Mahjong Masters Slots
Although Mahjong is a traditional game played with tiles on a table, KA Gaming have somehow managed to seamlessly combine this classic pastime with an online video slot in their Mahjong Masters game. Five reels and 50 paylines are used, with six Mahjong tiles creating the lower value wins and some cartoon characters returning the higher prizes. Landing a wild symbol in the right places can complete extra lines, but the real highlight is a fantastic free spins round, where win multipliers of up to 168x can be claimed.
If you haven’t played Mahjong before, here’s a very brief outline of how it works. Four players each receive 13 tiles from a pool of 144 and by discarding, or claiming tiles, they aim to complete four sets, (melds), plus a pair, (eyes). You don’t really need to know much more about the original game to enjoy this slot machine, as the similarities are limited to the colored tiles, four players and little else.
KA Gaming have, however, brought the excitement of the game to online and mobile optimized casinos. The reels are surrounded by close-ups of the four players, smiling, winking or just generally posing for you, which brings a friendly, welcoming style to the game. You’ll certainly welcome the chances to land combinations across 50 paylines, with the usual format of matching symbols running from the left side needed to claim a win. Coin denominations can be as little as 0.01 per line or as much as 2.00 and it’s up to you to decide how many paylines are activated, although we would always recommend all lines are in play.
A Night on the Tiles
If you know how Mahjong works, then you will recognise the lower-value tile symbols, each having red, green and blue inscriptions on them to denote the various Dot, Bamboo, Dragon, or Wind groups. If you don’t know one tile from another, then don’t panic, as the paytable lists what each is worth when matching symbols stop across a line. Two of the tiles are worth prizes equal to five, 15, or 100x the per line stake when seen on three, four, or all five reels, while another two pay five, 20, or 200x. The top two tiles are worth ten, 25, or 250x your line bet when landing on three, four, or five reels across an active line.
The Mahjong table pays up to 500x, as does the lady in glasses and a cool-looking guy in sunglasses will return a high limit of 1,000x your line bet. Unlike the others, which need to be seen on at least three reels from the left side, the two most valuable symbols will only have to land on reels one and two to win anything. It’s a consolation prize of just five times the line stake but certainly better than nothing. Land the older player right across a line to win 2,500x your line stake and the woman with curlers in her hair is worth a massive prize of 5,000x when she stops across all five reels on an active line.
You won’t be able to miss the wild symbol in this slot machine, as it’s consists of the word ‘Wild’ written in big letters across a poker chip and the ‘$’ sign. Although it’s not worth anything, it works in just the same way as other wilds, acting as any symbols when needed to fill in any gaps in a continuous run, or stretching a win further across a line for a higher payout.
A Roll of the Dice
Red and white dice are the scatter symbol here, and once again, KA Gaming have helpfully overlaid the word ‘Scatter’ onto the symbol. Any three, four, or five scatters in any places will trigger eight, 18, or 28 free spins respectively. There’s a unique feature in effect throughout the bonus games, as any time the scatter symbol appears, the dice will roll up a win multiplier based on the numbers seen on the dice when they come to a rest.
If several scatters landed in the same spin, all the dice will roll, hopefully giving you a higher multiplier. If the numbers on the dice add up to between one and three, wins are equal to the total bet per spin, while you claim twice the bet when the rolled numbers are between four and six. The multipliers keep on rising, with the highest possible combination being 29 or 30 points. If you are lucky enough to land this, you win a prize of 168x your stake.
Setting the Stakes
KA Gaming have a common set of command buttons that are in most ways intuitive to use, but you have to do a bit of digging before finding the Autoplay option. The secret is to hold down the Spin button, either with your computer mouse, or a finger when you play the mobile version. This reveals the number of auto spins on offer which you can then select. It’s a strange way to do it, but once you know where to look, there should be no problems.
The minimum stake with all lines active is 0.50 and the high limit bet is set at a huge 2,000.00 per spin, so most gamblers should find a level that suits them just fine.
More Mahjong
With Mahjong and slot machines both being so popular across Asia, you won’t be surprised to see a couple more games that mix the two. Mahjong King, from Proprietary Games, is a good example. Five reels and 25 paylines of tile-clicking action include wild substitutions and free spins with rising multipliers on each. Retrigger the free games and winnings could be multiplied by up to 64x.
A Classic Game Re-imagined
Even if you know nothing about Mahjong, the nice cartoon style of this slot machine and exciting features makes it worth a closer look. It’s a low volatility slot, where you tend to win relatively modest prizes quite often, rather than spinning the reels over and over until a larger win is paid.
We found that the multipliers in the free spins round were also very heavily weighted towards the lower end of those listed on the paytable, but that’s fine with us, as you wouldn’t expect to win 168x your bet each and every time.
Play the free Mahjong Masters video slots on this page, then play for cash at the reliable, real money casinos that carry the KA Gaming range.
