China Mystery

China Mystery is not Konami Gaming’s brightest moment, especially when you notice that the game is copying most of its content from China Shores, another game by Konami.

WHAT is different then?

Seemingly only the background pictures. Jump in a bit deeper as we explore the mechanics and bonus features further to see if this slot is worth playing.

Theme

An oriental theme that borrows a bit from previous games, and adds in a few symbols of its own. One probably has to know a bit about Chinese culture to understand how all these icons fit into the theme.

Golden turtles, aristocratic teacups, imperial signs and other stuff fill the reels. To these, you can add the usual low-value symbols, themed after a deck of cards.

One thing worth noticing here is that the game has a bit more emphasis on music and sound effects than most other Konami slots. Kudos for that!

Betting Options and Functions

Thirty pay-lines are all fixed. It is the usual set up for this land-based and online slot provider. For each pay-line you can bet from 1 to 10 coins, up to a cool 300 per spin. It’s worth noting here that the actual worth of the coins is up to the casino, and depending on the denomination. You can play for as little as thirty cents per spin.

The wins range from 5 to 1000 coins. Three to five symbols are required for a combination, and these must run from left to right as usual.

The game offers quite high volatility, so it comes as no big surprise that the BIG wins may be found in the bonus feature.

Features

Three, four or five Imperial seals, which is the scatter, triggers 8, 10 or 15 free games. During the bonus feature, any and all wins that lands on the reels are doubled. As the feature can be retriggered…

…it’s clear that the big wins, with some luck, are gained during the free spins.

However, if the player so desires, he or she can exchange the free spins for a random credit prize. This might easily lead to a win of thousands of credits immediately. It all depends on your bet level, as well as the number of free spins.

In fact:

You only get a chance to win the top credit prizes if you manage to retrigger the free spins and thus raise the running tally high enough. We are talking about a possibility to win millions of credits. It requires a lot of luck though.

Our Take

It is a bit of a mystery why Konami has developed China Mystery. The game doesn’t differ much at all from their other slots, apart from some sound effects. In fact, most of the symbols have been taken from previous China-themed slots. It’s playable on its own of course and might attract the attention of those seeking massive wins. We highly recommend a play in demo mode first.