Play Silent Samurai for Free

As far as slot machine themes go, Japan is one of the lesser touched areas of world history. While there is video slot after video slot of Egyptian pyramids, Aztec temples and Roman colosseums, 5-reel video slots which tackle the elusive past of the Land of the Rising Sun are few and far between. That was until Silent Samurai came along,creeping up out of nowhere to hit us all with some exciting spinning action straight from the sacred heart of Mediaeval Japanese history.

This Playtech slot machine helps to transport players back in time with a game screen that is jam packed with iconic imagery from Japanese culture. For a start, the colour scheme is filled with red, black and gold to give that same ornate appearance of traditional Shinto architecture and the game's generic playing card icons are all designed to emulate the strokes of Japanese calligraphy.

Meanwhile, the slot machine's other symbols depict old Yen coins, a shuriken throwing star, and a golden statuette of a serpentine dragon which is the game's wild symbol. The scatter icon is depicted by a beautiful geisha with flowers in her hair, while the bonus triggering icon is an image of the Silent Samurai himself holding his sword in preparation for battle.

Spinning samurai players will be called into battle whenever that samurai scatter appears on the first and fifth reels of the screen to activate the bonus game. Ultimately, this will reward players will a set of free spins, during which all wins have the potential to be multiplied. Before any of that happens, punters will have to fight off 20 attacking ninja soldiers by flinging shuriken stars at them when they appear on the screen. Each ninja that you hit will potentially reward a free spin with up to 27 available or multiplier up to the value of 8x.

If you happen to hit a special ninja, then 3 more ninjas will be eliminated to award guaranteed free spins and/or multipliers. But be careful, because there are some ninjas out there who are fast enough to dodge your shurikens and end the bonus game. If that happens, the accumulated free spins will be played out with the collected multiplier applied to all wins.

There are 9 paylines involved in Silent Samurai, giving spinners a relatively slim scope of opportunity to line up those winning combinations. However, the wins in the paytable do offer some fairly handsome returns for line bets which range from 0.01 credits to 5.00 credits. What's more, players can lay down up to 10 coins on each active line, making it possible to play some high-rolling spins worth up to 450 credits.

With a top line bet multiplier of 5,000x, that makes for a jackpot of 225,000 credits, which will be paid out whenever players find five wild dragon symbols in a row. This wild icon will also help spinners to create line win sequences with other symbols since it will replace all symbols in the game except for the scattered geisha and the bonus samurai. Five shuriken stars will amount to a line bet prize that is worth 500x, while five Yen coins will pay a line bet multiplier of 300x.

The playing card values all offer less lucrative winning potential with five “A” icons awarding 200x and fie “K” symbols paying 100x. “Q”, “J” and “10” icons will also pay out no more than 100x when they line up into rows on active paylines.

Not all of the wins in Silent Samurai require players to find matching icons along paylines, because three, four or five geisha scatters will award total bet multipliers of 5x, 25x and 100x respectively, regardless of payline position.

Silent Samurai is an all-round solid video slot by Playtech. For a game which edges into familiar territory with its Oriental theme, it could so easily have become just another generic 5-reel slot machine. However, with a focus on Japanese samurai soldiers and a thrilling bonus game, players are bound to find plenty of unique spinning action while they play for that enticing 225,000 credit jackpot.