Koi Garden Slots
A relatively new software studio advertising “cutting edge game development”, Makitone Gaming has been slowly but surely amassing a small collection of beautifully crafted video slot machines.
One of the undisputed highlights in their gaming portfolio at present is Koi Garden, a 5 reel, 25 payline title that features free spins, a bonus game and a maximum regular jackpot of 1,500x your bet per line. Set to the tranquil background of a Japanese lake, the game includes state-of-the-art graphics and sound to really take players on a relaxing journey as they spin their way to huge prizes.
No Need to Be Koi
Despite being a relatively new slot title, players don’t need to fear any complicated rules or game mechanics in Koi Garden. The slot features an incredibly user-friendly interface that keeps the number of buttons to an absolute minimum – with the “change bet” option controlling all settings.
Clicking on this button will launch a pop-up menu where players can choose to activate anywhere between 1 and 25 paylines, adjust their coin size from €0.01 to €5 and also select the number of coins they wish to bet on each line from 1 to 10. This provides an incredible amount of flexibility and means the game can be played from anywhere between €0.25 and €1,250 with all paylines enabled.
For their chosen investment, players will be setting their sights on a maximum regular jackpot of 1,500x their bet per line for matching five cherry blossom or pagoda symbols, while there are also a number of smaller payouts available for any three-of-a-kind combination. A free spins feature awards up to 15 bonus games, while there’s also a pick-and-click round that awards instant prizes.
Making a Splash
The area in which Koi Garden really stands out is in the quality of its graphics and sound. The game looks great and includes three unique backgrounds – the bed of a lake, the lake’s surface and a special Koi pond – to denote the base game and the two bonus features, while the reels themselves feature an entirely unique cast of icons with none of the regular playing card symbols present at all.
Symbols in Koi Garden unsurprisingly include a vast selection of different coloured Koi carp, with ornate fountains, bonsai trees, stone pagodas and cherry trees all keeping the Japanese theme incredibly consistent. Special scatter symbols include a dragonfly, which activates the free spins feature, and a lotus flower which transports players to a new screen where they can win cash prizes.
As you’d imagine, the sounds used in Koi Garden stick with the Japanese theme, with traditional mandolin music and the splashing of carp featuring throughout the base game and bonus rounds. If anything, however, there is too much background music included in the slot, with the fact that players aren’t given a single moment of peace perhaps detracting from the intended atmosphere.
Gone Fishing
The main bonus round in Koi Garden is undoubtedly the pick-and-click feature that is activated whenever three or more lotus flower scatter symbols appear anywhere on the gameboard. Whenever this happens, players will be taken to a new screen where they must pick two Koi carp from a selection of five to unveil cash prizes, which are then combined and added to their balance.
The other feature included in Koi Garden awards 5, 10 or 15 free spins whenever three, four or five dragonfly scatter symbols appear respectively. With the screen then moving up to the surface of the lake, free spins begin automatically and all wins are subjected to a 3x multiplier. The caveat to this, however, is that when you only receive 5 free spins, it is relatively easy to walk away empty-handed.
Somewhat unusually for a modern video slot title, Koi Garden doesn’t feature any form of substitute wild, meaning players will have fewer opportunities to land winning combinations overall. Fortunately, this is compensated for by the fact that higher-value symbols payout for two-of-a-kind.
Find Your Centre
As debut games from new studios go, Koi Garden is a pretty solid offering. The game will certainly draw players in with its top-notch graphics and sounds, while the decent variety of features available will ensure they stick around for the long haul. The lack of a substitute wild is a little bit disappointing, but this is certainly made up for by the frequency of landing winning payline combos.
