There are a lot of games right now that are inspired by China and its way of doing things, as well as its nature, but China River is one of the earlier examples of such a slot machine. It’s also one of the releases coming from Bally, a developer that often has the same games in both land-based and online form.
What you get to use in China River is a setup with 5 reels, which get 30 fixed lines. With the right symbols forming a combo, there are $1,000 rewards offered. It sweetens the deal with random stacked symbols, scatters, free spins and wilds, so it’s a decent feature spread overall.
Betting
Now, moving on to the way you can actually start playing China River, expect to have a requirement in place to spin the reels with all 30 lines active. That requires 30 coins to be part of the bet, but with denominations ranging between $0.01 and $1, there should be enough of a range in there, to cover most budgets. The smallest bet is $0.30, while the highest one can reach $30, so the game is accessible even at its maximum setting.
China River Jackpot
The jackpot of the game isn’t designed to impress, something that I feel every slot machine should be able to do. It’s a winning combo that will pay at most 1,000 coins, so expect $1,000 from each line. Should a full screen be filled with the right symbols, you could maybe expect a $30,000 win.
The game’s RTP is as low as expected, given the average looking payouts. It’s a return that’s calculated at 93.98%, which is not that great for an online slot. I would still recommend playing the game if you find it in a land-based casino, but online you have better options.
Special Features
The special features of China River make an effort to give you something interesting, but I feel like there is room for improvement in this area.
Mystery Stacked Symbols
The game picks a random stacked symbol for every single round you go through. You get a stacked mystery symbol on each reel, and if it lands in view, then all instances of it will be transformed into the chosen icon.
Wild Symbols
These are showing images of Golden Pheasants, and they are the substitutes that you can use in order to form a new combo with them and some regular symbols on the same line. Since only reels 2 through 5 get the Golden Pheasant, the symbol is not capable of awarding prizes directly. One thing to note about it, is that this wild symbol is even a replacement for a scattered Gold Coin, a power that most slot machines don’t give this feature.
Free Spins
This one you get via the usual scatter symbols, which are sporting images of Gold Coins in this case. 3, 4 or 5 such symbols will trigger 8, 10 or 15 free spins, so it’s a bigger number if there are extra symbols besides the minimum required. The free spins may be re-triggered multiple times.
Design
The China theme is a very popular one right now, and China River appears to be an earlier example of such a slot. It has Golden Pheasants as main symbols, there are images of flowers, of gold coins and jade statues, but it’s a game that also uses a lot of different Royals that aren’t nearly as interesting to look at. Overall, it’s a good looking game if you compare it with a land-based machine, but these days there are some stunning Chinese themed games available, and China River doesn’t come close to those.
Summary
China River will give you several features to use, a decent design and a popular theme, but what’s missing is a high RTP, to tie it all together.
