Dragon Tiger: Exploring Oriental Slot Excellence

There’s a lot of competition out there in the form of oriental slot machines, and so we’re always sceptical prior to playing one; will it be good, will its essence be sound. These questions were all asked before playing Dragon Tiger, primarily due to the mundane title. We needn’t have worried though, for SimplePlay have created a tapestry of imagery inside the 30 paylines.

As usual, the layout of the matrix is pretty much the same as all their games: the controls are located at the bottom of the screen, with the progressive payouts listed on the right, and the grid taking up most of the left hand side. It’s all predictable in that sense, but we still find a certain amount of pleasure can be gleaned from the paytable. This game just requires you to give it a chance, and so that’s what we’re doing.

Taming Tigers

Attempting to find alternatives to this real cash slot isn’t hard, that is assuming you want to keep playing under the SA brand. But should you want to look further afield, the choices become more niche. We searched far and wide to make sure you could have another oriental/animal experience, and in doing so we found Toptrend Gaming’s Tiger Slayer.

Granted, we don’t think much of the name given how endangered these creatures are, but as for the features, they’re reasonable enough in variance. Gamers can play free games, experience specialised wilds, all the while playing under a medium difficulty. The biggest difference between this and Dragon Tiger is that the grid is smaller at 25 winlines.

Overload

When it comes to aesthetics, we’re quick to judge, and it has nothing to do with our experience of the industry. As gamers we’re always first on hand to throw in our two cents. Even though this is part of what makes the online community so diverse, it does mean we’re more critical of graphics than most.

In Dragon Tiger you have a matrix that is set against the backdrop of a rainforest type location, with misty mountains and canopies of trees casting shadows on the leafy ground. It sounds picturesque, and in some respects it is, but SimplePlay don’t know how to dial back the drama. What this means is that customers are left with a busy interface with which to play, meaning that distractions are abound wherever we look.

Which Creature Is Your Beast?

If you’ve played Bikini Chaser, the main feature of this real cash slot is going to be very familiar to you, minus the half naked women of course. You see, SimplePlay like to keep their titles similar across the board, which is great if you like familiarity but pants if you don’t. We fall somewhere in between liking it and loathing it, and so seeing the two wilds feature show up again both irked us and surprised us in equal measures.

Basically, once you’ve inside the free games, you’ll be asked to pick one of two coins shown, both of which are wild icons; one is a tiger and the other a dragon. If your chosen symbol lands on the third reel (the only place it can appear in this section), the spins will indefinitely carry on. However, should the other icon take that place, you’ll now watch as a counter keeps track of your rounds, meaning they’ll soon come to an end.

Keep the Money Coming

Now that you’ve heard most of what the title entails, you need to decide how you want to proceed: go big or go home. You see, in Dragon tiger there’s a progressive jackpot up for grabs, a feature that is more likely to activate the higher your stake. This may seem unfair to those of you on a budget, but for high rollers it could mean a serious payday is headed your way.

Fortunately the maximum bet isn’t too costly, coming in at 60 credits. It sounds like a lot of money, in fact it is a lot of cash, but we promise you it’s not nearly as pricey as other slots out there. What is more, for that initial cost you’re one step closer to a payout that hits the 1,660,560 mark with ease.

Ancient Experience

This slot machine offers a lot of dough inside an authentic, albeit it rough looking, matrix. That is more than enough to have most gamers chomping at the bit to get started, however we do want to stress how lacklustre the paytable is, those free games especially. You won’t get any innovation here, a statement that’s even more true if you’ve played with SimplePlay in the past.