Eye of the Dragon Slot Machine
Eye of the Dragon is a video slot from Novomatic that takes players on an adventure filled with warriors, archers, mythical creatures and where players get a dramatic shot of the fearsome dragon that rules the reels. Fantasy and magic-themed online slot machines have never been so popular, with TV shows like Game of Thrones, and movies such as The Lord of the Rings helping to create a huge fanbase for games that follow the genre. Eye of the Dragon is a beautifully-designed slot machine, with very realistic images of the main characters and plays out over 5 reels, crossed by 10 paylines.
Some high-quality animations accompany any winning lines, and in the standard fashion, prizes are awarded when you land 2, 3 or more of the same symbol type across a line, in an unbroken sequence from the left. The wild dragon helps to complete combinations, giving you a little wink when he or she is part of a combination, while also being the trigger for the bonus feature.
Like most Novomatic slot games, there’s the potential to collect extra wins in a free spins round, although it doesn’t have the popular gamble feature that many slots from this Austrian developer come with. However, there’s a high return to player ratio and it’s been fully certified for fair play by independent testing companies and licensing bodies. This game is also mobile optimised and can be played on iOS and Android-powered smartphones and tablets, as well as across desktop PC’s, Macs and laptops.
Here be Dragons
There’s a magical forest scene behind the game, where strange plants are lit up by purple lights, while the reels are surrounded by a metallic framework and payline indicators to each side look like shields, adding nicely to the overall effect. The reels are jet-black, which makes the colourful symbols stand out, and we have the classic playing card icons to create the smaller winning lines, with the 10, J, or Q each valued at 5x, 25x and 100x the line stake when they stop on 3, 4, or 5 reels. The K and A are worth slightly more and the unique images of the unicorn and white tiger are both valued at between 5x and 750x the line stake, depending on how many reels they cross.
A sword-wielding warrior returns win of up to 2000x, but the best prizes are paid out when a beautiful female archer in an impractical, but eye-catching red top, lands across any active payline. This redhead will pay you 10x the line bet when she’s on reels 1 and 2, 100x if she’s also on reel 3, and lines of 4 archers pays 1000x. Land this symbol across an entire payline and you win a huge prize of 5000x the per line stake.
Calling a slot machine Eye of the Dragon and not having a dragon’s eye somewhere wouldn’t make sense, so it turns up a wild symbol. It’s able to act as any other if it can complete win-lines, while also being worth some of the best rewards when landing across a line on its own. Land 3 of the eye symbols for a win of 20x the line stake, with 4 being valued at 200x and you’ll be eyeing up a prize of 2000x when full lines are landed.
Special Expanding Symbols
If the wild scatter symbol stops in any 3 or places at once, you are rewarded with 10 free games, but before they begin, a symbol is selected at random and will expand across any reel it lands on. Hopefully, this will be enough to ensure a few winning lines are made before the bonus round is over, although the free spins can be retriggered by more dragon scatter symbols appearing, so you could get more chances than the original 10.
Betting Options
The minimum real cash stake is 0.20 per spin, although free Eye of the Dragon video slots can also be found. Higher stakes means the potential for higher rewards though, so most players will try to adjust their bets accordingly and aim for the biggest payouts.
A limited number of other options include an Autoplay function, which saves time by spinning the reels without needing any input from players, and you can also activate the soundtrack, which is suitably dramatic to fit in with the theme.
Other Sword and Sorcery Slots
There’s a huge selection of slot machines with similar character symbols, and majestic dragons popping up across their reels. It’s a topic that allows game developers to really use their imagination and come up with some exciting visuals, but many of the top ones come with exciting gameplay and features as well.
The Dragon Champions video slot, by Playtech, has a number of similarities with Eye of the Dragon, with a warrior, a fire-breathing beast and an almost identical beautiful redheaded archer on the reels. It’s set in a cavern filled with gold coins and players will hopefully claim some as their own when triggering up to 100 free spins, and a randomly-awarded Dragonfire feature which transforms symbols into high-value groups.
If you really can’t get enough dragons, then Aristocrat may have the perfect slot machine for you, as their 50 Dragons game is packed with beautifully rendered golden beasts, along with tigers, peacocks and fortune bowls. There’s free spins to enjoy, along with wild substitutions and some huge payouts when the golden dragons land across any of the 50 paylines.
Is Eye of the Dragon Worth Eyeing up?
Found at the many Novomatic-powered online casinos, Eye of the Dragon is a great example of the high standards that players have gotten used to with games from the company. The quality of the symbols is outstanding, especially the high-paying characters, and the blinking eye not only looks good, but also awards the lucrative bonus features.
Hopefully the random stacked symbols will be enough to turn some of these free spins into winners, but there’s plenty of chances both here and in the base games, to collect some prizes in the Eye of the Dragon video slot.
One thing that’s missing and that most Novomatic slots come with, is a gamble feature, which is a shame, as these can potentially turn small rewards into far larger payouts, although it’s also possible of course, for players to forfeit a win by losing the gamble.
