Pragmatic Play and pals Reel Kingdom have clearly hit a level of paydirt with their 'Floating Dragon' slots as the range has now morphed into a trilogy. What started with Floating Dragon was followed by Floating Dragon Megaways, and has added Floating Dragon Boat Festival to the fold. The gap between the first two games was pretty wide; Megaways flipped much of the core mechanics on its head. Floating Dragon Boat Festival, by contrast, is closer to the original in many ways, the main differences being partly graphical, partly a pepping up of the Fish Money symbol values and greater potential. Will it hit?
Where Floating Dragon took place in an aerial-like spot, reflecting the kite motif, lined by pastel-leaved trees, Floating Dragon Boat Festival keeps its feet closer to Earth. Dragon boat racing originated in China before spreading to other countries, often held in competitions, so it makes sense Floating Dragon Boat Festival is held near water. However, if Floating Dragon Boat Festival's music is anything to go by, this game isn't concerned with competing but prefers to laze along a river at a leisurely pace, so passengers can soak in the mountains, clouds, and flocks of birds. A relaxed, amiable Asian-themed slot atmosphere is the result.
>The 3 buttons on the left side of the screen are clues that players have plenty of options when it comes time to gamble. The regular way is picking a stake of $/€10 to $/€250 per paid spin, while engaging the Ante Bet increases the stake by 50% whilst also increasing the chance of scatters. The other two betting methods are buying free spins for 100x the bet or buying the hold & win, also costing 100x the bet. No matter how you play, the maximum RTP comes in at 96.07%, except with the Ante Bet active, then it is 96.09%, though be aware lower return models exist.
Floating Dragon Boat Festival is a highly volatile slot that is played on a 5-reel, 3-row gaming grid with 10 fixed paylines. Line wins consist of up to 5 matching symbols, and there are 10 regular pays. These are 10-A card ranks as the lows, then fish, a flag, unidentifiable green objects, a drum, and a dragon boat as the high pays. Hit a 5-AOK winning way to collect 5 to 10x the bet for the lows, 20 to 200x the bet for the highs. The lady symbol is wild, and it appears on all reels during free spins to substitute anything except Scatter or Money symbols. BTW, fish symbols are also Fish Money symbols; each one lands with a value of 2x to 10,000x the bet.
>If you're familiar with the original Floating Dragon slot, then you'll be able to navigate this section no problem. Features include the Hold & Spinner, and free spins.
Money symbols possess random values of 1x to 2,000x the total bet. When at least 3 Money symbols hit, they trigger the Hold & Spinner Bonus. The triggering symbols are held in place while all others fade away. The triggering symbols add their values to a win total. The round starts with 3 respins, and all Money symbols which hit reset the spin count. In addition, when new Money symbols hit, all of the Money symbols in view add their values to the total win amount – including the locked triggering Money symbols. When spins run out, the feature ends and the total win amount accrued is paid.
Hitting 3, 4 or 5 scatter symbols awards 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. During free spins, when wild symbols hit, they award the values of all Fish Money symbols in view. Wild symbols are also collected when they land. Every 4th collected wild symbol retriggers the feature, awarding 10 free spins each time. A multiplier of x2 is added to the first retrigger, an x3 for the second retrigger, and x10 for the third retrigger. The multiplier applies to Money symbol collections, and retriggered spins begin when the current batch ends. After the third retrigger, no more retriggers are possible. At random, if there is at least 1 wild symbol on the board at the end of a spin, Fish Money symbols may randomly be added to the reels.
>If the original Floating Dragon slot didn't, err, float your boat for whatever reason, then the sequel is likely to be more of a Bore Festival than anything else. There might have been criticism that Pragmatic Play simply transformed Big Bass Bonanza into an Asian slot and rammed on a hold & win feature, then called it a day. It is hard to argue with such an assessment; however, that didn't stop the game from finding an appreciative audience, eventually going on to encourage a Megaways makeover and now a Dragon Boat version.
On the flip side, if Floating Dragon pushed all the right buttons, then there's an excellent chance Floating Dragon Boat Festival will too. The gaming environment is exceedingly pleasant, nothing over the top, no overwhelming masses of cliched iconography. Just a laid-back spot by that water for willing players to enjoy the tunes and try their luck on the reels. Pragmatic Play has laid out buy buttons for both bonus rounds as well as providing the Ante Bet, giving users a lot of control over how they'd like to play the game. A nice touch, matching the nice audio-visuals. Some of the biggest changes are the vastly expanded prize values on the Fish Money symbols as well as the overall winning potential. Where Floating Dragon hit its ceiling at 5,000x the bet, Floating Dragon Boat Festival does so at 10,000x.
So no, Floating Dragon Boat Festival doesn't set out to transform the wheel by reinventing itself. Rather, it delivers fans of the first the same thing essentially, just more of it, or at least vastly greater Fish Money symbol values and max win. If you were on board with the last two, then Floating Dragon Boat Festival has got all the necessary bits for some entertaining paddling about.
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