East Wind Battle Slots
East Wind Battle is a 5-reel video slot from casino developer GamesOS. Comprising 15 paylines, the Oriental-themed pokey takes you straight to the heart of feudal China, where grudges are settled with all kinds of weapons, not least a samurai sword and flaming table-leg (that’s what it looks like, anyway).
In all seriousness, ancient warriors play a big part in a casino title that lets you burn down enemy ships while trying to bring down the house. If you were a fan of GamesOS’ previous Asian slot, Double Bonus Slots, you’ll appreciate the concept here, though East Wind Battle is certainly more hardcore: more violence, more feuds and bigger wins.
Featuring 3D graphics, atmospheric action movie style sound effects and excellent gameplay, East Wind Battle is good enough to grab even the most hard-to-please gamer’s attention. Released in September 2015, the title is available using both Flash versions and download versions.
Buying Into The Game
Let’s get the particulars out of the way, shall we? To be in with a chance of winning the game’s 10,000 (non-progressive) jackpot, you’ll have to stake at least one coin for all 15 paylines. The minimum coin size is 0.5, while the maximum is 1. Thus, you can stake from between 7.5 and 15 per spin of the reels. This fact means the game should appeal mostly to mid-rollers. The return-to-player average, incidentally, is 97% – pretty standard for a game of this nature.
Based On Red Cliff?
Apparently, East Wind Battle has taken inspiration from John Woo’s 2008 movie Red Cliff. Unfortunately, not having seen the flick in question, we cannot comment – though Red Cliff is itself based on the Battle of Chibi, the most famous military feat in Chinese history (the storied battle occurred in 208 AD).
A Visual Feast
East Wind Battle is a visual feast. The cartoonised graphics are needle-sharp, the colours vibrant – lots of greens and reds and purples, as well as Chinese iconography such as golden dragons and battleships with red spinnakers. The reel symbols themselves include Chinese letters, several male warriors, a red flag and a female Geisha-like figure sniffing a cherry blossom.
The pay-table reveals the Chinese symbols to be the lowest-value in the game. The blue, green and purple icons provide identical pay-outs, with 100 for five-in-a-line or 20 for four. Better symbols include the samurai sword-swishing warriors. These score-settlers pay anything up to 600 for five-in-a-line, though the wins fall sharply thereafter.
Of course, no casino game worth its salt omits to include wild and scatter symbols. East Wind Battle is no different, providing you with the chance to win big by triggering free spins and multipliers. The game’s wild is the battleship. As well as substituting for the rest of the symbols in the game, excluding the scatter, the ship doubles all wins in which it is used. Including a 2x multiplier as standard is a bit of a rarity, so this certainly elevates East Wind Battle above many of its contemporaries.
Not only that, but the wild is the game’s highest paying symbol. You can win 10 for landing two, with the pay-outs ascending sharply thereafter. At the top end of the spectrum, you’ll earn 10,000 for five battleships in a line, or claim 2,000 (more than three times the pay-out of five hero warriors) for four.
The scatter symbol is the fluttering red flag. Land three or more of these to win between eight and 20 free games, each with its own multiplier attached! You’ll get to enjoy a x5 multiplier for eight free spins, a x4 multiplier for ten and a 2x multiplier for 20. All scatter pay-outs are multiplied by the player’s total bet and added to regular pay-line wins. The free spins/multiplier feature also has the potential to re-trigger.
East Is East
What can you say about East Wind Battle? This game has it all: wilds; scatters; free spins; multipliers; slick animation; great functionality; cool sound effects; a bumper jackpot. If you’re still unimpressed, I’m not really sure what you’re looking for. The game even has a Turbo Mode, which when activated makes the reels spin faster. Embrace the East, people. Embrace the East.
