Imperial Dragon Slot Machine
Imperial Dragon is a 5-reel, Oriental-themed video slot with 20 fixed paylines. Powered by software company Blueprint Gaming, the title is typified by vivid graphics and smooth gameplay, with symbols including dragons, lanterns, temples, fans and other Chinese icons. If you’re a fan of Asian-themed slots, this is certainly one of the better ones out there.
Getting Started
As stated, there are 20 fixed paylines in Imperial Dragon, so you can’t play on any less. You can, however, determine your stake, which is available from as little as 0.20 to 5 per line. The AutoPlay feature, meanwhile, lets you set off between five and 25 consecutive spins.
Before you commence your gaming session, you’ll be asked if you wish to play with or without sound. This really is up to the player, of course, and you can subsequently hit mute if the audio begins to grate on you, so it’s probably worth clicking on the green tick.
The 5x3 grid appears against the backdrop of a sepia-toned cityscape, with the game logo appearing above the reels. Along the bottom of the screen, you’ll find tabs for Auto, Total Bet, Gamble, Total Won and Spin. Without putting too fine a point on it, it’s very easy to get to grips with the game. The return-to-player average, incidentally, is 95.53%.
Two-Level Gamble Feature
Imperial Dragon comes with a two-level gamble feature. Essentially, after any winning spin, you can enter the ladder gamble to improve your wins, with both cash values (maximum: 1,000) and Imperial Spins (max: 100) being awarded. If you have the feature turned off, you simply won’t be offered a gamble.
If you have it set at level 1, you’ll be offered the gamble but only IF you make a win that is greater than 1x your total bet. Alternatively, you can set the gamble feature to be offered if you hit a win that exceeds 5x your total bet or more.
The gamble options can be configured at the start of the game.
Imperial Gameplay
The name of the game is simple: find matching combinations of three, four or five symbols on adjacent reels.
The wild symbol is also the game’s best paying. It is the dragon, and it furnishes players who find it with 100 for three, 2,000 for four and the 20,000 jackpot for five. The wild can also substitute for all other symbols in the game save for the scatter.
The icons in Imperial Dragon are, on the whole, very well-drawn. They are also linked to some attractive pay-outs. The Chinese temple and the balloon are linked symbols, meaning you can land ‘of a kind’ combinations to win pay-outs. The pay-outs are 30 for three, 80 for four or 400 for five. The green Komodo dragon, meanwhile, pays 40 for three, 100 for four and 500 for five.
Golden Dragon Bonus
When three or more coin scatters land anywhere on the reels, the Golden Dragon Bonus is triggered. Here, you’ll win a number of free spins based on how many scatters triggered the feature. Three scatters provides 15 free spins, four scatters awards 20 free spins and five scatters supplies – wait for it – 50 free spins! During free spins, you’ll also be able to collect scatters to unlock bonus reels and eliminate lower-value symbols.
For example, collect 12 scatters during free spins and reel two will become wild. If you collect 18 scatters, you’ll benefit from expanding wilds on reel three, and the 10, J and Q symbols will be eliminated. 24 Golden Dragon symbols, meanwhile, unlocks reel set four, which will become flooded with wilds, and eliminates all (lower value) playing card symbols from the board.
Unlocking any further set of reels will win you five extra free spins. The free spins will continue until all spins are used up, whereupon the player is awarded the amount displayed in the Bonus Winnings panel.
An Imperial Slot Game
Imperial Dragon is a solid slot game from a truly dynamic software provider. While Asian-themed games are ten a penny, this one benefits from a configurable gamble function and a nifty free spins bonus round, during which you are greatly rewarded for uncovering extra scatters.
If you’re looking for a new slot game to kill a few hours – and perhaps win some cash – Imperial Dragon is certainly a fine choice.
