The Legend of Shaolin Slot

By Evoplay Entertainment

The Legend of Shaolin Slot

The Legend of Shaolin Basic info

Game provider Evoplay Entertainment

Release Date 12/2016

RTP 92.70%

Game Technology HTML5

Popularity Low

Min bet $0.18

Max bet $90

Max Win bet x 1078

Layout 5x3

Devices Support all devices

Configurable Winlines No

Volatility High

Progressive Jackpot No

The Legend of Shaolin takes place at a Shaolin temple, where two monks stand face to face and fight each other amongst a variety of weapons.

This game was developed and released by Evoplay Entertainment in 2016, setting itself in one of the most famous cultural locations in China. The game has a 5-reel, 3-row playing field with a total of 9 betlines. The background shows us a highly detailed temple with beautiful sharp colours. The two monks that flank the playing field are both animated, showing different combat stances and occasionally making fighting moves.

The symbols are all unique for the slot, using details like traditional Shaolin weapons, the different characters as well as things we generally associate with these sort of temples. The symbols are slightly animated when they’re part of a winning betline.

I found the sound to have a rather mixed quality. The music playing in the background is one based on drums and a whistle, creating an intense Asian sounding song. Meanwhile, the reels continuously make a swishing sound that you’d associate with a sharp object being swung. It got kind of annoying after a while. Any wins in this High Volatility slot come with a more modern jingle that still meshed quite well with the music.

Symbols

The different symbols in the game are all based on the Shaolin temple idea, each with their own distinct look which made them easy to tell apart. There are quite a few symbols which makes a win quite unlikely, as well as the game only having 9 betlines, explaining the high volatility as well.

The symbols from highest to lowest are:

  • Scatter: Get a Scatter on the screen to activate a special feature for 10 spins. Any additional Scatters will add another feature and an extra 5 spins. Max. 500x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
  • Wild: Wilds substitute all other symbols in the game except the Scatter symbol. Max. 9,000x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
  • Orange Monk: Max. 750x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
  • Bowl of Rice: Max. 750x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
  • Jug: Max. 400x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
  • Yellow Monk: Max. 250x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
  • Blue Monk: Max. 250x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
  • Nunchucks: Max. 125x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
  • Knives: Max. 125x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
  • Trident: Max. 100x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
  • Axes: Max. 100x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
  • Sword: Max. 100x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
  • Staff: Max. 100x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.

There is no free spins mode in The Legend of Shaolin, instead, a Scatter symbol activates a different special feature that runs during the base game. There is a small tracker in the top of the screen that keeps sight of the different features as well as how many spins are still left.

Features

The features in this slot play out during the base game. I found them to be a little difficult to tell apart even though there is a special frame at the top of the screen that keeps track. The features are:

  • Wilds: Wilds substitute all other symbols in the game except the Scatter symbol.
  • Scatter: A Scatter symbol will activate a random feature for 10 spins. Any additional Scatter symbol will add another random feature and add 5 spins. There can be a maximum of 3 features activated at a time.
  • Random Wilds: The first feature is the Random Wilds, where each spin 2 Wilds are randomly added to the playing field.
  • Multiplier: The other feature that can activate is a multiplier to all wins during the spins. The multiplier can be 2x, 3x, 4x and 5x.

While playing, I didn’t think the Wilds showed up often enough to be very interesting. I would estimate they appeared less than once every dozen spins and even when they did it wouldn’t be a guarantee for a win.

The Scatter symbol was equally as rare, although that made more sense considering the bigger effect it would have on any wins. I found it to only have a limited effect on creating wins though since the most common one was any kind of multiplier which didn’t help at all at making it more likely to get a winning payline.

The only really beneficial special feature was the random wilds one, which would add 2 random wilds to the playing field. Again, this wasn’t a guarantee for a win but it was definitely more likely. Unfortunately, I didn’t see this feature pop up a lot at all.

In general, I would consider the features a nice addition to the game when they showed up, but no player should consider them an intricate part of the slot. Most of the time, you will just watch the slot spin its reels, occasionally triggering a win and if you play long enough a feature might show up.

Conclusion

Evoplay is showing itself competent in making attractive looking slots with The Legend of Shaolin being another example. Then again, I find their gameplay to be often somewhat lacking. I don’t mean that a classic slot is less exciting but that many of their slots have features that are so rare they might as well not be included at all.

The graphics and sound design of the game make up for a lot, giving us something colourful and energetic to look at. I really respect the way the developers create original symbols for all their slots, something that doesn’t often appear in slots made by other developers.

Players that are looking for big wins might leave here disappointed as the max. win of 1,078x your bet isn’t that high considering the high volatility and the lack of opportunities to create bigger wins. Players have the option to pick a bet between $0.19 and $90, which isn’t quite as big a range as other Evoplay slots.

Leticia Miranda

Leticia Miranda

Slot Games Analyst

Leticia Miranda is a former gambling reporter who knows everything about slot games and is happy to share her knowledge. She has covered a broad swath of topics and trends on gambling and is always full of new ideas and energy. Leticia also has a master’s degree in journalism from New York University and is passionate about writing.