Pandas are one of the most beloved animals on the planet. Who doesn’t love those big, furry, bamboo eating bears from China? Combining the world famous animal with China’s gambling culture, and it’s no surprise that pandas have been a popular subject for online slot machines.
The latest such game is Playtech’s Lucky Panda slot machine. This game was recently launched at Casino Tropez, and is expected to be seen at most other Playtech casinos, including Bet365 Casino and William Hill Casino, in the next few weeks. It’s a five-reel game with a few interesting twists that make it a little different from the normal slot machine fare.
The most noticeable twist here is that Lucky Panda is an “all ways” slot machine. This means that it is possible to make winning combinations anywhere on the reels; you are not restricted by the normal sets of paylines that most games give you.
However, Lucky Panda doesn’t make it quite that simple. As we said, there are five reels in the game; each reel also comes with four rows of symbols on it. For 72 coins, you can play in true “all ways” fashion, allowing you to win with any combinations of matching symbols that appear anywhere on the reels. This essentially gives you the equivalent of 1,024 different paylines – as many as we’ve seen on any slot machine game.
But if you’re not up to spending a full 72 coins – and give the fact that you can play anywhere from $0.20 to $500 per coin, this can get quite expensive – you do have other options that will allow you to play fewer lines while still enjoying some of the same all ways action.
Players have the option of activating just one to four reels if they so desire. The activated reels will still allow you to use all four rows of symbols, while the deactivated reels only use the two central rows considered in play. To activate one reel, the player must only spend 12 coins, while two reels costs 24. Three active reels costs 48 coins, while four active reels comes with a 60 coin price. Of course, the fewer reels you activate, the fewer ways you’ll have to win – down to a minimum of 64 “paylines” if you only activate the first reel.
But this isn’t the only feature to watch out for in Lucky Panda. If you hit three or more panda symbols anywhere on the reels (even outside of your activated positions), you’ll trigger a free spins bonus round. Players are given 15 free spins, and all winnings during these spins are doubled. You can also retrigger more free spins during this game.
One of the interesting things about this bonus round is the Second Chance feature. If you only happen to hit two panda symbols during any spin, you’ll get a free respin in which the two reels with the pandas are locked into place.
With a fun theme that features plenty of symbols and animations that work with the Chinese panda motif, the Lucky Panda slot machine is a lot of fun to play. Given the wide range of betting options and coin sizes, this is one Playtech game that should appeal to casual players and high rollers alike.
