Fortune Wheel Slot
Like so many online slot games before it, the Fortune Wheel video slot is inspired by Chinese culture and has a distinct Oriental theme and style. This is just a reflection of how much demand there is for games of this type, so while the design might not be anything unusual, games developer Vela Gaming have given themselves the task of making the way it works as unique as possible.
The innovation doesn’t stretch to the design however, with Vela Gaming having gone for a safe option of 5 reels, with symbols in 3 rows, although a 243 ways to win system is in use here. Winning combinations come with any 3 or more matching symbols landing anywhere on adjacent reels from the left side, while an unusual betting option is also provided.
Players can activate any number of reels, with those not in play only having the middle row active, which lowers the stakes, but makes it less likely that win-lines will be created. There’s also a choice of playing a ‘Reels 1-5 + Extra Bet’, which costs a little more, but has the effect of making win multipliers in the bonus round more rewarding.
Trying to Spin up a Fortune
While it’s not radical in design or theme, the Fortune Wheel video slot looks nice enough and comes complete with a soundtrack typical of Chinese-themed games. A mountain range is in view behind the reels, and the usual high card symbols 9 through to A take up the lower value half of the paytable. Gamblers win 5x, 15x or 30x the coin value when either the 9 or 10 land on 3, 4 or 5 reels from the left, while the K and A pay the best playing card awards of 15x, 25x or 50x.
A horn and bowl are the lower-paying picture symbols, with a golden bonsai tree being worth a little more, returning 100x, 200x or 500x the coin value. The top wins in the normal run of play come from a green disc, which is worth 8x when landing on 3 reels, 88x for a line of 4 and a full set across all reels sees winnings of 888x paid. The number 8 is, of course, lucky in many countries and as this slot machine is particularly popular in Asia, it’s use as a multiplier is seen as a sign of good fortune that fits in with the whole theme.There’s a golden Fortune Wheel wild symbol, which acts a others to help complete winning combinations when it’s in the right positions, while a special ornate flower is the scatter symbol, and this golden image will be worth 15x, 25x or 50x the coin amount when it stops in any 3, 4, or 5 places at once, without needing to be on adjacent reels to do so.
Free Spins With Multipliers
The golden flower scatter symbol also triggers a free spins bonus round, but before they start, players are given several options. They can choose to have 18 free games play out, where the blue Fortune Wheel becomes an extra wild and any win-lines that it completes will be multiplied in value by 2x, 5x or 8x, or they can pick the red Wheel to become an additional wild, with any lines that it becomes part of being subject to random 8x, 18x or 38x multipliers.
The last option is to have just 4 free games, but if the green Fortune Wheel completes a combination in these games, the resulting multipliers will be either 8x, 38x or the top value of 88x. Of course, with only 4 bonus games in which to get these massive multipliers, players are taking a bit of a risk, but the choice is entirely dependent on whether they like lots of bonus games, with a good chance of a modest win multiplier occurring, or to get them over with quickly and have a smaller chance of a huge prize.
It’s worth noting that if the ‘Reels 1 – 5 + Bonus Bet’ option isn’t played, these real cash multipliers are slightly reduced.
Good Fortunes to be Won?
In standard gameplay, the Fortune Wheel video slot isn’t really anything special, although there’s nothing particularly wrong with it either. The 243 ways to win format can make it easier to line up winning combinations, and with a wild symbol helping players to make this even easier, it can be a rewarding, if fairly safe game.
But once the free spins are triggered and players are given those multiplier options, it becomes much more interesting. Having the potential to win 88x the base value of a win-line is a tempting proposition, although many gamblers will go for the middle ground and get a decent number of free games, where the potential multipliers are still substantial.
