Fu Star Slot Machine
Lightning Box Games know their market well, the far eastern and Asian slot themes are some of the most popular for slot gamers, and LBG certainly have a decent selection. Fu Star aims to add to a range which already contains the popular Dragon Palace, Astro Cat and the Fortune 8 Cat slots. The question for even committed fans of both the genre and the developer will be if Fu Star actually adds anything new to the range.
Fortunately, at first glance Fu Star not only contains all the traditional aspects of an Asian game but also adds a little spice into the mix. There’s a small user choice or even skill aspect added into free spins bonus round for instance. Also, the game ignores the modern preference for 243 ways to win and is a 25 pay-line 5x3 slot, so new gamers as well as veterans should find it easy to play. With full optimisation for mobile, including iOS and Android and both free to play and cash versions of the game, the accessibility is wide open too.
Theme
Fu Star has two bespoke reel backdrops, the first for the base game takes place in an oriental theatre, this neatly integrates into the theme with the locking reels’ mechanic as curtains fall from above to indicate the hold and spin (More on that later). The second reel backdrop for the free spins bonus round is on a balcony, overlooking a beautiful moonlit bay, the icons are the same in both rounds but this kind of attention to detail does keep the visuals fresh and entertaining.
In all fairness the audio and visual work across the slot is superb, sure the magic lanterns, koi carp and eastern sailing ships are hardly new, nor are the royal playing card icons. However, they are all intricately designed and it seems almost every winning combination or even action on the game has its own tailor made animation and audio effect. Even the music is bearable, a true rarity on these types of slots, airy pan pipes and chimes fill the background and make this a welcome and immersive experience.
Gameplay & Features
With fixed pay-lines the only setting to consider on Fu Star is your bet amount, there is a decent width in the bet range here so everyone from the novice to the more serious player should be satisfied. The screen is easy to read no matter what device you play from, everything should be clear. There’s a very well laid out pay-table to help sort out the position of the lines and icon values, whilst an auto-spin feature is there for the slightly more relaxed slot player to use.
Whilst there is some wild action on the Fu Star slot machine, the big draw of the game is not the base game play, it’s the free spins bonus round, with even the route towards it providing a nice anticipation build up. When a bonus scatter appears on reel one, the reel locks in place and a hold and spin mechanism comes into place. You get three spins for free, to lock in the remaining scatters on the reels and trigger the bonus round. This sequence is novel and really adds extra excitement.
With the spins bonus in play, you then get a pick win screen, where you select both the number of spins and the multiplier which will be attached to them. Even this has a secondary feature in the form of a second chance option, if you aren’t happy with the multiplier pick – you can swap it once. The game sometimes indicates whether swapping or sticking will be an optimum strategy, it seemed to us that anything less than 5x was generally worth swapping.
Summary
The Fu Star slot deserves its place in the Asian genre and more than earns a place in the Lightning Box Games catalogue. This is a fun and engaging game, though, without the variance publicly stated, it’s hard right now to gauge whether the win potential has enough in it to give the game high enough pay-outs to keep veteran players coming back for more. The lack of action in the base game and the big bonus game makes us feel like it has the potential, but only time will truly tell.
