88 Drums

88 Drums Review

High 5 Games invites you to celebrate the Chinese New Year in 88 Drums, a slot game featuring a traditional Asian theme and multiple bonus rounds. Unlike most similar games, this one plays out during the day, set in a courtyard with towering ornamented temples and pink lotus petals drifting through the air. The grid and symbols are heavy with gold, flanked by golden Chinese dragons. You get to see a live dragon in the bonus round intros, together with some fireworks.

Figuring out the old-school credit bet and pay system in 88 Drums can be a headache. Luckily, we’ve done the heavy lifting for you. You can play with bet levels ranging from $0.22 to $110 per spin. The awkward $0.22 baseline is a direct result of the 22-credit fixed-bet structure, meaning a single credit is worth a fraction of a cent at the minimum level. For clarity, all payouts in this slot review are calculated based on your total stake rather than these arbitrary credits.

88 Drums Slot - Reels Srceen

88 Drums plays out on a 5x3 grid with 243 paylines, and you win by landing 3 to 5 matching symbols across at least one payline. The premium symbols, consisting of 8s, tigers, bulls, vases, and lanterns, pay from 1.82x to 18.18x your stake for 5 of a kind. The lower-value royal symbols all pay 0.9x your stake for the same. Wild symbols substitute for pay symbols to help complete wins, and while wilds on the leftmost reel cannot start a winning way, they can contribute as an extra way on a win.

The main attractions in 88 Drums are the Loot Link bonus rounds, one of which is a fairly regular hold and win-style feature where you can unlock 2 extra rows. The other one is focused on racking up as many Drum symbols per position as you can, and the Drums randomly increase per spin. In the end, the total number of Drums awards the corresponding prize from the prize ladder. There is also a free spins feature that’s similar to the base game. 88 Drums is a high volatility slot game, featuring an RTP of 96% and a max win of 10,234x your stake.

88 Drums Features

The features require a lot of explaining in this game, as they are quite complicated (at least on paper). This is why it’s a good idea to also check them out for yourself in the 88 Drums free play demo, found at the top of the page. Take a deep breath, and let’s jump in!

Scatter Loot Link Bonus

The Scatter Loot Link Bonus triggers when you land at least 5 green orb Scatter Loot Link cash and/or jackpot symbols in view on the same base game spin. The Scatter Loot Link symbols only pay at the end of the bonus, which plays out on a 5x5 grid where each position spins independently. The 2 top rows of 5 positions each are locked as the bonus starts, and these rows unlock bottom-to-top when you have accumulated 10 and 14 green orb Scatter Loot Link cash and/or jackpot symbols on the 3 or 4 bottom rows, respectively.

You start with 3 respins in the counter, and each new Scatter Loot Link cash or jackpot symbol that lands resets the counter to 3 again. All Scatter Loot Link symbols become locked in place when they appear, and if the feature ends when a row is still locked, it may unlock randomly as 1 additional respin is awarded. Scatter Loot Link Cash symbols land with values ranging from 0.45x to 22.72x your stake, while the Mini, Minor, and Major jackpot symbols award 22.72x, 90.9x, and 454.54x your stake, respectively. Fill all 25 positions with Loot Link Symbols to win the 10,100x Grand Jackpot. Your total winnings are summed up when the feature ends.

Drum Loot Link Bonus

Whenever you land a Wild symbol in the base game or in the free spins bonus, the Drum Loot Link Bonus may randomly be awarded as the Wild is collected in the pot above the reels. This feature plays out on a 5x3 grid where each position spins independently, and all the triggering Drum Loot Link symbols are carried over to the bonus grid. With the triggering symbols sticky, you get 3 respins of the remaining positions. Only Drum symbols or blanks appear during this feature, and each new Drum symbol you land resets the respin counter to 3 while becoming locked in place.

The triggering Drum symbols land with multiplier values ranging from 2x to 8x your stake, and at the start of each respin, all present Drum symbols have a random chance of increasing their multiplier. The Drum multiplier value is not a bet multiplier but rather a symbol multiplier indicating how many Drum symbols each position holds. When the feature ends, the total number of Drum symbols collected from the grid awards the corresponding prize:

• 8–17 collected Drum symbols award 9.09x your stake.
• 18–27 collected Drum symbols award 18.18x your stake.
• 28–37 collected Drum symbols award 27.27x your stake.
• 38–47 collected Drum symbols award 45.45x your stake.
• 48–57 collected Drum symbols award 68.18x your stake.
• 58–67 collected Drum symbols award 113.63x your stake.
• 68–77 collected Drum symbols award 272.72x your stake.
• 78–87 collected Drum symbols award 909.09x your stake.
• 88 collected Drum symbols award the 10,100x Grand Jackpot.

