Take the slow boat to China in Jade Idol, an Asian-themed video slot from NextGen Gaming. The highlight of this trip east is the bonus round that awards up to 40 free spins where all payouts are trebled. Play on your desktop, tablet or mobile from between 20p and £200 per spin.
Stylish, unfussy design is common in NextGen Gaming’s releases and Jade Idol ticks that box. The plain white reels include a selection of brightly coloured Asian-style playing cards alongside lanterns and fans which pay up to 400 times your bet per payline and a junk ship which awards up to 750 times your bet. Most rewarding is the not very Chinese diamond which pays 5, 60, 500 or 1,500 times your bet if you land 2, 3, 4 or 5 on a line.
Kitty, the pouting guide, is the game’s wild – you’re guaranteed a payout whenever a wild lands. Find 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 in combinations and you’ll pocket 2, 10, 200, 1,000 or 5,000 times your bet. The wild performs all the usual substitution duties too.
The highlight of Jade Idol is the Free Games feature which is activated by landing 3 or more of the jade monkey scatter on the same spin. Find 3, 4 or 5 of them and you’ll get an award equal to 4, 15 or 100 times your total stake as well as 10, 15 or 20 free spins.
Those free spins come with a little Brucie Bonus in the form of a 3x multiplier which is applied to all payouts during the bonus round. You can add more free spins to your total by landing 3 or more scatters on the same free spin.
NextGen Gaming has kept things pretty simple in Jade Idol. There are few flourishes to the design but the bright, cartoon imagery works very well here. It’s a similar story with the gameplay. There are few bells and whistles on show here but it’s all perfectly solid. As far as variances goes, we’d put it in the medium range.
If you’re after exotic design and a wide range of extras then you’d be well advised to look elsewhere. If classy imagery and simple gameplay with Asian flavour sound appealing, then Jade Idol is certainly worth a look – it does offer up to 5,817 times your bet on every spin with up to 17,451 times your stake on each free spin (due to the 3x multiplier)! If you like Asian themed video slots, I recommend Play ‘N Go’s Big Win Cat which is different and also can be highly rewarding.
