Jewel of the Dragon Slot Review

There are a lot of slots in Vegas and other live casinos with double screen cabinets. Most of these screens are used in the bonus games, or to show big wins or even video clips. Jewel of the Dragon is different, in that there are elements of the regular game which cover both screens. The top part of the screen shows a beautifully drawn green dragon (of the mythical fire-breathing type), while the lower section has a 5 reel, 4 row standard slot setup.

When you spin, translucent shapes called ‘hot zones’ fall from the top and go through the screen with the reels. When these stop on the reels, the symbols covered by the Tetris-like shapes all become wild – giving you the chance of hitting a lot of wins. Some of these shapes are big, with the biggest of all able to cover the entire reels in wild symbols.

Jewel of the Dragon is an innovative slot from Bally. This slots maker usually focuses on the solid type of games without too many gimmicks. You’ll get to enjoy their famous solid game-play with this slot – and features like the free spins round, hot zone bonus and dragon ‘nudge’ feature too.

How to Win with Jewel of the Dragon

You can win the old fashioned way, by lining up symbols (in conjunction with wilds) over the 40 win lines of this game. Your biggest wins will not happen this way – with the hot zones your key to unlocking the bigger prizes.

The Tetris type pieces fall through the screens on every spin – only most of the time they will miss landing on the reels. When they do land you can get a lot of wilds, with 4, 8 or even more possible. When these are combined with the rest of the symbols you can end up with 5+ winning combinations at once (10+ is not uncommon with the right hot zone at the right time). When you look at the pay-table you might think that the individual wins are on the smaller side. The reason for this is that you can hit a lot of these at the same time.

Some of the playing card symbols have small gems attached to them. If you hit 3 of these (they only appear on the middle 3 reels), then you trigger a special bonus game. You see 3 large gems on the screen and choose one of them – this shows a hot zone, which then falls onto the reels. You will also see the results under the gems you did not choose.

An extra benefit occurs when certain hot zones land on top of the dragon in the top part of the slot. This wakes the dragon up, who ‘nudges’ the hot zone onto the reels.

A final way to win big is via the free spins bonus game. The number of spins and win multiplier (up to 5x) is determined by how many scatter symbols you get to trigger this game. Multipliers in conjunction with Hot Zone pieces can be a very profitable combination.

While the many different ways to win might sound a little complicated, this is a very easy slot to play. 40 win lines are fixed (all Bally slots have fixed win-lines), so you only need to decide how much to bet. The minimum is 1c per line (40c per spin) and the maximum a huge $400 per spin). Bally also offer an auto-play system for their games.

Wins start at 5x your total bet (remember these come in multiples, and if you get them in the bonus round with multipliers too). The wilds are the best paying symbol, followed by crowns, money shield logos and the bell symbol. There are a lot of playing card symbols in this game.

Sounds for this slot are electronic, and are the standard ones Bally use for many of their slots. While these are not unpleasant, it is a shame not to hear some more dragon-like sounds instead.  You’ll love the animations, particularly those times the dragon stirs from his position on top of a rock at the top of the screen.

Overall Experience with Jewel of the Dragon

This is a stand out slot, not only in the Bally range of games – but for casino slots in general. The Hot Zone system adds a real level of interest to the game, without being too far away from the core slot gaming concept. With big wins possible on just about every spin, you’ll be rooting for those big Tetris like pieces to hit the reels!

Free spins (with multipliers) and extra pick-em game and the occasional assistance from the dragon with the ‘nudge’ bonus all contribute to the experience. Make sure you check out Jewel of the Dragon for yourself soon.