After digging around online for a bit, it appears humanity has the Arabic world to thank for things like optics, algebra, and shoot; even coffee is said to have its roots there. Some sources say coffee was discovered by an Ethiopian goat farmer called Kaldi over a thousand years ago. Seriously, imagine trying to start the day without a blast of liquid caffeine… hashtag shudder. With so many incredible ideas, architecture and history to mine, it's kind of a shame that when an Arabic-inspired slot comes along, it's so often one of those One Thousand and One Nights type deals.
Ah well, casino game makers do like to cleave to certain ideas, and here comes Jasmine Dreams from Pragmatic Play. Jasmine Dreams is an online slot which looks like it has taken the One Thousand and One Nights concept and absolutely run with it. The gaming is set in an exotic location, all palms, palaces and blazing sky, that sort of thing. We’ve already used the word exotic, but it is about the best word to describe the sort of atmosphere Pragmatic Play appears to have aimed for when designing Jasmine Dreams. This they have achieved, though there are one or two reservations more closely expounded in the verdict section.
Jasmine Dreams is a fairly straightforward slot, but its respin-inducing, nudging, multiplying full reel wilds are handy to have about the place. The more, the better. Gaming takes place on a 5-reel, 3-row gambling machine bearing 20 fixed paylines for calculating wins. It's highly volatile and, with no bonus buys or ante bets in sight, produces a return to player value of 96.48%, though be on the lookout for possible lower configurations. Bets range from 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin, and players are able to dream about whatever they'd prefer to dream about while playing the game on any device.
The eight regular pay symbols trigger wins when at least three of them land across a payline from the first reel onwards. On the low side of things are J-A card ranks paying 2 to 5 times the bet for a five-symbol win line, whereas the highs are a drawn sword, a ring, a box, and a male character, whether he is a goodie or a baddie, it's hard to say. Five-of-a-kind premium symbol winning lines are worth 10 to 30 times the bet.
Jasmine Dreams splits its time between the main game and a triggered round of free spins. In both game modes, the wild symbol may appear. The wild is present on reels 2, 3, and 4 and may cover 1, 2, or 3 reel positions when it hits. Wilds replace all pay symbols for the purposes of making winning lines.
One of the most highly sought-after symbols in Jasmine Dreams is its scatter. For one, landing at least 3 of them awards 6 free spins. Moreover, they provide a monetary reward worth 5x, 40x, 100x, or 600x the bet when 2, 3, 4, or 5 of them hit, respectively. In free spins, when a wild symbol hits either fully or partially in view, it adds +1x to a global multiplier which gets applied to any wins on that spin. Any free spin with one wild symbol fully in view gets a multiplier of x2. If two fully visible wilds hit, the multiplier is x3, while having three wilds covering all positions on their reel comes with an x4 multiplier.
One further rule is when a wild symbol lands covering one or two positions on its reel, the game awards respins, nudging the wild up one position each time. Respins continue until the triggering wild or any wilds landing on a respin cover all positions on their respective reels. Free spins are not able to be retriggered.
There we go, pretty short and sweet, really, with little in the way of complex rules or extra betting options to labour over. Pick a bet, then proceed to slam the play button in the hopes of hitting as many scatters as possible to collect the impressive 600x for five and barge on into the free spins bonus round. Till that happens, the wild symbol is there as a point of entertainment, or, a bone of contention. There's something about the way the wild shimmies about the reels, which some might find distractingly off-putting. Then again, some may love it. Who knows.
A similar dual response goes for Jasmine Dreams as a whole. In some ways, the game possesses an intriguingly exotic (there's that word again) appearance while also coming across as a little tacky. Like shopping for souvenirs on holiday in a back street bazaar and settling on a charming jewelled owl-shaped box that can be opened to store small knick-knacks inside, then finding out when you get home one of its eyes has fallen off already, and the jewels are more plasticky than they first appeared. Something along those lines, though we're not talking about the thematic components as such. This sort of theme is rather popular for good reason. It is more the faux metallic, faux land-based thing Jasmine Dreams has going on. As we said, some may love it.
What's not so exciting, though fairly commensurate with what Jasmine Dreams has to work with, is a somewhat modest max win of 2,500x the bet. Not terrible, but not exactly a cave full of treasure either. Players totally down with Jasmine Dreams' gyrating antics and unoriginal, if attractive enough interpretation of the One Thousand and One Nights type theme might find a level of happiness here. However, it was not a game which really screamed out to be played or fought hard not to be dropped, though.
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