Play 5 Lions Dance (Pragmatic Play) Slot

5 Lions Dance (Pragmatic Play) Review

Pragmatic Play has plenty of asian themed games in their portfolio already, and 5 Lions Dance will certainly blend right in. The lion heads look more like dragon heads to be honest, but this is how it is with asian slots. They do not make as much sense to us westerners as they probably do to the audience they are mainly aimed at. There are 2 main attractions here, and the one that sticks out the most is the merging of the 2 first reels into a mega multiplier reel that is capable of dishing out wins up to 200x your stake.

This is mainly a feature that helps keep the base game somewhat interesting though, as the main attraction is the bonus round. This is where the bigger payouts will most likely come, and wins up to 2,700x your stake is possible here. The game plays out on a rooftop, with beautiful asian architecture on display in the background. The oriental zither soundtrack is a given, and you will play with 5 reels, 4 rows and 1,024 ways to win. You can place bets as low as 20p here, or as high as £100 per spin, and the medium volatility and 96.5 % RTP makes for somewhat forgiving gameplay (always keep in mind that Pragmatic operates with customizable RTP ranges on their games though).

We had a relatively good time testing this game in our 200 spins session (read more about that further down in the review and watch video highlights), but we also got plenty of dead spins and smaller wins in our session. The free spins bonus round was triggered once though, and the symbol transformation feature proved to be quite lucrative. Clearly, a game like this will have somewhat limited appeal in the west, but if you enjoy a bit of exotica to spice up your day, 5 Lions Dance is a decent enough choice for casual players.

5 Lions Dance

What are the bonus features?

Like many other Pragmatic Play games, also 5 Lions Dance slot comes with only a few bonus features. The base game offers a Lion Reel bonus that’s triggered when you land at least 3 Lion Reels symbols on the same spin. You will then see reels 1 and 2 merge into a mega Lion Reel packed with multiplier values as follows: 5x, 10x, 15x, 20x, 25x, 50x, 75x, 100x, 150x and 200x.

The Lion Reel will spin one time, and whatever multiplier you get will be applied to your total stake. Thus, wins up to 200x your stake is possible via this feature. There is also a golden ball wild symbol in this game, and it will step in for all regular symbols to help you form winning combos. The wild symbol does not have any value of its own, and neither does the scatter.

Free spins in 5 Lions Dance

The drum scatter will trigger the bonus round though, and you need to land 3 scatters on reels 1, 3 and 5 in order to get this feature. You will start out with 10 free spins, and it comes with a symbol transformation extra. On every spin, the regular win is calculated first, then all lion head premium symbols are transformed into the same randomly chosen lion head symbol.

This only happens when you will actually win from it however, which is good since it would take up a lot of time if you had to see the animation on non-winning spins also. Anyway, you can also retrigger the free spins round by landing 3 new scatters, and there is no upper limit or cap on how many times you can do this.

How to play

In this part of the review we walk you through all the essentials you should know about before you start playing. This is mostly aimed at beginners, and people who’ve played Pragmatic games before might wanna skim through this part, or skip to the next section altogether.

The game interface is as recognizable as ever, and you’ll find all you need to modify this game below the reels. The game settings can be opened up via the small hamburger menu down to the left. Here you can turn on the Quick Spin feature, which increases the pace of the gameplay. You can further turn on Battery Saver mode, which is good if you play on the go and have nowhere to charge for the moment.

You can also turn on/off the game sounds and background music separately, which is always a plus. In addition, you can adjust the volume in-game, and check out your game history if you’ve played before. Lastly, you can also turn off the intro screen to save time when you load the game next time.

5 Lions Dance

The “i” icon takes you into the dynamic paytable, and you will see the symbol values updated according to your chosen bet level. You need between 3 and 5 matching symbols from the uttermost left to the right to win. The golden lion head is the highest value symbol here, followed by 4 other lion heads of various colors. The lion heads pay between 20x and 4x for 5 on adjacent reels, while the 5 low-value royals pay either 3x or 2x for the same amount.

You can now choose your bet level via the plus and minus icons on either side of the spin button, and the range goes from 20p to £100 per spin. This is a fairly standard bet range that should suit most player types, except perhaps the most hardcore high rollers. You can also set up the autoplay feature with between 10 and 100 autospins if you want, or you can simply spin the reels manually.

Where to play 5 Lions Dance?

