Year Of The Dragon King

Perhaps you remember the mini slot system from Reel Kingdom’s previous 8 Golden Dragon Challenge? If so, we can assure you that Year of the Dragon King is a different slot game despite looking very similar at first glance. It’s more akin to the Reel King series, but dressed up in somewhat generic Orential visuals we feel we have seen plenty of times before.

This is typical for the Asian theme genre, and you should not expect too much from the barebones base game. The bonus round triggers quite often even without the Ante Bet turned on, however, and it delivers up to 5 Mini Slots inside the mouth of different dragons. The mini slots spin as long as you keep winning, and their win multiplier increases per spin. The 5,000x potential is not too shabby, and it comes with a decent 1 in 8.9m spins hit rate.

Reel Kingdom – Slot Developer

Reel Kingdom is famous for their ultra-popular Big Bass fishing slot series, and Big Bass Bonanza catapulted this Pragmatic Play partner into stardom in 2020. Reel Kingdom has 49 video slots out there at this time, and we always keep a keen eye on anything that comes from this reputable provider.

Slot Theme And Storyline

The Chinese Year of the Dragon is soon upon us (2024), and it will be a while till next time. Clearly, Reel Kingdom is attempting to capitalize on this with the Year of the Dragon King slot, while also tipping the hat to the Reel King series. The Asian theme is about as generic and ordinary as you may expect from Oriental games, and we only wish more of the mountain backdrop was visible. A transparent grid would’ve been appreciated, as it’s blocking the view.

Year of the Dragon King RTP, Volatility, And Max Win

The top-tier Year of the Dragon King RTP of 95.08 % is a bit below average according to our stats. This is a high volatility installment from Reel Kingdom, scoring 5 out of 5 on the in-game volatility scale. The Year of the Dragon King max win is 5,000x your stake, and it comes with a 1 in 8,944,544 spins hit frequency.

Year of the Dragon King Rules And Gameplay

You can play with bet levels between €0.1 and €250 in Year of the Dragon King slot, and the game plays out on a grid with 5 reels, 3 rows per reel, and 20 paylines. This game has only 2 premium symbols, but the Wild symbol pays the same as the top-tier Coins symbol if you land 3 to 5 wilds on a payline. The Wild also steps in for any pay symbol to help complete or improve line wins.

Symbols And Paytable

Year of the Dragon King Bonuses And Special Features

There are no base game features to talk about in Year of the Dragon slot, so everything revolves around the Mini Slots Bonus Round. Let’s take a closer look!

Ante Bet (not UK)

Eligible players can turn on the Ante Bet feature between any base game spin. This will cost you 50 % extra per spin, and it doubles your bonus round chances. You get a bonus round hit rate of 1 in 59 spins instead of 1 in 118 spins in other words, and both hit rates are well above average according to our research.

Mini Slot Bonus Round

You will see that the individual reel backgrounds turn blue, red, or green at random times in the base game, and you need all reels to display the same color to trigger the Mini Slot Bonus Round. You get between 1 and 5 mini slots randomly as the feature starts, and they come with 3 reels each. You win different prizes per mini slot win, and each win spins the next mini slot. Non-winning spins deactivate the mini slot, and the feature ends when all mini slots are deactivated.

The mini slots have only 1 payline, and the reels will display either blanks or blue, yellow, or red 8s. A mix of colored 8s pay 1x the stake, 3-oak blue 8s pay 2x the stake, while yellow 8s pay 5x, and red 8s pay 20x the stake for 3 of a kind. In addition, each mini slot has a starting multiplier that depends on the color of the triggering base game reels. It works as follows:

• 5 red reels – awards a starting mini slot multiplier of x5, and it increases by +5 per spin.
• 5 blue reels – awards a starting mini slot multiplier of x2, and it increases by +2 per spin.
• 5 green reels – awards a starting mini slot multiplier of x1, and it increases by +1 per spin.

Year of the Dragon King Bonus Buy (not UK)

Eligible players can pay 60x, 140x, or 350x the stake to get 5 green, blue, or red triggering reels, respectively. Alternatively, you can pay 100x the stake to trigger the mini slot bonus round with reels of a randomly chosen color. You get 1 to 5 Mini Slots no matter which option you go with.

The 200 Spins Year of the Dragon King Online Slot Experience

You get to see a few base game wins before we purchase and trigger the top-tier Mini Slot Bonus Round at 0:53 into the 3:23-minute highlights video. We got only a single mini slot for our session, but the payouts we got from it took us by surprise. Check it all out for yourself by hitting the play button below!

Review Summary And Verdict

Reel Kingdom has basically created an Oriental-themed installment based on the Mini Slot Reel King concept, known from titles such as Reel King Megaways by Inspired Gaming. The Asian visuals you get in Year of the Dragon King slot are a bit too generic for our taste, and it reminded us of Reel Kingdom’s 8 Golden Dragon Challenge. Both games are all about mini slots spinning, but the game at hand does it in a more traditional way.

The base game is uneventful, although you can win up to 500x your stake from a single spin on a very lucky day. You are mostly waiting around for the Mini Slot Bonus to trigger though, and the good news is that it does so fairly often (once in 118 spins on average without the Ante Bet turned on). We got plenty of solid wins from a single mini slot in our test session, and the multiplier system definitely elevated the experience. Overall, Year of the Dragon lacks the charm of the Reel King series, but the 5,000x potential comes with a decent 1 in 8.9m hit rate.