Justice Bao Slot Machine
Progressive jackpots, scatter wins of up to 100x the stake and expanding wild symbols are among the appealing attractions of the Justice Bao video slot from GamingSoft. Like so many of their online casino slots, it’s got a clear Chinese theme, although this time the subject is narrowed down to the old legal system, and is filled with classic images from the country, such as ceremonial drums, pagoda-style gateways and even the stern sight of Justice Bao himself thrown in for good luck.
It may seem to some that this subject is a little over-done, but there is clearly an audience eager for the latest slot machine packed with Chinese imagery, and with these exciting bonuses on offer, even if the style isn’t to your taste, the potential to grab some big wins surely will be. We’ll have a look at the design first, before we review how it plays out, and GamingSoft have clearly spent a lot of time and effort making sure Justice Bao looks good.
The backdrop is a traditional drawing of clouds and the rays of the sun, although they are greyed out a little, which makes the reels themselves stand out more. Black columns to either side of them and more of the background picture seen through the symbols add to the style and below it all, we see the control panel, with a traditional Chinese typeface used on each. At the top, there are 4 progressive jackpot values which slowly increase until the feature is triggered, and fortunate players claim some, if not all of each prize.
Playing Justice Bao
Anyone who doesn’t want to play Justice Bao for real money will be able to practice on the free version of the game, while real-money wagers start at just 1.00 per spin, which can be raised to 200.00. Other betting options include setting the reels spinning faster, or getting them to spin on autopilot, which means there’s no need to click a button each time.
It’s a 5-reel slot machine, where symbols are in 3 rows and 20 paylines run from the left side. Winning combinations are formed by landing lines of matching symbols across connected reels in the base game, but wild and scatter symbols will help as well.
Landing Winning Lines of Symbols
Lower value win-lines are made by the colourful playing card symbols 9 through to A, with either the 9 or 10 appearing across a line being worth up to 500 coins, while the J and Q each pay up to 750 coins and the K or A right across a payline will be worth wins of 1,250 coins at a 100-coin stake.
While these are pretty standard symbols to see in a slot machine, there are some higher value unique picture symbol, and unlike the playing card icons, which need to be on at least 3 reels to be worth anything, these only need to land on reels 1 and 2 to be worth a prize.
A red writing tablet or the executioners block are worth up to 2,500 coins, the drums pay 5,000 and the gold box with a dragon on top returns wins of between 25 coins when it’s on 2 reels and a massive 25,000 when it fills a payline.
Wild Justice and Free Games
Justice Bao may be a slightly scary-looking character, but he’s quite friendly really, substituting for any standard symbol and completing win-lines either by bridging the gaps in a continuous run of matching icons, or adding value to a run when he’s on the right-side reels.
If he turns up on reels 2 and 4 in the same spin, players are given 5 free spins, during which he becomes an expanding wild and fills all of reels 2 and 4 for the duration of the bonus games. This should make it much more likely that you get some nice rewards by the end of games, as only 5 spins are awarded, and they can’t be retriggered from within the round.
A sealed crate is the scatter symbol in this game, so it can be in any places, without having to be across a defined payline, and wins are multiplied by the total stake, not just the coin values. Landing 3 scatters at once is worth 3x the triggering bet, 4 of them will see wins of 10x paid out and the top award of 100x the bet is claimed when 5 scatters land at once.
Progressive Jackpot Feature
Land the jackpot symbol on reels 2 and 4 at once, and you enter a side-game where a progressive jackpot prize, or at least part of one, is assured. The aim is to click on the 12 tokens arranged on some shelves, revealing either the Mini, Minor, Major or Grand jackpots, and once 3 of a kind have been found, you win between 10% and 100% of the relevant prize, depending on the triggering bet amount.
The Verdict on Justice Bao
This is a classic slot from GamingSoft that’s very much in keeping with their style, so if you like others in the range, you will probably like this one. Free Justice Bao video slots are available for those who want to try it out first, but it’s a reliable game that will surely be as popular as the rest of the GamingSoft slots range.