The wide release is still a few weeks away as we write this review, but you can be sure that any new slot from Pragmatic Play can be found in plenty of quality casinos. Where to play 5 Lions Dance is therefore a matter of what you prefer. We will do our best to assist you with your choice here, and present you with some options below that you can consider.

Play for real money

If you enjoy exoitic asian-style games like this, you might already have made up your mind about it. If you feel ready to get going for real right away, our service to you is that we scan the whole casino market on a daily basis. You will therefore always find the best overview of casinos to play 5 Lions Dance slot right here on this page. Simply follow the link to the top, and make your pick from the welcome offer buffet.

Play free demo version

If you are not quite sure about this game yet, we have a solution for that too. The best way to proceed if you have any doubt at all, is to try the free demo version. Many players do this with all new games, and it’s really the best way to make sure you’re not wasting time and money on a game you don’t really prefer. Of course, we have the 5 Lions Dance demo game installed at the very top of this page. Follow the link up there, and get started with free play right away.

The 200 Spins 5 Lions Dance Experience

Video slots with an asian theme is not really something that usually hits home with the bulk of western players. However, they can be an exotic detour at times, and add a different flavour to your day. We certainly looked forward to our 200 spins test session, as we always do with any new game.

We set our bet level to the maximum of $100 per spin, as it doesn’t really matter much when you play the demo game anyway. The volatility is medium here, but this is Pragmatic medium so we still expected plenty of dead spins. You can check out all the highlights from our session in the video, or read on as we lay it all out for you below.

We had a few 1x wins before 2 scatters symbols landed to tease us with the possibility of triggering the bonus round. Nothing happened at this time though, and we got more dead spins and a 0.5x win before we finally landed the 3 scatters we needed. This is where things took off for real, even though the free spins round started out slow.

We had some smaller wins initially, but then the symbol transformation feature kicked in a few times. This led to more significant wins, but nothing out of the ordinary happened yet. We had only 4 spins left to go, so we now crossed our fingers for a massive win or two, or perhaps a feature retrigger.

Our prayers were heard, kind of at least, as we landed a “mega win” of 36x our stake with only 2 free spins left in the tally. On the final spin the symbol transformation feature gave us a “sensational” win of 64x our stake, and it took a small eternity to sum it all up. We won a total of 111.2x our stake from the bonus round, which was not really enough to recuperate our losses from the 200 spins session.

Review Summary

5 Lions Dance is decent enough asian themed game, and it comes with a math model that’s more forgiving than many other Pragmatic games. It can sometimes take a good while to trigger the bonus round however, but bigger wins are also possible in the base game here. This is due to the 1,024 ways to win you play with at all times, and premium symbols that are worth decent amounts.

Still, the game’s potential max win is a somewhat mediocre 2,700x your stake, but this is okay for a medium volatile title. Breaking even is not all that hard here, and players who enjoy lengthy sessions instead of “hit or miss” games will probably feel right at home. The Lion multiplier reel feature also helps break up the base game once in a while, but it can only deliver up to 200x wins.

Pros

• Multiplier reel for wins up to 200x
• Free spins with symbol transformation
• Medium volatility and 2,700x max win potential

Cons

• Asian theme might not appeal to all western players
• Beware of customizable RTP ranges

If you enjoy 5 Lions Dance you should also try:

If you like asian themed games, we have 1,817 titles in our catalog at the time of writing. This should give you plenty of opportunities, and below we’ll share some hand selected options for you. You can read more about each game via the provided links, and also try the free demo version of the game, if you wish.

9 Lions - why limit yourself to only 5 lions when you can get 9, right. This Wazdan title comes with 3 reels and 3 rows, which give you 9 reel positions. What makes this game so unique is that you can freely choose any symbols you want after each spin. These symbols then become sticky for the next spin. You’ll also benefit from both a Lions and Dragons bonus feature here.

Lion Dance - comes with 4 different world modes, and you’ll benefit from a unique modifier per world. You can also trigger a bonus round in this game, and then you will get 1 of the 4 modifiers on every single spin. These modifiers are everything from giant symbols and wilds to mystery coins, and you can win up to 888x your stake on this somewhat volatile Red Tiger title.

Dragon's Luck - is another popular asian title from Red Tiger, and it comes with 4 randomly triggered reel modifiers. You can benefit from a mega coin with guaranteed wins, mystery symbols, 1,380x win coin and dragon’s fire that increases your payout. This is a medium to high volatility game, and it has gained popularity also amongst western players.