Eastern Dragon takes the Chinese theme and its popular dragon motif, and uses it in its design. The game is just as much Chinese themed as it is about dragons, if not more. The developer is Cryptologic, and they seem to have wanted to work on a theme that a lot of other companies have approached in the past. The Chinese people were among the most influential to our shared history, with a lot of inventions to their name (the firecrackers are celebrated in the background image) and having their own style of design (visible in many items used as symbols, which look different from their Western counterparts).
The 20 lines of this Cryptologic slot are kept on 5 reels. The $30,000 big prize is not as impressive as the one from other slots of theirs, but at least they’ve made sure that you’re not going to miss any of the big and popular features. You get it all inside, from wilds and multipliers, to free spins and scatters.
Features of Eastern Dragon
You’re going to get a couple of good symbols and features out of this slot, but you’re not going to be impressed. Even though it has everything you could want, none of the features stand out in a big way. It’s not the kind of slot where the wild would expand or come stacked, and there aren’t any bonus games to really get you in the middle of the action.
The scatter’s role is a simpler one here, but also more profitable than in other Cryptologic slots. Though you typically can expect a 100x prize out of their game scatters, the Red Coin that is present in this one awards up to 200x the triggering bet. Thanks to its scatter ability, you can get the prize no matter what the exact position is for the symbols, as long as there are enough of them (2 to 5 needed to get a prize).
Dragon, a classic image in Chinese culture, is reserved for the 1st and 5th reels. From those two locations, the wild can substitute for regular icons and when it manages to assist with the formation of a combo it doubles its prize. That, and a 2 coin prize, seems to be all you’re going to get from this wild, when you take its individual contribution into account.
Free Games Feature
With both reels hosting the wild symbol, there is one other bonus round you can get. It consists of 15 free games, all of them getting triple the regular prizes. You can even retrigger the free spins, if while using them you have the two wilds appear again on the two reels.
Betting options and jackpots
When forming the wager for your next spin, you have to consider two things. First, how many lines should you be activating? Each one will cost you one coin, but if you want a decent chance at getting paid regularly and not getting bored, it’s a good idea to use all 20. As for the total wager value, it’s influenced by the individual coin denomination, where you can work with a range from $0.01 to $5. The maximum bet is $100.
The base game top payout is 3,000 coins, going to 6,000 coins with the wild’s help and translating into up to $30,000. The free spins promise you triple the usual prizes, so with quite a bit of luck on your side you might be able to get $90,000 instead.
Design and symbols
As everyone else seems to do, they’ve taken a number of things that many people consider to be Chinese in origin, and they’ve placed them among the symbols. With firecrackers hanging on the two sides and with some Asian style lettering, they’ve gotten a slot that is Chinese themed. It’s not terribly original or attractive, especially with half the symbols being playing cards that all have the same color.
Symbols: Dragon (wild), Coin (scatter, 200x the bet), Fish (3,000x), Lampion (1,000x), Lotus Flower (500x), Firecrackers (500x), Ace (300x), King (300x), Queen (200x), Jack (200x), 10 (100x) and 9 (100x).
Is It Worth Playing?
Eastern Dragon might have the right amount of features and good prizes, but it lacks any kind of originality, and it’s not one of the better looking Chinese themed slots available right now.
Eastern Dragon can be found at any Cryptologic casino, where you get a chance to play it for real money or in free mode.
