Happy New Year Slot Machine
The New Year celebrations are amongst the most colourful and lively you can find in modern China, and the tradition is literally centuries old.
Happy New Year is a video slot game by Microgaming that focuses on the traditional Chinese New Year celebrations just like they take place even in modern China every year in February. Get ready for fireworks and plenty of fun, not to mention big wins and luck for the entire year to come.
Stick around and discover our complete review of Happy New Year to make sure that you are ready for the epic celebrations ahead.
Explosions in the Sky
The Chinese New Year celebrations are famous for their exuberant fireworks displays that light up the night sky in a multitude of colours.
Happy New Year recreates this tradition by featuring beautiful, yet static, fireworks in the background. The result is rather striking, yet partially covered by the buttons and displays that clutter the game screen quite a bit.
The game screen leaves space for an exhaustive paytable, a command bar and the game logo in both Chinese and English. Overall, Happy New Year looks like a classic retro slot game with a lot of things happening on the screen at the same time. Let’s take a moment to clear the confusion and take a look at the gameplay itself in the next section.
Launch the Rockets
The basic rules of Happy New Year are the same as in most standard slot games, and the gameplay gives enough opportunities for players to happily customise each of their spin.
The game matrix contains 3 reels and 5 paylines in total, and all you need to do is make sure that winning combinations of symbols land on these paylines, as advertised in the paytable on the right-hand side of the screen. Click on the buttons in the command bar below the reels in order to adjust your wager and activate as many paylines as you want.
Use the bet max button to go all-in and bet all that you have on all 5 paylines on the next spin. A bold move that could prove worth taking the risk if luck is on your side. Alternatively, you can activate the autospin mode and let the reels spin loose for as long as you want. Feel free to play with the settings and find your perfect wager, the one that corresponds exactly to the level of risk you are willing to take. And remember that you need to take some risks if you are willing to land the game’s jackpot.
Explosive Reel Symbols
The paytable of Happy New Year is clearly on display on the screen at all times, so do keep an eye on it to see what sort of rewards you could be entitled to.
Most of the symbols available are exploding fireworks. They come in either yellow, red or green, and you need to combine them to win up to 80 times your wager. Combinations of mixed fireworks also trigger a small cash prize.
The paper lantern symbol tops the list of basic symbols. With a reward equivalent to 160 times your initial bet, you probably do not want to miss out on this icon. That being said, the lantern is worth next to nothing compared to the last symbol of Happy New Year.
Modern Chinese 101
The secret reel symbol of Happy New Year is the game logo, four Chinese ideograms arranged in a square meaning “Happy New Year”. This symbol has two distinct functions.
First of all, the logo serves as a wild card in Happy New Year. This means that you can use it instead of any other symbol and still score a cash prize. A welcome joker card that can prove quite rewarding during the game.
Logo combinations are also, and by far, the most valuable of the entire game. Their value depends on the payline on which they land, and can vary from 1000 to 2400 times the value of your wager. Lining up three logos can literally turn the entire game around and make you considerably richer in a second.
Enjoy the Party
Happy New Year is a happy and festive slot game, albeit quite classic in its gameplay. The paytable is not exactly rich in terms of symbol variety, but players still have a decent chance to score a few combinations and pocket some nice cash prizes along the way.
The cluttered game screen is a bit of a turn-off at first if you are not used to retro slot games, but after a while all that you will be seeing is fireworks in the sky and big wins landing in your pockets.
