Dragon Dance Pokie
Chinese culture is a very popular theme for online Poker machines to feature, and you can’t get more typical of the genre than Dragon Dance which is set in a traditional Chinese New Year street party and features dancers, drummers, fireworks and, naturally, a couple of dragons.
On top of the hit theme, there’s a number of equally pleasing bonus features, like free spins, multiplier payouts, re-spins where players can have another go at completing winning combinations and a layout that does away with conventional paylines.
Dragon Dance is part of the huge Microgaming range which not only means it’s available across desktop and mobile platforms, but that no download is needed to play it, and it’s fully certified for fair play at all times.
Dragon Dance
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Time to Party
A dark red background of a Chinese street lit by floating lanterns sets the scene for the festivities, while the game logo and a pagoda-style roof top off the actual reels. It’s a straightforward 5 reels with symbols in 3 rows format that uses the 243 Ways to Win payout system whereby any time identical symbols land on at least 3 adjacent reels, running from the left side, players will win a prize.
This has proved very popular across many games from this developer, and can bring in fairly frequent winning spins.
It also means that selecting bet size is a simple process, as there’s no decisions to be made on the number of coins staked, or lines activated. All that’s needed is for players to adjust the wager from between 0.25 a spin to 125.00 and they are good to go.
The payout table lists what each mix of symbols is worth, and this is one of many games that has playing card 9, 10, J, Q, K and A icons at the bottom end of the chain. Higher up, we find the picture symbols that are specific to Dragon Dance, with a girl playing cymbals, a slightly crazed looking drummer, some cartoon dancers and then 2 dragons taking up their positions at the top of the table.
The Dragon Dance logo can help players to get a win where normally there wouldn’t be one, as it’s a wild, acting as any other, with the exception of the scatter, when it appears on reels 2 and 4.
So 2 identical symbols on reels 1 and 3 for example wouldn’t be enough to win anything, but if it’s 2 symbols and the wild is on reel 2 then it counts for a win. It doesn’t have any value of its own though, so even landing the wild on reels 2 and 4 at once won’t count for anything.
The firecrackers are a scatter symbol, sparking off a free spins round when they land anywhere on the reels in at least 3 positions.
Before the spins begin however, players will receive a scatter payout that’s worth up to 100x the total stake per spin. Then the 15 spins commence, with any wins tripled in value throughout them, while 3 more scatters landing will add another 15 spins to the end of any current ones still to play out.
The jackpot prize of 60,000 coins can be won during this round, so it’s a nice one to trigger.
Dragon Dance also has a re-spins feature, which costs extra but gives skilled players another chance at spinning 1 reel at a time to try and complete a winning combination. The cost of the re-spin is dependent on how likely it is to create a win, and the potential value of any subsequent payout. It’s possibly not ideal for inexperienced players however, as there’s a certain amount of skill involved, but for a small amount, it can be well worth a punt.
A Cracker of a Game?
Dragon Dance is sure to be a popular pokie, even if it’s just for the theme and design, but luckily it’s backed up with some decent, although not stunning, bonus features.
It’s a shame the wild only turns up on a couple of the reels, while also having no value on its own, but the free spins round with 3x multiplier payouts goes a long way to making up for this. Also, players are advised to tread carefully with the re-spins, as the cost of them versus the potential to actually win something needs to be balanced out, so maybe it’s best to just play them with smaller stakes that won’t be missed if nothing comes from them.
Apart from these points, Dragon Dance has much to offer players who enjoy colourful games and reliable payouts.