Aristocrat seems to have a soft spot for Chinese themed slot machines, and Wild Panda is exactly that, though it focuses on wildlife and nature as well, not just on things that are considered to be typical for this country. Pandas have been a subject of fascination for a lot of people, so naturally you will see a lot of games themed around them as well. This is one of those slot machines, and despite the fact that the quality of the Aristocrat designs is generally on the weak side, this one actually does a decent job with it.
Wild Panda has 100 paylines, with 5 reels of 4 symbols each hosting them. The slot relies on free games, wilds and scatter symbols as its features. A $2,000 top payout can be won during free spins, while the base game offers $1,000.
Features of Wild Panda
The game does things a bit differently, starting with the way you place bets and cover lines, and then going to the PANDA letters which trigger the free spins. There are also wilds and scatters that you can take advantage of as you play this game.
The Gold Coin scatter symbol is responsible for triggering some very good prizes, which multiply the total bet by 4x to 200x, and for which you need three to five symbols which are scattered around on the reels.
Free Games Feature
You will notice that some of the playing cards actually have another letter on top of them. Each reel has its own letter, and the five together they will spell the word PANDA. The symbols with Jack, Queen and King are the ones that can have this letter on top of them.
Get the five letters of the word at the same time, and you will be offered a round with 5 free spins. The symbols which were part of the PANDA word will be used as wilds during the free spins. They will turn into Panda wild symbols, which can give away payouts of up to 2,000x and will act as substitutes for all regular symbols. Unfortunately, the free spins can’t be triggered again.
Betting options and jackpots
One of the things I appreciated about this game is the 1 coin for 2 lines feature. It does exactly what it sounds like, allowing you to use 50 coins to cover 100 lines. You can use coins of $0.01 to $1, while the number of coins jumps from 10 (20 lines), to 20 (40 lines), 30 (60 lines), 40 (80 lines) or 50 (100 lines). The maximum bet is worth $50.
The game offers its best payout during the free spins, 2,000 coins being won with a combo of five wilds, so up to $2,000. The base game awards up to 1,000 coins, or $1,000.
Design and symbols
The design is actually fairly impressive, which isn’t always true about Aristocrat slot machines. The background will show you a bamboo forest, but with a red layer on top of it, so it looks a bit ominous. The eggshell yellow colored reels have on them both playing cards and Chinese inspired icons. The latter include things like bamboo plants, lotus flowers, gold fish, Chinese castles and even Pandas if you manage to activate the free spins.
Symbols: Gold Coin (scatter, 200x total wager), Castle (1,000 coins), Goldfish (750 coins), Umbrella (500 coins), Bamboo Plant (250 coins), Musical Instrument (200 coins), Lotus Flower (150 coins), King (100 coins), Queen (100 coins), Jack (100 coins), Ten (100 coins) & Nine (100 coins).
Is It Worth Playing?
The cuteness of the Panda bear will only take this slot so far, as it has few features to offer in the base game. It does have 100 lines though, so you can at least expect to be paid quite often by it.
The Wild Panda slot machine is offered through the Aristocrat platform, so if you want to play it for real or just to practice, look out for casinos that use it.
