Play Shanghai Beauty for Free

One of the most popular themes in the world of online slot machines has to be that of the oriental. The culture of far east Asia manages to captivate many a punter, offering glimpses of tranquil beauty and ancient treasures which appeals to a universal audience, whether they reside in the east or the west.

Shanghai Beauty presents just that, with 5 reels that are adorned with symbols such as traditional silver and gold ingots, magnificent merchant ships, and a couple of truly beautiful female characters – one of which is playing a traditional Chinese lute and another who is coyly fanning herself with a delicately decorated hand fan.

We can't help but feel that this slot machine could offer a bit more, however. Because, other than those symbols mentioned above, this game is filled with the standard playing card icons – 9, 10, J, Q, K and A – making the slot feel a little bit basic in visual aspect. What's more, this slot has been designed using two-dimensional cartoon illustrations, making the game appear to be a bit dated when compared to more modern titles out there.

Of course, there is every chance that this slot machine has been intentionally designed to emulate the classic style of Chinese decorative aesthetic. And the game cannot be accused of being out of date when it comes down to the playability. That is because the slot machine is compatible with modern hand-held devices thanks to some nifty touch screen commands, allowing punters to play the game wherever and whenever they want.

With 9 paylines over the 5 reels of this video slot, spinners will find that the wins are fairly hard to come by in comparison to other games out there. However, whenever a winning combination is struck, you can expect the prize to be reasonably rewarding. You can see all of the line bet multiplier prizes with their respective symbols in the paytable below:

The biggest possible win in this slot machine comes courtesy of the wild logo icon, with five on a payline multiplying the bet on the line by 10,000x. This icon will also help players to boost their balances by substituting for all ordinarily paying symbols to complete prize-paying sequences. Not only will this help punters to make some wins, but it will also double the normal value of the win for an extra bonus boost.

There is one icon that cannot be replaced by the wild logo symbol – the scatter icon which is depicted by an ornamental jade jewellery box. This box is still quite useful, however, since it will award total bet multipliers of 2x, 5x, 20x and 500x whenever two, three, four or five appear on the reels in any position.

On top of that, three or more of these scatters will trigger a round of 15 free spins in which all wins will be tripled in value.

Shanghai Beauty may not offer anything overly spectacular when it comes to the visual design. Plus, the game's bonus features are all fairly standard as far as video slots go, giving players nothing more than a wild icon and a free spin-triggering scatter.

However, that isn't to say that the game isn't rewarding to play. In fact, with double wild wins and triple wins during the free spins, this Microgaming slot machine still has to potential to be very exciting to play.