Skywind, a now-established offshoot of gaming giant Playtech, has been making waves in online slots of late thanks to reliable design across a variety of themes, bonuses, and game structures.
In Dragon Gems, TWO classic slot themes combine:
Gems, a perennial favorite, and a Chinese flavor, increasingly ubiquitous as players and design companies from East Asia continues to grow in the online gaming sector. This classic, minimalist slot may not have the usual free spin feature, but free stacked wild respins keep things interesting indeed.
Theme
For a theme rife with gemstones and animated dragons, this slot is quite simple in the best sense of the term. Gaming symbols include six gems in various shapes and colors, the auspicious number 88, and a red dodecagon, which offers this game’s top payout of 300x for five-of-a-kind.
The multicolored dragon, built entirely of gems, acts as wild, while also triggering will and stacked respins. There is no scatter symbol. Traditional Chinese instruments are combined with a much swing-ier musical style than usual, creating an upbeat and thoroughly enjoyable gaming atmosphere. In all other respects, this slot cuts away any unnecessary bells and whistles, allowing players to jump right into the thick of things.
Betting Options and Functions
Skywind was founded in 2012 by one of the original founders of gaming giant Playtech, so it comes as no surprise that gaming fundamentals are in solid order here. There are ten fixed paylines, each paying in both ways. (Five-of-a-kind wins pay twice!)
Coin value is adjustable from 0.01–30.00 for an extremely broad overall per-spin betting range of 0.10–300.00 times the betting currency. Autoplay is available for up to 99 spins at a time – players should be careful, however, as there are no loss limits available.
Turbo mode can be engaged, should players wish for a quicker game tempo. Game rules, paytable information, and player settings are available on separate screens. There is only one blemish: RTP information is not available about this slot, a massive red flag for players.
Features
The downside of minimalist slot design is usually a lack of bonus features, and that is in fact the case here:
There is no scatter symbol, nor are there any free spins or jackpots to be won. Instead...
...every dragon wild symbol comes with a built-in bonus: whenever it appears, it expands to fill its entire reel, leading for a potential big payout. Immediately thereafter, the stacked wild reel will remain in place while the reels engage for an automatic free spin. Should additional wild symbols appear, the feature will re-trigger with all wild symbols remaining in place – this allows for as many as three free respins, with all three of the middle reels taken up entirely by stacked wilds.
Our Take
Skywind has built a wide variety of excellent games with a variety of styles, themes, and bonuses, but this is their first attempt at a truly simple, straightforward, classic slot – and as usual, they got a lot right. Also as usual with this designer, though, is the lack of RTP information, which deprives players of reliable gaming information and prevents a strong recommendation of this title.
Video Slot game data and features
- 5Reels
- 10Pay lines
- $9,000.00Max cash jackpot
- 96.10Payout Percent
- YesWild Symbol
- NoMultiplier
- $0.1 - $300Betting Range
- 0.01 - 30.0Coin bet range
- 1Coins per line
- NoProgressive
- 300Max coins jackpot
- 10Max coins
- NoScatter Symbol
- NoFree spins available
- NoBonus Game
- NoBuy feature
- Wild RespinSpecial feature
- Asian , Gems & Jewels , Chinese , Dragons Game theme
- Medium Volatility
