Play The Sakura Legend for Free

Japan is often considered one of the most enigmatic nations on the planet, having spent much of its history isolated from the outside world. As such, there is still much to learn about the country, from its noble history of Samurai and Ninjas to its somewhat weird and bizarre modern culture. Have you ever seen Takeshi's Castle? The theme of this slot machine is definitely leaning toward to noble side of Japanese culture, depicting a tale of two lovers and their teapot within a quite stunning landscape of perilous peaks and delicate cherry blossom.

From a visual point of view, this game is fairly well put together, especially when compared to some of the other offerings from Betixon software. The reel icons are designed to a high quality with cartoon illustrations used to emphasise the Disney-esque nature of the narrative. While the reels spin, a traditional soundtrack of Eastern music plays, which is at times peaceful and at other times quite suspenseful. What dangers lie in store for the lovers of the game? Who will the teapot survive the ordeal? You'll have to spin to find out!

While the suspense of the game continuously threatens to boil over, the same cannot be said of the game's winning potential. That is because the medium variance slot machine has a quite underwhelming paytable. For a start, the paytable of the slot appears to have the wrong icons for the game (it seems to have been sloppily copied from Betixon's other slot machine Gemonex). Secondly, the biggest line bet win on offer is capped at just 500x, which is somewhat small for a medium volatility slot.

It's not as if punters can boost their overall win potential by laying down some big line bets either. The most that a player can wager on each of the 25 fixed paylines in just 0.50, making for a maximum total bet of 12.50 credits. Casual punters will be able to go as low as possible with a total bet of just 0.25 credits with 0.01 coins per line.

If you have played any Betixon games before, then you might well know that they tend not to push the bonus boat out. The trend continues with The Sakura Legend with nothing more than a simple wild icon that will substitute for any other symbol except for the scattered fan icon. This scatter will trigger a round of 10 free spins should three or more appear on the reels at any one time in any position. It may sound like a basic bonus feature, but it has the potential to be quite rewarding since all free spin wins will be multiplied by x3.

Given the relatively basic nature of the gameplay, punters will find that there are many clone slots out there which offer the exact same bonus features, volatility level and paylines. So, if you happen to like the spinning action of The Sakura Legend, you could try out something similar yet different with Rose of Venice by Toptrend Gaming, Buccaneer's Bay by Side City Studios and Caesar Salad by Cryptologic. If it's the oriental theme that you can't get enough of, then you can satisfy you spinning desires with slots such as Dojo by Join Games, Dark Ninja by Zeus Play and Geisha Story by Playtech.

This slot machine is far from being perfect – the erroneous paytable is somewhat confusing and the unimaginative bonus features won't appeal to punters who are after new and exciting spinning adventures. On the flip side, this game is a good option for punters who simply want to enjoy some straightforward spins with a beautiful Japanese theme and some potentially rewarding free spins.