Developer Pragmatic Play is back on comfy ground in their Asian themed slot Dragon Tiger. Before the game loads, players will have a good idea of what they are getting into from the name alone. Dragons and tigers are two of the most highly revered creatures in Chinese mythology. Consequentially, they are also two of the most common creatures to be found in Asian themed slots and play starring roles in Dragon Tiger.
Dragon Tiger struggles to shake off a generic feeling the moment it hits the screen. The 5x4, 1,024 win ways game area has rather striking tiger and dragon sculptures draped along its edges, while the background shimmers like the world's biggest firecracker has just gone off. For your ears, a percussion-heavy Asian soundtrack blasts away, which gets pretty dramatic at times. Overall, the audio/visuals are quite good, though standard stuff for the theme.
Dragon Tiger is available on mobile, tablet or desktop, offering bets from 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin. The Asian inspired gaming comes with a highly volatile math model, not as volatile as it gets from Pragmatic Play, but a 4.5/5 rating all the same. To its credit, Dragon Tiger felt quite well-balanced during testing. Its bonus game triggered frequently enough to make things interesting, sporadically turning out solid wins. However, that is playing the 96.50% RTP version, so expect lower settings to perform with less generosity. Without the free spins, Dragon Tiger would be in danger of being completely avoided because the rest of the game is pretty basic.
Another part of Dragon Tiger that works in its favour is the 1,024 ways to win. Starting from the first reel, as long as three matching symbols land left to right, you've got a winner. One exception is the white tiger symbol. It was said a tiger's tail turned white on its 500th birthday, making a fully white one mythical indeed.
Anyway, the white tiger pays out on two of a kind. The other symbols, from top to bottom, include turtles, frogs, rabbits, fish, and A-9 royals. Given the pay system and wild multiplier action in free spins, the values aren't huge. Premium five of a kind wins are worth 3-7.5 times the bet. Dragons make their appearance as the wild symbol, on reels 2, 3, or 4. Wilds replace any symbol except the scatter to help make winning combinations.
>Dragon Tiger keeps it simple by including just one feature, a triggered round of free spins. The game's logo is the scatter, appearing on all five reels. Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters awards 8, 15, or 20 free spins as well as a payout of 2x, 10x, or 20x the bet respectively.
During free spins, the action shifts up a gear, predominantly due to the wild change. As before, the dragon wild only lands on the middle three reels. Now though, when wild symbols land, they carry a random multiplier of x2, x3, or x5. When used as part of a win, the wild's multiplier is applied to the amount. If more than one wild is used in a win, the multipliers are multiplied to produce some pretty good results. A meter above the reels displays the current multiplier value active on each spin. The music steps it up in the feature too where the drums become extra passionate.
Free spins can be extended when just two or more scatters land. Get lucky, and land 2, 3, 4, or 5 scatters to add 5, 8, 15, or 20 extra spins to the remaining total.
With many of these sorts of slots under their belt, Dragon Tiger feels like another unremarkable notch in the bedpost for Pragmatic Play. A game that doesn't do anything wrong, nor anything particularly memorable either. Unless you're a major fan of Chinese slots, there is little to no reason for giving the game a second glance. If on the other hand, you like a bit of uncomplicated gaming, an abundance of tigers, dragons, and zithers, Dragon Tiger does have a few highlights.
One of them is a bonus game that can bring it all together to produce some fine moments, seemingly from nothing. Case in point, occurred during testing, when a number of white tigers landed at the same time as a couple of multipliers resulting in a satisfying single spin win, with plenty of room to spare. Sure, nothing extraordinary, but it did provide enough of a jolt to pull us out of a slumber. Before then, glazy eyed drowsiness had set in, induced by the lack of anything remotely new or interesting occurring in the base game.
Another pleasant surprise was how often free spins triggered. Dragon Tiger didn't turn out to be a slot you wait an age for the bonus game to hit. This is good because there is nothing else in the base game mixing up play. It does mean bonus games can be highly hit or miss as well. Decent wins are possible, though unusually for Pragmatic Play, they haven't stated what the max potential in Dragon Tiger might be.
Dragon Tiger is certainly better suited to Asian fans, but it proved to be quite an enjoyably simple game. Perhaps if Pragmatic Play had bravely chosen a different theme, it might have made more of an impression although it's clear that the product is aimed towards the Asian market. As it is, Dragon Tiger does its rudimentary thing, and there are moments during free spins; but there's not a lot here to entice players who aren't huge on the Asian thing in otherwise.
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