Panda Magic Slots
Following on from the recent release of the Super 6 game, in the new Panda Magic slot from RTG we see that their continued drive to produce better titles is very much in full swing. Whilst on the surface this might seem to be yet another magic themed 5 reeler, this new slot game has some real sorcery laying just below the surface of its cute novelty theme.
With a 30 free spin game bonus feature where all wins are doubled and a secondary bonus feature where one, or both of the games two wild symbols can be added there’s some real excitement here even without a big progressive jackpot on offer. Given the top pay is 2000x the stake played its clear there is a little more variance on offer here than on some slots, which definitely lends this towards real cash play as opposed to free play.
That being said the game is available no download, mobile (with both android and iOS covered) and also at many of the download based online casinos which serve even players in the US. The only thing rare and inaccessible on the slot is the real life panda this magician is based on!
Theme
Panda Magic is particularly bright and vibrant, it’s graphically way above the level of the older RTG slots and even the animations and audio effects represent leaps forwards in terms of production quality. They might not have caught the likes of NetEnt, BetSoft and Thunderkick just yet, but they are probably the only slot game manufacturing serving the US market who are even really trying.
On that topic of development though, the game suffers a little in the mobile version due to screen size, the backdrop to the reels on desktop is fantastic, with the Panda wizard who hosts the game animating at various moments during the gameplay, sadly, you don’t get that on the mobile slot. You do still get the reel animations though and the marvellous design work also stretches to the pay icons, all are magic themed and are very well rendered.
Our in-house favourite is the spell book reading owl, but you will find an array of other great images, magic orbs, potions, the Asian styled home of the panda wizard and of course, the magician himself. The games scatter is a magic ticket and the wild symbol is the games logo, almost everything has some small measure of bespoke audio and video to it, really ramping up the entertainment value.
Features & Gameplay
Panda Magic is a 1024 all ways pay slot, so there are no pay-lines in effect at all, any combination of three or more matching symbols forming left to right will pay out a win. In addition to triggering the free spins round (20/25 or 30), the scatter symbol also provides a win combo in its own right, not something available on every slot and a welcome addition in this format as it adds more to start of the bonus round. This way, if you have a lacklustre round, at least you potentially started with a decent win to begin with.
There are wilds are offered on the Panda Magic slot in two ways, firstly as a fixed wild in the base game round and secondly through the secondary bonus feature ‘more magic’ during the free spins bonus games. When this randomly triggers the panda will randomly add up to three wilds to a reel, add expanding wilds, or in very rare cases, both! With the extra wilds and scatter pays it’s already clear that the bonus feature rounds are where the money is on the Panda Magic slot, if you weren’t convinced of that already, the last and potentially biggest reward of the free spins is that all wins are doubled for the duration of the spins!
Summary
We like RTG’s current direction very much, the production level of the newer titles is right up there with the best slots in the market. Gamblers like a little variance in their games to allow the potential of a big win. To pass the often quite barren periods with that playstyle, an entertaining base game is a must. As a result of its visual and audio work, Magic Panda manages this nicely, sure the pay-out potential is biased towards the free spins round but that’s to be expected and almost desired if you actually dream of winning big. Where Magic Panda excels is that it keeps you spellbound until you get there!
