3 Emperors Pokies
Australian games developer Aristocrat are well known for devising highly original pokies and 3 Emperors takes this to a new level by essentially having 3 games in 1. The ancient Chinese emperors Yu, Yao and Shun each have their own spins (sorry), on the theme and although the design of their respective games is different, the actual gameplay is very similar, with only detail changes.
They also share features like respins, free games and the chance to win a progressive jackpot, while the stunning graphics that are far more detailed than those normally provided by Aristocrat are a real highlight. In fact, these pokies look more like animated movies or console games, which is bound to attract players to them at the many casino worldwide which carry the range from this developer.
Whichever pokie is chosen there’s a short animated sequence that shows the emperor’s in various dramatic poses and once it’s done, players are taken to the 5 reels and 100 paylines of their chosen game. Although this is a lot of lines, the symbols are arranged over 4 rows, which lessens the chances of landing a win, as players will need to get at least 3 matching symbols across a line on adjacent reels to claim any prizes.
Each game has a different background image, with gardens, pagodas or battlefields behind the reels, and the actual reels can feature waterfall, blue curtains or green blinds depending on which is being played.
Unlike most Aristocrat pokies which feature the over-used playing card symbols, 3 Emperors has coloured jewels which line up for the smaller wins, with bigger rewards coming from landing images such as eagles, dragons, tigers and fish.
Each emperor will be the highest value symbol of their game and can be double height, so it’s easier to get a nice win from them, while further payouts can come at any time when the symbols that made one up randomly explode, allowing new ones to drop into the empty spaces and possibly making up a second combination.
3 Emperors
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Extra Features
These pokies come with a host of extras, with the most commonly occurring one likely to be wild substitutions from the golden dragon symbol. This will act as all except the scatter to create additional winning lines of symbols, or can extend lines of 3 into lines of 4 or 5 for higher payouts.
The bonus symbol is an ornate red and gold tablet, which needs to land in any 3 positions to trigger a free spins game. In the Yao and Shun games, players are awarded 15 free spins, during which a couple of extra treats are in store. Each winning spin causes the reels containing the symbols that made up the line it to be replaced in an animation that looks like a window blind rolling up and coming back down with new symbols on them, potentially giving players another winning combination.
If players get a win from this feature, it repeats again and again until they get a set of symbols that doesn’t line up a prize. But the real treat happens if all the reels roll up to reveal a pair of red doors.
The doors will open up to reveal a pile of coins and a golden dragon will fly out towards the screen, handing out a progressive jackpot as he does so. There are 3 jackpots to be won, and players will the running totals clearly displayed on a screen above the reels, with the Grand jackpot being an especially big win.
If the Yu version of the game is being played, the free spins work slightly differently, with players picking a picture symbol that will land in place of any other picture during the games which will subsequently play out. The number of spins is dependent on which symbol is picked, ranging from just 11 with Yu, up to 20 with the eagle. Other than this, the same rolling blinds and progressive jackpot features are still in effect.
The Verdict
While the Chinese theme may be a little overdone, with loads of pokies following a similar topic, few, if any, do it with the style of 3 Emperors. This is an outstanding game that has stunning visuals and top quality animations, along with some nice bonus features, both in normal play and the free spins.
The chance to win a big progressive jackpot prize simply enhances the appeal even further, but despite all of the extra features, at heart it’s a fairly easy pokie to play, with 100 paylines giving lots of chances to spin up some winning combinations.