flesh is on display. It should be said though, that the actual potential of Moon Princess has been disputed, and may not actually be higher than what’s on offer here. Either way, for those still keen, Luna Fortuna is available on any device, offering bets from 10 p/c to $/€100 per spin.
Winning combinations are formed when three or more matching symbols line up vertically or horizontally, starting from any position. When a win occurs, it is removed from the grid, so symbols above drop down, possibly creating new combinations. Note that new symbols are not added to the grid during cascades. When consecutive wins hit, a multiplier is applied to each one, starting on x1, rising by +1 with each cascade to a max of x20. During the base game, the win multiplier resets between paid spins.
Since everything else is the same, it stands to reason we get the same batch of symbols as well. On the low side are a round green one, a star, a heart, and a bell. Premiums are the three Guardians, worth 10x the bet for lines of five, or 5x the bet for a combination of any five. Paying out a bit more is the Moonbeam wild at 50x the bet for five of a kind, while also substituting for any regular pay symbol to complete a win.
Luna Fortuna: Slot Features
Like Moon Princess, Luna Fortuna is all about charging a meter to score modifiers while clearing the grid to trigger free spins where there are three options to choose from.
On any non-winning paid spin, there is a chance one of the Guardians will randomly perform their unique feature. The active Guardian changes on each spin in this order – Love, Stars, and Storms. Their powers range like so:
- Guardian of Love – transforms one symbol type into another.
- Guardian of Stars – transforms or adds up to two symbols as wilds.
- Guardian of Storms – eliminates two symbol types from the grid.
During the base game, premium winning combinations fill the energy meter. When it is full, one Guardians Unite Respin is awarded in which the three Guardians take turns to dump their modifiers onto the grid in the order laid out above. The energy meter has three sections which are filled by Guardian symbol wins. Combinations of 3, 4, or 5 fill 1, 2, or 3 sections respectively. The meter is reset after a non-winning spin and is not filled when Guardians Unite Is active. The main goal of the game is to clear the entire grid of pay symbols – wilds are an exception. When this occurs, the bonus game is triggered. Players then get to choose one of three options offering a variation in volatility (the more spins, the lower the volatility):
- Love Spins – 4 free spins + 4 more each time the meter is filled.
- Star Spins – 5 free spins + 3 more each time the meter is filled.
- Storm Spins – 8 free spins + 2 more each time the meter is filled.
In all cases, the maximum number of free spins you can win is 20. Also, the win multiplier does not reset between free spins and clearing the whole grid now earns you 100x the bet on top.
Luna Fortuna: Slot Verdict
What Red Tiger has done here is possibly an attempt to fill the void for those players in jurisdictions that don’t have access to PnG games and who might crave some Moon Princess action. Although we’ve become used to these kind of shenanigans, it’s hard not to be baffled by the brazen attempt to cash in on someone else’s efforts. In any creative sphere, there is inspiration, and there is imitation. No second guess for which category Luna Fortuna falls into. Again, this sort of thing happens regularly in slots, but not usually to this degree, which really makes you wonder what Red Tiger were thinking.
Putting the elephant in the room to the side, or at least, pretending it’s not there, how does the game pan out? As a grid slot, it can be fun; long cascade sequences are possible when symbols line up all over the place, filling the meter so the girls can work their magic. For an anime outsider, the voice-overs are pretty cheesy, though they match the raunchy cartoon look of Love, Star, and Storm to fit in with the theme. Their modifiers can be quite effective at keeping the roll going too, and making it to free spins is a hugely satisfying experience. It’s not easy to do so, so what can you expect should you make it all the way?
As been mentioned previously, the claimed 5,000x potential in Moon Princess has been much disputed and is likely not higher than the 1,318x max win on offer here. Either way, potential won’t be forming long lines of keen punters and might be off-putting to some. Red Tiger had an opportunity to add some extra flavor in this area, but for some reason choose not to. So what could possibly tempt you to try Luna Fortuna? Well nothing really, unless you’re unable to play the original.
