Dragon Island Pokies
Dragon Island is an online casino pokie machine from Net Ent that’s filled with mythical fire-breathing beasties who heat up the game when they trigger some big wins and rewarding bonus features.
Like most pokies from this renowned developer, the Dragon Island video pokie looks very impressive and has symbols created with care and style, but unlike most games from them, this one has the option to pay both ways, so winlines can come from matching symbols on adjacent reels running across a payline starting from either the left or right sides.
It’s a 5-reel game, where the symbols are laid out over 3 rows, and either 15 or 30 lines are in play and the minimum stake is 0.15 or 0.30, while the high limit is set at 150.00. If anyone wants to just test it out, there’s free Dragon Island video pokies at most casinos, and once happy with how it works, they can then play for real money. The attractive design extends beyond the reels into the fantasy land that these dragons call home, where waterfalls, rocks and twisted vines give the game its distinct style.
Playing Dragon Island
Stone-effect 10, J, Q, K and A symbols will land across the reels to pay out the smaller, but therefore, more frequent wins, with the 10 and J both being valued at 10, 30 or 80x the line bet, while the Q and K are each worth 15, 40 or 90x when landing on 3, 4 or 5 reels. The A symbol is worth a little more, returning 15, 50 or 150x, and the 5 dragon symbols are the ones that fire things up, paying out 20, 100 or 200x when the lowest value white dragon appears.
Blue, green and brown monsters each pay progressively more, but it’s the orange guy who is worth by far the most, awarding 60, 500 or 2,500x when it lands across a payline.
With all of these combinations, landing 5 in a line when the Win Both Ways feature is activated doubles the prize, so players could get 5,000x for a payline filled with the orange dragon symbol.
Dragon Island
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Wild Substitutions
There are 2 wild symbols, each perhaps unsurprisingly, being dragon symbols. A brown dragon is available at all times, but players who selected Win Both Ways can also see a golden creature appear and any winning combinations made with the help of this symbol substituting for another will have the prizes multiplied by a random amount between 2x and 8x.
Neither wild symbol has a value of its own, but each will create extra winlines, and with the potential to have those wins multiplied by up to 8x, the golden wild is a pretty valuable icon to land.
Free Spins
So far, we have mainly seen dragons and not much of the island, so Net Ent have added an erupting volcano to the mix and made it the scatter symbol, that can appear anywhere on the reels to be worth a prize, while also triggering a free spins bonus round.
If 2 scatters land, players are awarded a prize equal to 2x the total bet, not just the line stake, while 3, 4 or 5 at once will see wins of 3, 10 or 100x the bet. Once these have been paid, the bonus games begin, and depending on how many volcanoes triggered them, 10, 20 or 50 extra spins will play out.
These are no ordinary spins however, as Net Ent like to throw a few extra features into their bonus game to make them more interesting and in this case, we have a random reel filling up with an expanded wild symbol before each spin. Extra games can be won if 3 or more scatter symbols appear during the round, so players could end up with a substantial number playing out, all of which have the expanding wild in effect.
The Verdict
Mythical beasts and magic are hot topics with pokie machines and they don’t get much hotter than dragons, especially now TV shows like Game of Thrones have brought them back into the public’s imagination.
So, there’s no issues with the theme or design, and the gameplay is up to the usual high standard expected of Net Ent. Gamblers will get very similar returns on their wagers whether the Win Both Ways has been activated or not, as they will be paying twice the stakes per spin, but getting twice the coins returned. However, the addition of the golden dragon wild symbol makes this an option well worth considering.
The only real negative with the Dragon Island video pokie is that it isn’t mobile-optimised, so players won’t be able to have a quick game at work or in the pub.