Oriental Fortune Pokie Machine
As more and more online pokies are released, and the market gets increasingly competitive, developers such as Microgaming have to keep coming up with better games to attract an audience. It wasn’t always like that however, and Oriental Fortune is a typical example of an older pokie that didn’t have to wow players with fancy graphics and stunning bonus rounds.
So what we have here is a very basic 5-reel game with just 5 lines and simple graphics that comes with no bonus features. It might have worked back in the 1990’s but most people want a lot more from their play, so it’s now up against some pretty serious competition.
Still, some players will enjoy the retro style, while others like to simply spin the reels and see what happens, so we’ll dive right in and have a look at how it all works.
Oriental Ordinariness
Although the overall design and symbols may be a bit plain, at least they are colourful, with a purple backdrop to the reels and bright payline indicators showing where each line runs from left to right and also right to left across the reels. By having winning combinations created in both directions, players should in theory get twice as many successful spins as in a conventional pokie where lines of symbols need to run left to right only.
Underneath it all is the same set of control buttons used across much of the Microgaming range, which gives players the option to bet from 0.25 on a single payline or up the amount to cover all lines and add more coins to each for a maximum stake of 25.00 per spin.
Oriental Fortune
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Much of the reels will be taken up by the playing card symbols 10, J, Q and K, which have been designed to look vaguely Oriental and will pay out the smaller winnings, while higher up the value scale we see a temple, some koi fish and a couple of dragons.
A colourful pay table lists each potential win, with symbols shown in order of their value starting from the bottom, while a bold game logo spewing lots of cash sits in the middle of it all.
Players will win when matching symbols stop across a line, with just 2 examples of the 10 needed to earn a prize of 1x the bet per line, while 3, 4 o 5 of them will result in wins of 2x, 10x or 100x respectively. The higher card symbols pay progressively more until we get to the K that’s worth 5x, 50x or 500x the line bet depending on how many have landed.
Picture symbols are worth even more, with the Oriental Fortune logo being valued at 50x for 3 on a line, 500x for landing 4 and if any active payline gets this symbol right across the reels, then players are in for a 5000x the line bet reward.
The only thing that’s going to give players any variety in the run of play is the Geisha girl who is a wild symbol, substituting for others if she is able to create a winning combination where there wasn’t one before. There’s no value to landing the wild on its own, and no multiplier payouts when she does her thing, while anyone expecting fancy animations when symbols are part of a winning line should look elsewhere.
The Verdict
Oriental Fortune is clearly an old game, but for those players who like the simpler design and ease of this type, it’s actually got a lot going for it. Despite the pictures being fairly simplistic, they are still colourful enough, and although there are no real bonus features, the fact that lines pay in both directions means that players shouldn’t have to spin the reels for long before winning a prize or two.
Asian influenced pokies are always a big attraction, and games where there’s no distractions like free spins or side rounds are still popular with many people, so if the combination appeals to you, then this could be a good one to try out.