Dragonz Slot

When Microgaming is attached to a new slot machine, most people assume, without a shadow of a doubt, that’s it’s going to be an exceptional game. However, does Dragonz, the new 5 reels from the brand, live up to that hype? Yes and no is the long and short of it.

It has a set of fancy 3D graphics that helps give it a modern edge, something that the majority of players appear to respond well to; although old school is forever fashionable, there’s nothing like a contemporary title to get your hands on. What will surprise you about this activity from the prominent online brand, is that it doesn’t bombard you with finery or intricate details, but instead gives a thorough yet simplistic game with which to work. It’s not a move we often see from Microgaming, but funnily enough it’s quite refreshing and welcomed.

There are quite a few free games to find during your time with Dragonz, most of which are associated with several of the little beasts themselves. What is more, there’s also a lukewarm wild that can add some fuel to your fire; not much, but enough.

Fantastic Four

There are four dragons that can be found during your play, each of them bringing unique gifts along the way; these guys are known as Flint, Switch, Frost and Gobble. All of them will give you a set of 10 extra spins, regardless, however they also add something of their own into the mix when you find between three and five of them.

As Flint is a red dragon and thus a fire-breather, he brings with him the Flaming Wilds. Basically, he breathes onto the reels and will light up the wilds to give you extra rewards. Simple. Gets the job done, and is fun to watch. In regards to Switch, the purple fella will trigger what is referred to as Stashed Wilds. Just as his name implies, he will take away wilds that haven’t made a win and give you a winning combo when you’ve found three of them.

Frost is an icy critter, the white of his body as brilliant as a clear blue sky; he starts off the Frosty Wilds, a process that keeps wilds in place until they become winners. Essentially he does what Switch does, but in a different way. Then we have Gobble, the fattest of the dragons, bringing in the Winning Wilds feature. This will have the hungry boy spewing up wilds across the grid, arguably the least interesting of the bunch.

243 Ways to Win

Conventional winlines are boring – been there, done that – and so Microgaming has been so kind as to do away with them and give their users 243 different avenues with which they can obtain victory. This sounds like it should be generous, a win with every spin, but sadly the truth isn’t quite that rewarding.

It took us quite a few tries before we got any form of win, and even then we only got three Qs, which translates into €2.50. That being said, a couple of rounds later and we were getting nearly 200 credits more. What this proves is that the more ways to win doesn’t necessarily equal less volatility, it just means you stand to gain more cash when you make a good combination.

Dropping Coins

Playing Dragonz was an unusual experience, and not simply because Microgaming didn’t go full out fancy, but because the controls were hidden away; whether this is true of the play for real version, we can’t say, but what we dealt with was streamlined yet annoying. The only button we could access without faffing about was the spin button – to set our bet, we had to go into the settings.

This is most annoying, even in a demo, as it doesn’t really instill any passion within the player, mainly because you have to hunt down controls before you can even play. It’s just a drag. The only good thing is the minimum coin value you can play with, which is €0.01, making this a pretty accessible title, with the most you can wager being €30.

Hear Me Roar

Dragonz isn’t the game we thought it would be: it’s new and yet it doesn’t play like a 2016 title, instead feeling like a much older and less exciting activity. It isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but nor is it as exciting as many of Microgaming’s other activities.