If you’re OK with cute cuddly games with low budgets and lots to win, then you will love this one. Featuring in art budget that leaves nothing to be desired, a sense of style that definitely isn above par, and plenty of gameplay to keep you interested, this game is the kind that you can recommend others try, but not without enthusiasm. If you happen to hate Pandos, that’s about the only reason we couldn’t recommend it.
Gambling Zen
What are the main things that this game has going for it is that it is pretty low-key. This allows them to have other features built-in to the game because they didn’t waste any money on the art budget. For example, there is a fairly nice set of gameplay mechanics to be found here, despite not being all that new or inventive.
The main draw here is entirely the panda graphics. They are pretty well rendered, each one looking like it’s all little Asian painting. They seem like they were probably done over the top of photographs, but as long as the end result looks good, we really don’t care or mind. The main fault of the graphics is at times how limited they are in subject matter, and how much they relied on realism itself when they probably should have made things a little more whimsical.
As an example, across the many different styles and poses a panda that you can find, pretty much none of them are doing anything that you will find all that endearing. Sure, the upside down panda is cute and concept, we’re pretty much everything else is a panda just kind of flailing his limbs around or sitting around. The facial expressions are pretty subdued because they try to make it realistic. If they had instead of made it larger than life, and better than realism, we would’ve had a much better time.
Great Look on the Cards Too
Alongside the many pound graphics that you’ll see, you’ll also see suits of playing cards in a somewhat Asian painted style, and different foods that pandas like that account for the wild symbols. The Koi in particular are a sought after match, and look pretty good alongside the rest of the pandas. We still prefer the rest of the game and how it works, but they do look good.
The bonus round here are pretty limited, only numbering at two. The first is a free spins feature, which we are hard pressed to call a bonus round so much as a feature. The bamboo bonus game, however, fares a lot better. If you happen to match enough bamboo shoots, you can get one of these. Aside from that, you are limited to the normal Gameplay. This isn’t necessarily bad, as plenty of people love stop she games in their own right. We do feel like it as a missed opportunity, however.
Gameplay Works Well
The coin sizes here are somewhat limited as well, giving you a number of limited options. You can bet in increments of $.50, one dollar, two dollars, five dollars, and $10. Outside of that, you have 20 lines to bet on. This makes for a maximum Betting amount of $200 total. This is not too much, or too little, and we would consider it to be the just right range. We do wish they would let us bet Pennies, however, as when we feel a little more timid, we are always willing to bed at least a penny.
The reels themselves don’t give you anything interesting or new to do, but everything is well rendered enough that you probably won’t mind. The bamboo background is an Asian themed forest near a waterfall that is very tranquil. We would actually pay to live somewhere like that! The shrine linked to the user interface is also lovely, and carries over to everything, even the stop button‘s. It’s a very well thought out game in that sense, leaving no stone unturned when it comes to detail. Our only criticism of the way that came together is that it would have been nice if the temple work was somehow rooted in the background image. That’s a pretty minor criticism of an otherwise wonderful looking game, however. They even took the time to make some ink splatter around the suits of playing cards to make it look more real.
Our Play Through
In our time with the game, we actually managed to break about even. Although we would love to say we walked away a millionaire, most of the time at worst, we tend to break your arm. Your experience may differ, but no matter how long you play, you are guaranteed to win at least something. This is because that this is a truly fair play game. This is a feature brought to you by the developer behind it, Bovada gaming. They have an independent review board that goes through and ensures that all of their random number generator‘s are indeed random. This makes it so that the winners of selves are just as random as an actual casino, and maybe even more so because we all know Las Vegas has a lot of reason to lie to you.
Much like every other title in this lineup, our main criticism of the game is that it doesn’t have a progressive jackpot. You can still play and win a fairly good amount of money, but you’re never going to reach amazing heights with it. This is unfortunate, as they manage to do everything else right here. We trust that in time they will probably reconsider, however, I made the end of adding on a feature such as this. We will be ready and willing when they do, and look forward to it.
Who’s the Game For?
The main audience for this game is anyone that is a fan of Asian themed things. Of course being a panda fan is a bonus too, but we think the general asian look is the predominant theme. The graphics are also pretty good when it comes to the animations. When you match things, for example, bamboo shoots through all the many different things that you happen to get right. This is great, and added a nice touch an extra layer of detail on top of everything else that is already fairly well done.
Overall, we consider this one that is easy to recommend. There are certainly no shortage of games about pandas on the market, and we ourselves almost review the wrong game at first because when you look up panda Slots, you’re going to find quite a few! Compared to the rest of them, however, they can’t hold a candle to this. It is certainly among the best looking of them all, only falling behind other games that took a more kung fu panda approach to things with budgets to match. As a more realistic and authentic take on the Asian genre, however, this one is leagues above the rest. If you love pandas, money, and general Asian looking things, then you over to yourself to give this one a try or two!
