Year of the Monkey Slots
Year of the Monkey is a 5-reel slot from Toptrend Gaming that looks promising on its load screen, only for the reels to appear and the street scene to be replaced by a claustrophobic looking temple interior that’s very red and very flat.
This may not seem like a big deal, but it’s a surprising design choice for a company whose slots are typically imbued with depth and 3D effects galore. There are a pair of red lanterns swaying gently at the top of the reels, a classic Toptrend Gaming touch, but otherwise, there’s not a whole lot to look at: just row after row of playing card symbols rendered in Chinese lettering.
Monkeying Around
Visually, Year of the Monkey might be underwhelming, but in terms of features, this game packs a punch, complete with expanded wilds, scatters and a bonus game called God of Wealth. Yep, there’s money to be made playing Year of the Monkey alright, and fun to be had too, despite what initial appearances might indicate to the contrary.
Game Controls
The Main Menu button on the top left of the screen will allow you to toggle various options on or off including sound effects, dealer’s voice, ambient sound, high quality graphics and full animations. While you’re looking at the top of the screen, keep an eye out for playing tips that are prone to appearing above the reels, a favorite technique of Toptrend Gaming. There’s also a comprehensive playing guide buried within the Main Menu link.
Below the reels, which occupy a standard 5x3 layout, you’ll find more precise controls for adjusting the credit value, which can range from 0.01 to 5.00. The game has a fixed 40 pay lines, but the bet multiplier applied to each one can be set anywhere between 1 and 8. There’s also a Bet Max button conveniently located to the left of the Spin button. On the maximum settings, each spin will cost you 320.
The other control of note is Auto Spin, which allows you to specify 10-100 automatic spins, or until you reach the feature. Finally, on the bottom right of the screen, a mute button allows you to silence the temple music when it starts to tire.
Ways to Win
The basic game symbols are provided by playing card values, as is the norm with slots released by Toptrend Gaming and indeed with most devs.
Thereafter, a few proprietary symbols surface. Identifying them isn’t easy, other than to note that they’re all Chinese objects of some sort that wouldn’t look out of place in a temple. Five of these matching symbols are worth anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000.
After that, it’s on to the wild and scatter symbols to infuse some fun into Year of the Monkey, a task they perform with aplomb. Wild, played by the monkey symbol, will substitute for any of the other symbols except for scatter and will appear on reels 2-4 only. Any time wild helps you secure a win on the reels, it will be accompanied by a 2x multiplier. This just leaves scatter, 5 of which are worth a cool 32,000. 3 scatters will be enough to land you 15 free spins, accompanied by a multiplier of 3. The scatter symbols can appear anywhere on the reels for a win to be awarded.
Unique Features
Toptrend Gaming are prone to combining their scatter and wild symbols to apply added bonuses, with the two sets of symbols working in tandem to generate new wins. In Year of the Monkey, this comes into effect with the God of Wealth feature. Should this happen, there’s some major money headed your way, but to collect it you’ll need to achieve a pretty rare combo, it must be said. If reels 2-4 all show expanded wilds and reels 1 and 5 have scatters showing anywhere, you’ll be awarded 500x your bet. God of Wealth indeed.
Year of the Monkey Summed Up
Year of the Monkey is an entertaining game from Toptrend Gaming that plays like a dream, even if it isn’t much to look at. Through clever use of scatters and wilds, this game proves to be far more enjoyable than initial impressions would suggest.