Free Games Bonus

The Free Games (or Free Spins) bonus round triggers when you land at least 3 Free Games scatter symbols in view on the same base game spin. Landing 3, 4, or 5 Free Games scatter symbols awards 10, 15, or 25 free spins, respectively, and there is no way to win additional free spins or retrigger the bonus round. The Free Games Bonus plays out like the base game, except that the spins are free, and the feature ends when you run out of free spins.

The only difference from the base game is that all Drum symbols that land have a guaranteed symbol multiplier value of 8x, which is an upgrade if you manage to trigger the Drum Loot Link Bonus within the Free Games Bonus. However, the Drum Loot Link feature still triggers randomly from collecting Wilds, and the Drum symbols that land during the Drum Loot Link feature are not guaranteed to have an 8x value.

88 Drums Slot - Free Spins

Power Bet & Bonus Pass (not UK)

Eligible players can take advantage of the Power Bet and Bonus Pass features. The Power Bet options are located on the left-hand side, and both can be turned on simultaneously. These ante bet options allow you to pay extra to require one less scatter to trigger the Loot Link Bonus and increase the hit rate of the Drum Loot Link Bonus. Both Power Bet options are priced at an additional 2.27x your stake each, which equals 4.54x your stake for both simultaneously.

The Bonus Pass menu is found via the circular icon on the right-hand side and offers the following options in the 88 Drums slot:

• Scatter Loot Link Bonus - pay 50x your stake to trigger this feature.
• Drum Loot Link Bonus - pay 60x your stake to trigger this feature.
• Free Games Bonus - pay 80x your stake to trigger this feature with 3 to 5 triggering scatters.

Theme & Graphics

88 Drums is a vivid celebration of the Chinese New Year, featuring traditional Asian cultural motifs in a colorful presentation. Classic Chinese architecture is on display in the background, which looks like an ornate temple courtyard with lanterns stretched all over the place to add to the festive atmosphere. The gold-framed reels are filled with golden tigers, bulls, and a golden 8, as well as red lanterns and the celebratory drums. The drum-heavy soundtrack is ringing in the New Year, building anticipation as you spin the reels.

88 Drums Free Play

The features of this game can seem a bit complex when you read about them, which is why we recommend that you also sample the free 88 Drums demo, found at the top of the page. This is, in short, your chance to get a complete overview without risking a single dime. Of course, it’s also the best way to see if you actually like the game and whether you want to take it to the casino level and play for real money. If so, we list the best options below the 88 Drums free play game. Also, leave a comment and tell us what you think once your mind is made up.

Pros and Cons of 88 Drums

Our Verdict

Let me start by saying this. When I play slot games online, I want to relax and have fun. I do not want to have to yank out my calculator and twist my brain into a knot to figure out how the freaking bet credit and payout system work. This should long since be a thing of the past in the online slot world, but certain providers keep insisting on the archaic brick-and-mortar math models. High 5 Games is one of them, and combined with no clean and rounded bet levels, it adds up to an annoying first impression.

With that off my chest, let’s take a look at the actual 88 Drums slot game. The visuals are hardly original for an Asian-themed game, although they’re overall well-executed with gold and red dominating the color scheme. However, there is only a hint of the Chinese New Year theme, at least in the base game. That being said, you get a decent fireworks show when a bonus round triggers, topped by the Chinese dragon snaking its way across the sky to come right up in your face.

All in all, it’s an idyllic and warm setting, and it does admittedly lift your mood a bit, which is needed after figuring out the whole credit-to-stake riddle. Beneath the fancy name, the Scatter Loot Link Bonus is a fairly standard hold and win feature, with the not-too-original row-unlocking feature. On the plus side, the full-grid Grand Jackpot of 10,100x is solid enough, but the regular cash prizes and smaller jackpots are not even close to that level.

I enjoyed the Drum Loot Link Bonus more, to be honest. Not only because the sound of all the drums is kind of cool as it blends with the soundtrack, but also because I like the idea of climbing a prize ladder more than the regular hold and win concept. The Free Games bonus is not really all that noteworthy in this game, and drum symbols seldom land in huge numbers on the triggering spin to make the guaranteed 8x value count for anything. If you look past the clunky credit conversions, 88 Drums is a feature-rich game that offers a decent time, but it’s hardly a celebration of innovation or originality.