Jewels of the Orient Pokie
Some people are put off as soon as they see the word ‘Orient’ in the title of a Poker machine, as most of the time it means that it’s going to be yet another Chinese-themed game filled with images of emperors, temples, fans and maybe the odd panda here and there. These games are all fine, but there’s so many of them. However Jewels Of The Orient, from Microgaming is a little different, as instead of the same old stuff, it’s got pictures of beautiful women from across Asia decorating the reels.
As well as attractive symbols, we also get some pretty appealing gameplay, with 5 reels, 9 paylines, wild wins and a richly rewarding bonus game.
Head to the Delights of Asia
This colourful game almost fills the screen with the reels, leaving just enough room around the edges to see a typical Asian landscape at sunset picture, along with the title above them, the control buttons below, and payline indicators to either side.
There’s the option to activate just one of those lines, for a wager of 0.01, although this means that any winning combinations that land on the others won’t count, while the value of a coin can be adjusted up to 1.00, up to 20 coins can be added to each line and when you add all this up, the maximum amount that can be bet per spin is 180.00.
Symbols are presented in a semi-realistic fashion, and a look at the payout table shows players what prizes are paid each time examples of the same one land across 3 or more reels on an active line running from the left side.
Jewels of the Orient
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There are a couple of jewellery boxes that take up position at the bottom end of the table, being worth 5x the number of coins bet per line when 3 land across a line, while getting full lines of 5 will equal a win of 100x.
Most of the symbols however, are of our Oriental ladies, with 5 of them in total, each wearing the stereotypical national dresses of their countries. So we have Indian, Korean, Japanese and Malaysian women, while the highest value one is the Chinese girl who pays from 25x to 800x the coins depending on how many stop across an active line. Any time one of them creates a winning combination, players are treated to a little snippet of traditional music from the girls’ homeland.
Naturally, there are a couple of bonus symbols included in the mix, first up is the wild which is simply the game logo, and works in the conventional way by acting as other base symbols and thereby helping to complete winning lines. It’s also the highest value symbol, paying 5x the coins if just 2 land on a line, all the way up to 2500x when 5 appear right across the reels on an active line.
The most interesting bonus feature however, is triggered by the Palace scatter symbol, as this stylish icon takes players to the free spins round whenever 3 or more land at once, in any positions. There’s no immediate scatter payout, but this comes a bit later on in the game.
The number of scatters that landed influences how many spins will play out, but first another screen opens where players need to pick from 3 selections to determine the exact number of spins that they have been awarded, a multiplier that will be in effect during them, and then a bonus prize that they will get at the end, guaranteeing that the free spins pays them something.
Three scatters is worth 10 to 15 spins, with a 1x to 5x multiplier and a bonus prize of 5x to 25x the total bet, while 4 scatters equals 15 to 20 spins, a multiplier of between 1x and 5x and a bonus at the end of 20x to 100x the total bet.
If 5 scatters launched the free games, then 20 to 40 of them will commence with a 1x to 5x multiplier in effect and a bonus of 50x to 120x the triggering bet paid out at the end.
The Verdict
Jewels Of The Orient is a nice twist on the usual pokie with an Asian theme. It looks good, with richly decorated symbols, all of which are based on the theme, and even in the base game players should land lots of winning spins.
The free spins game is where the real action is however, with some lucrative prizes guaranteed thanks to the bonus payout, while even getting to the round is fun, with the pick-a-prize style game playing out before the main event.