Choy Sun Doa Pokie
Pretty much every pokie produced these days is based on some sort of theme. Comic book heroes, TV shows, cute animals and ancient civilisations are but a few of the almost endless number of themes on offer these days. Given that Asians are the world's biggest gamblers it's no surprise that pokie games based on Asian culture can be found at casinos everywhere, both online and offline.
Choy Sun Doa is another such game and continues the long line of pokies by Aristocrat that feature a distinctive Asian flavour. Lucky 88 or 5 Dragons anyone? This one is one of my favourites, uses the 243 Ways to Win System and is a high volatility machine. The title of the game means "God of Wealth", though I've never seen it written that way; generally speaking it's written as "cai shen" or "Choi San Dou" in the English forms of Chinese.
Graphics and Animations
In terms of looks, the Choy Sun Doa pokie features a number of classic Asian symbols. I love the dragons, Emperors, and treasures all laden with bright and shimmering gold. I think that graphically speaking the game is much sharper than anything else that I have seen from Aristocrat in the online arena. Not bad given that it's land based counterpart is more than a decade old.
Choy Sun Doa
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Animations are nice as well, with the game moving as smooth as butter and never stuttering throughout the action. I never experienced any sort of lag with this game. The overall Asian culture theme of the game works very well here.
Gameplay
Choy Sun Doa is a 5 reel game that uses the patented 243 Ways to Win system. Other features include scatter symbols, wilds, a bonus round and Free Spins. The free spins can be anywhere between 5 and 20 and can be retriggered.
If you've played any other Aristocrat games you might notice a few similarities as the gameplay and symbols used have some crossover with the 5 Dragons and 50 Dragons games.
Summary
I really like Choy Sun Doa by Aristocrat. It's not the most popular of their games nor is it likely to ever capture that crown. However, given it's been on casino floors since as far back as 2002, I'm obviously not alone in enjoying this game. While you are more likely to come across it in Macau than you are in Vegas, it's still one of the more commonly found of the older machines. Heck, I even spotted this one on a recent trip to Serbia.
One thing to note is that this pokie is classified as highly volatile. Expect some long stretches without a big win. However, when a big win comes, you can expect it to be bigger than you would find on the likes of Big Ben. It has an RTP % of 95% which is about average for Aristocrat. Maybe a prayer to the God of Wealth before you spin the reels will lock up that big payout. Good luck.