Gung Pow is a Chinese themed slot machine, but instead of going after the usual collection of Chinese style objects, it focuses on one of the greatest inventions that this civilization has brought us, and that’s firecrackers. Microgaming also used the ways to win in it, along with some very pretty graphics, so you can expect a wild ride if you give it a try. It’s not an unusual theme, and there are a couple of competitors out there, most of them with similarly cool graphics.
Gung Pow is a 5 reel slot that uses a modern ways to win system, with 243 paylines available to you each round. The game has a couple of decent features in it, including the wild symbol, a scatter and free spins, but what I really enjoyed seeing was the $30,000 jackpot, a prize that is quite high for a slot with ways to win in it.
Features of Gung Pow
With the exception of the ways to win system, all the other features of Gung Pow are common in modern slot machines. As you may expect, there are wild symbols, along with scatter symbols, with free spins and the multipliers that often come with them.
First of all, let’s take a look at the 243 ways to win, the system that replaces regular paylines in so many modern games. What I like about it is that it gets rid of the prearranged lines along which the symbols have to form up, and instead it looks at the matching symbols that are on neighboring reels. You still need them to go from left to right, but now it doesn’t matter where on the reels they appear. That’s why there are 243 different ways to get a paying combination.
The Gung Pow Logo is the first of the feature symbols that I’m going to cover, and the reason is that it’s the wild. This wild doesn’t do a couple of things that are common in other slot machines. It doesn’t give away prizes directly, it doesn’t have a multiplier and there are no other special features you can expect from it. It does only one thing, but it does it very well, especially in a game with ways to win. It substitutes for other symbols, and it’s much easier to do that when it simply has to be on the right reel, not on the right payline.
The only other special symbol in Gung Pow is the scatter, a common sight in most slots. It’s the one with the Chinese Coin on it, round, with Chinese characters on it and with a square hole in the middle. Now, while the ways to win require symbols to be somewhere on the reels, so they act as scatters of sorts, they still need to be on adjacent reels. The scatter symbol doesn’t have that problem. You can get paid with scatters that are on reels in opposite corners of the game, the symbol still does its job. With 2 to 5 Coins, you get paid between 1x and 100x the total bet.
Free Games Feature
The same scatter symbol that gives you prizes, also triggers the free spins for you. It does both things at the same time, so it’s a very cool feature to trigger, but for the free spins you need at least 3 symbols (while cash prizes start being offered at 2+).
The reward is 15 spins for free, with all their prizes tripled. These are spins that can be retriggered, as long as the reels host once again 3+ scatter symbols.
Betting options and jackpots
The betting options give you 25 lines to use, which is another point in its favor, since other games require that you use 30 or 50 lines to cover 243 ways to win. For each line, you are allowed to select 1 to 10 coins, with denominations ranging from $0.01 to $1. The line bet goes up to $10, with the total betting range being $0.25 to $250.
There is a 3,000x top prize offered in Gung Pow, coming from a regular symbol, and that will give you up to 30,000 coins, or $30,000 cash. The free spins do come with a x3 multiplier, so you get a chance to go home with a lot more money if you’re extremely lucky.
Design and symbols
The design of the game looks deceptively simple, with dark reds being used for the background picture and for the color of the reels, without too many embellishments on them. It works out great though, as the focus is more on the beautifully made symbols, and I even include the playing cards when I say that. The other icons that you get are Chinese in origin, or they’re images of rockets and firecrackers, which look like a kid’s dream.
Symbols: Gung Pow Logo (wild), Chinese Coin (100x total bet, scatter), Rockets (3,000x), Red Firecrackers (2,000x), Lantern (1,500x), Fireworks (750x), Small Firecrackers (500x), Ace (200x), King (200x), Queen (150x), Jack (150x), 10 (100x) and 9 (100x).
Is It Worth Playing?
The features section might not be that rich, but the slot makes up for it with the ways to win, and with prizes that are quite high for a game like this. Add a great design and plenty of explosives to the reels, and you get a great game.
This Gung Pow slot is offered by all online casinos with Microgaming software, playable either in practice or in real money mode.
