Imperial Dragon Slot Review

Bewitching imagery isn’t normally something we comment on when we review an oriental theme, with us instead using words like ‘exotic’ to describe what we’re experiencing. But to talk about Imperial Dragon and not address how visually pleasing it is, would be to miss part of what makes the slot so enjoyable. This is an arresting online game to play and look at; that’s fancy lingo for saying it’s beautiful.

As all of you will know though, being good looking isn’t the only element you need in order to be successful, though it can get you far. Fortunately for this Blueprint title, the 5 reels have a lot more to offer than textural aesthetics of golden pillars and burning red background. That being said, this isn’t as high a variance game as some of the brand’s other titles, meaning you’re more limited by the gameplay.

What’s the Magic Number?

Numbers are incredibly important to the mechanics of this game, and we don’t just mean because you have to use money to play for real. We’re in fact talking about the gamble feature. This is set to off when you first load up the game, but if you click it it’ll set to either x1 or x5 of your stake, before turning itself off again. Those figures are important, so make sure to take note.

What they tell you is that unless you win back more than that multiple of your bet, you won’t enter into the gamble option. That explains why we didn’t activate the round when we first made a win; it was simply too low a prize. We actually like this being included, as it prevents you rushing in and losing your money, however the more you risk the greater loss, so the idea could do with some tweaking.

Walking the Line

For us, we found the gamble feature more interesting than the free spins, which are pretty much self-explanatory to most gamers. The reason we were so taken by the option is because of how different it is from the typical formats you engage with. Usually you’ll be asked to guess the next card or whether the next number will be higher or lower; here you spin and hope.

You have a wheel, inside which there are two sections, one of red and one of green. Traditionally one is bigger than the other, though sometimes it’s an equal half and half. The red means you lose and the green means you can gamble another time. Your task is to get the arrow to land in the green space. Our first try went well, in fact we got cocky about it, so Imperial Dragon taught us a lesson and we ended up losing our cash. Wrists well and truly slapped!

From China to Egypt

Oriental and Egyptian slots can be closely related a lot of the time, with some brands even combining the two on occasion (not that it ends well). This is why we reckon that, if you like this slot, you’re likely to appreciate Pharaoh’s Tomb from Novomatic. The theme isn’t too dissimilar nor are the dynamics of the matrix, though there are 10 paylines instead of 20, but that’s not too drastic a change.

Seeing as there seems to be an oriental/Asian theme recurring in this section, we thought we might as well mention Gamesy’s Genie’s Magic Lamp. Now you’re back up to the same number of winlines, with a similar RTP and the same level of variance. We couldn’t think of a better match made in heaven than if Blueprint created the similar slots themselves.

Imperial Victory

You’ll have probably guessed our conclusion for yourselves, or maybe you’ve come to the same decision that we have: that this is an excellent slot machine from Blueprint. Imperial Dragon is a high quality slot machine that delivers remarkably detailed graphics to help along the gameplay. And while the features aren’t that varied, the gamble option makes up for the lack of a dynamic paytable, which for good or ill, we adore. We wouldn’t say it’s the best game ever, but it comes close.