Pragmatic Play and Asian-themed slots go together like pork and fried rice, and here is another one from the studio going by the name of Dragon Hero. Try as we might, we couldn't deduce who the actual hero of the game is. Perhaps Dragon Hero's makers ascribe to the gamer as hero idea, so players can put themselves into the role of the main character, should they so choose. Whatever the case may be, Dragon Hero is a simple game, some might say filler, but one with a super wild/wild addition feature which can be pretty neat at times.
Dragon Hero is a game of modest ambitions, unlikely to have its eyes set on world domination. The team has filled it with pretty generic artwork, though if you like dragons, then yeah, there are a lot of those. As well as appearing on a couple of the symbols and on top of the reels, a dragon floats around in the background in an ungraspably etheric form. The rest of the view is pretty standard, where a pagoda/temple-styled structure is bathed in the eerie purple light of a full moon, giving players into these sorts of games something familiar to grasp onto.
The gaming takes place on a matrix possessing five reels, four rows of symbols and 20 paylines. Winning lines pay when three or more matching symbols land along a payline across consecutive reels, beginning from the left. The math model is highly volatile, and the paytable clearly displays the return to player value, topping out at 96% when playing in the non-bonus buy manner. Players can use any device they prefer, picking a bet from 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin.
Symbols used in Dragon Hero are pretty stock for this genre as well. On the lower side of the table are brush-stroked 10-A card ranks, then coins, a scroll, an urn, a fish, a frog, and a sycee as the high pays. Landing a winning line consisting of five matching symbols pays 1.25-2.5x the bet for the lows or 5 to 40 times the stake for the premiums.
Wilds, Super Wilds, and scatters are what you want to keep your eyes peeled for in Dragon Hero. Firstly, the wild symbol appears on all reels and substitutes for anything bar the scatter. Since wilds can land anywhere, they can make their own winning lines, worth up to 60 times the bet for a five-wild line hit.
Super Wilds are present on reels 2, 3, and 4. They substitute for all symbols except the scatter. When a Super Wild hits, it randomly holds 1, 2, or 3 regular wild symbols. After the spin, all wilds held by each Super Wild are flung onto random positions on the reels. More than one wild can land in the same position.
Scatter symbols are present in the base game as well as the bonus round. Hitting 3, 4, or 5 scatters in the base game awards 6, 8, or 10 bonus wheels, respectively. Each bonus wheel spins to randomly award 1, 2, or 3 free spins. The total is added up and awarded for the round. Now, during free spins, when Super Wilds hit, they remain in their position until the end of the feature, flinging out wilds to random positions on the reels after every free spin. As before, when Super Wilds hit, they hold 1, 2, or 3 wilds randomly. When a scatter lands, it adds half a wild to a random Super Wild currently in view. When a full wild has been collected on a Super Wild, the Super Wild will send out an extra wild from that moment onwards. Wilds sent by the Super Wilds can overlap, as mentioned above. Lastly, free spins cannot be triggered.
Free spins can be bought for the cost of 100x the bet. When buying free spins, three scatters are guaranteed to hit on the triggering spin, and the maximum RTP is slightly higher at 96.13%.
Dragon Hero is quite dragony, fair dues, but it's not massively heroic. If the dragon aspect doesn't bowl you over, it might actually be kind of dull. Same glossy quality, covering a standard batch of images and sounds. Pragmatic Play has plenty of experience making Asian-themed online slots, and it shows, but it would also be nice if they pushed themselves to do something bolder with the theme every so often rather than pair it with, say, one or two clever features. Despite having a good number of these sorts of games in its back catalogue, they can be hard to recall not long after playing them. Unless this area is a particular forte, presumably.
However, Dragon Hero isn't an instant write-off. Pragmatic Play has a knack for injecting an element of playability despite an initial impression of mundanity. On the positive side, the reels in free spins can get pretty heavily loaded with wilds and Super Wilds. When that happens, some juicy repeat win action is possible, leading to coins raining down during the big win count animation. Get trapped in one of these win loops, with Super Wilds crowding the screen; then Dragon Hero starts to make more sense. There were points in the review when a good handful of Super Wilds hit in a bonus round, thereby slinging out a good number of wilds while acting as wild themselves. It didn't go hammer and tongs and hit the win cap of 5,000x the bet, though tidy results did occur.
And so, Dragon Hero would appear to have the goods to entertain players searching for a dragon-laden Asian slot to while away a chunk of time on. It does feel like a safe option, Asian culture being a popular subject matter of choice for Pragmatic Play. Its potential for an abundance of sticky/added wilds in free spins does enough to make an overall positive impression, but maybe not one that makes a massive impact or will prove to be overly memorable in the long term. Maybe even in the medium or short term?
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