Powered by Pragmatic Play, Dragon Hot Hold & Spin merges two of developer Reel Kingdom's favourite elements – Asian themes and Hold & Win features. The result is the sort of gaming experience you probably expect. That will be great news for fans of the two, numb indifference to anyone else. As well as the headlining hold & spin round, the game also provides a firecracker, dragon wild feature, Big Money Wheel Bonus and a heavy paytable to produce rather impressive results.
Dragon Hot Hold & Spin is played over a 5-reel, 5-payline grid matrix set in a bright Asian market or temple area. Players will be familiar with the imagery, bursting in lanterns, green-tiled roofs, dragons, and gold trim everywhere. The same can be said for the soundtrack, a jolly Chinese number full of zithers, gongs, and flute melodies. If you like Western interpretations of the East, you'll be all over Dragon Hot Hold & Spin.
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Any device is fine for playing Dragon Hot Hold & Spin, where a wide range of bets from 5 p/c to $/€250 per spin is available. Potential is quite high, so it won't be a surprise to see operators restrict the max bet to reduce their exposure. The default RTP isn't bad either at 96.70%, while the math model is rated 5 out of 5, or, high in other words.
One of the most interesting things about Dragon Hot Hold & Spin is its paytable. Not because the collection of symbols themselves offer a world of wonderment, but their values are tempting. Not so much the low pay J-A royals, yet the higher value lanterns, pearls, frogs, and gold sycees are worth a payout of 40 to 1,000 times the bet for five of a kind combination. The sycee in particular popped up at fortuitous moments during the review to provide a boost. Never the five of a kind, unfortunately, though even four of them is worth 200x, which was as surprising as it was welcome.
The wilds are worth a fair chunk of change, too, as 2, 3, 4, or 5 of a kind are worth 0.2, 20, 200, or 1,000x the bet. More often than not, wilds are there to perform their other duty of substituting for any pay symbol. Wilds don't land organically. Instead, they may appear when a dragon flies over the reels or when the firecrackers above the grid pop. In both cases, wilds may be added to the reels in random positions.
The main event in Dragon Hot Hold & Spin is, well, its hold-and-spin feature. Appearing on any reel are 3 types of money symbols – diamonds, gold coins, and silver coins. Each one holds a random value when they appear. Landing 5 or more on a single spin triggers the hold-and-spin feature.
Triggering money symbols are locked in position while all other tiles spin, revealing blank spaces or more money symbols. The round starts with 4 respins, marked by heart-shaped fortune cookies. New money symbols that hit remain in position until the end of the round and reset spins back to 4. The round continues until respins finish, or all positions on the screen are filled with money symbols – then the totals are tallied and awarded.
If the screen is filled by the end, then the Big Money Wheel Bonus is triggered. The wheel is covered in blank spaces, or values of 10x to 5,000x – these are multiples of the bet. If a value is awarded, the wheel spins again. Whenever a blank hits, the round ends. When this happens, all prizes from the hold & spin feature plus the Money Wheel Bonus are added then paid.
>If you're not into hold & wins or the Asian thing so much, it is easy to write Dragon Hot Hold & Spin off as 'just another one of those'. It's difficult to completely rebuff that sentiment because, essentially, it is just another one of those. On a positive note, Dragon Hot Hold & Spin is actually one of Reel Kingdom's better slots. The theme melds seamlessly with the features, the paytable is top-heavy, and the bonus round often led to the Big Money Wheel Bonus. On the whole, Dragon Hot Hold & Spin is less messy than the last few Reel Kingdom slots have been. There were no audible 'what the?' moments during testing – a positive step after the confusion of games like Cash Elevator or Book of Kingdoms.
The first hold and win took 800 spins to trigger, yet strangely the balance was well in the black when it did. Big symbol values, firecracker wilds and dragon wilds, popped up at even intervals to keep the game buoyant. The next bonus round, by contrast, hit 100 spins later. Most times, the grid surprisingly managed to fill with coins, triggering the Big Money Wheel Bonus. Big money can be won here too, and Reel Kingdom has capped wins at 20,000 times the bet.
Still, it is all pretty generic stuff and not earth-shatteringly different to a bunch of games the studio has done before. There might be one or two minor surprises, mainly due to symbol values, but apart from that, it's all quite predictable. If you like the style, Dragon Hot Hold & Spin is sure to amuse; if not, it's all just more of the same.
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