Wheel of Happiness

Wheel of Happiness: Slot Overview

Software provider Pragmatic Play is no stranger to the Asian themed side of the market, having released a bunch of these sorts of games by now. While slots like Chests of Cai Shen, Triple Pot Gold, or Greedy Fortune Pig roll off the tongue, it's hard to remember any wildly memorable ones. Maybe Starlight Princess or 5 Lions Megaways qualify? Anyway, players are invited on another virtual journey to Asia with Pragmatic Play as their guide in Wheel of Happiness, a traditional, some might say generic slot that typifies the genre rather than exemplifies it.

Struggling to find much of anything interesting to say about Wheel of Happiness' appearance. Whilst there is nothing remotely offensive on screen, there's also nothing remotely incredible to bask in either. The rotating back wall pattern is pleasant, the animal symbols are pleasant, the whole thing is… pleasant. But also bland, as Pragmatic Play has stuck to the book when painting Wheel of Happiness' skin. If this type of game really is your thing, then it should, understandably, get the job of looking nice enough done. If not, it's a quick swipe left to send it spinning to the rubbish heap to continue the hunt for the right match.

Wheel of Happiness uses a 243 ways-to-win setup across a 5x3 grid, paired with a tumble mechanic where winning symbols are removed and replaced as new ones cascade into place. Tumbles continue for as long as fresh wins are formed. Stakes range from $/€0.20 up to $/€240, with an optional ante bet that raises the wager by 50% in exchange for improved odds of triggering random awards. The game is classified as highly volatile and runs at a maximum RTP of 96.47%, with two lower variants also in circulation.

Ten pay symbols dot the reels, made up of 9-A royals, fish, turtles, lions, and dragons, classic Asian slot icons. Royals pay 1x to 2x the stake for a 5-matching symbol win, whereas the others award up to 3x to 5x the stake. Wilds are present on reels 2, 3, and 4 in the base game, and also on the rightmost reel during free spins and random awards. Wilds substitute for all symbols except the scatter.

Wheel of Happiness: Slot Features

The happiness around here is helped along by several random awards, free spins, and a feature buy.

Random Awards

Hitting 3 scatters in the base game grants a random award from the wheel:

• Wild Wins - At the end of tumbles, the grid is cleared, and 2 to 7 wilds are added to the next result, guaranteeing at least one win.
• Wild Wins+ - The same as Wild Wins, except a multiplier of x2 to x10 is also randomly selected to apply to subsequent wins.
• Free Spins - Players are granted 6 to 25 free spins.
• Free Spins+ - As well as 6 to 25 free spins, a multiplier of x2 to x10 is selected to apply to all wins during the subsequent round.

Free Spins

Free spins play out in a similar way to the base game, so landing 3 scatters awards Wild Wins, Wild Wins+, Free Spins, or Free Spins+ (where the multiplier for subsequent wins ranges from x2 to x5). If the round already has a free spins multiplier, the wild multiplier and the free spins multiplier multiply each other before being applied to the win. If the round has a free spins multiplier and Free Spins+ is granted, a new multiplier is added to the current one for subsequent wins. Free Spins and Free Spins+ grant 3 to 20 extra free spins.

Feature Buy

Instead of waiting for scatters to land and trigger the bonus round, players are able to buy their way in. The cost for doing so is 70x the bet.

Wheel of Happiness: Slot Verdict

Not every slot can be a seismic event that shakes the gambling industry to its very core. Need some space on the shelf for a bit of filler, of which Wheel of Happiness came across as. Just as it was tough to form positive reactions to the game's appearance, it was equally, if not tougher, to walk away from Wheel of Happiness feeling completely satisfied. It is far from the most thrilling or innovative Asian slot ever released, but it does deliver a competent, if somewhat safe, shall we say, gaming experience. On the bright side, the imagery is about what you'd expect, no surprises there, and the gameplay, whilst nothing remarkable, is capable of generating some happiness.

Not titanic happiness, since winning potential is capped at 4,000x the stake, but what features Wheel of Happiness does have work hand in hand with the ways to win pay system. Scatters are the gateways to all of them, triggering those random awards in the base and bonus game. Having regular as well as plus counterparts adds to the suspense, and since plus versions come with multipliers, they are far and away what you want to see. Multipliers can stack during free spins, which is nice, so there is technical potential here for a win generated smile or two.

But, you can say that about a lot of slots, and in the grand scheme of things, Wheel of Happiness was a game hard to be thrilled about. Asian slot connoisseurs might be happy dipping in a wonton to see what's up, yet the way Wheel of Happiness stays safely within the boundaries of innovation makes it an easy game to dismiss unless one is very much into this particular form.