Wild Orient Slot
Hot on the heels of their recent release Bikini Party Microgaming are giving us another new 243 ways to win video slot to play this spring and we have the full rundown here for you on this 5 reel 3 row machine. As with almost all recent releases from the studio there will be a flash version for desktop devices and a mobile slot with full compatibility for Android and iOS users.
If you are a nature lover this slot is clearly aimed at you, with a wide variety of Oriental wild animals and a bamboo laden jungle to play in. The wilderness of the Orient has been a subject of fascination from ancient times when Alexander the Great conquered parts of Central Asia and North-Western India in 330BC. Even today huge parts of South East Asia remain uncharted by modern man. Dare you explore the untamed wilderness to unlock the secret riches of the Wild Orient?
Theme
When you look at the game it might seem a little familiar, if you get a strange sense of Déjà vu it’s likely because the Panda character has been directly taken from another Microgaming release Untamed Giant Panda whilst the Tiger has come from Untamed Bengal Tiger. Fortunately it seems only the icons have been used and the rest of the game theme and features are unrelated, not a sequel to either slot then but a standalone game.
This isn’t just an off the shelf Jungle themed slot, careful effort has been made to tie this game in to its Asian theme goal with the wooded backdrop full of ferns and Asian bamboo. The animal characters are classic wild Asian animals such as Tigers, Elephants, Storks, Monkeys, and of course the previously mentioned Giant Panda.
The gold and red accent colours have the game leaning more towards Chinese in nature than broadly oriental or Asian as does the game music and sound effects. Normal gameplay will have you serenaded by gentle woodwind and string instruments, find yourself in the bonus round and the percussionists and flutes will kick in for a little high crescendo excitement to go along with the visuals.
Features
Of course what you really care about is the potential for ancient Asian riches yes? If so the game has a few wild surprises up its sleeve but let’s start with the basics. Wild Orient is in general terms a fairly standard layout of the 243 ways to win slot which does away with traditional pay-lines in favour of a system where wins can be formed so long as 3 matching symbols exist on each of the active symbol reels starting from the left side.
25 coins are live at the same time, minimum bet is 0.25 credits (0.01 per coin) and max is 125.00 so not the largest we have ever seen but still a decent range of betting choices available. With a Jackpot of 60,000 credits available the ratio is pretty pleasant.
The games animated Wild Orient symbol serves as a standard Wild and replaces all icons bar the Rogue Elephant symbol, 3 of these on the reels will grant you 15 spins with a 3x multiplier and find 3 more during the free spins round to e-trigger for a total of 30 free bonus games.
Though we won’t really know the games variance till we get some long term play expect this to be medium to high depending on the features usage – largely due to the re-spins reels function which has been added to a number of Microgaming titles of late. This system allows you to select any one reel and at a cost re-spin it as many times as you like to potentially complete a combination, whilst not exactly a traditional gambling function it can obviously both increase the wins and the volatility of the game.
Summary
With both the free spins bonus and reel re-spins feature on-board, combined with a wild symbol and multipliers the game has enough going for it in terms of modern features to satisfy most online slot fans. We are a little disappointed to see reused reel icons but the new symbols which have been added are just as beautifully rendered and match well so we are inclined to overlook them plagiarising their own previous games with the Tiger & Panda symbols! Overall it is a great looking slot, with good gameplay and decent win potential. Head out into the Wild Orient today – who knows what you may discover!
