As one of the most important Chinese Holidays, Lunar New Year is bound to inspire a number of software developers to treat us with a few new oriental-themed slot releases every February.  The magnitude of the Spring Festival offers an immense potential in terms of design and special features, which means that the competition is fierce. This is, of course, good news for the players, since the developers will naturally try to top each other, offering bigger, better and more lucrative awards and bonuses. And, since special attention is paid to details, a lot of Chinese New Year themed slots turn iconic, earning a fair amount of positive user ratings and being played for years to come.

Chinese New Year by Play’ n Go

With an explosion of colours and symbols from the Chinese Zodiac, Chinese New Year slot is a purposely over-the-top designed game, but with a type of exaggerated animation that perfectly first the theme.

Bonus feature is unlocked with three Dragon symbols and the player wins bet multipliers by shooting fireworks, potentially scoring up to x150 bet increase. Another x5 multiplier is awarded when 3 Monkey icons land on the reels, activating at the same time the Free Spins Feature. Spinning of the Wheel will initiate the Free Spins and determine which of the slot symbols will become the Extra Scatter; unfortunately, the feature cannot be reactivated during the Free Spins.

In terms of payouts, high rollers may not find Chinese New Year particularly challenging, but with 96.65% RTP, the slot is a great option for players who play recreationally or who need to manage their budget a bit more carefully.

Lucky Little Gods by Microgaming

Featuring a distinctive style of Asian animation that you don’t get to see very often in slot designing, Lucky Little Gods is a 5 reels, 3 rows and 243 win ways slot by Microgaming with a payout potential of $130,000.00. Microgaming slots never lack in special features and Lucky Little Gods is no exception. The game introduces 3 different bonuses, each unlocked with a specific Scatter symbol.

With the Golden Tree icon appearing on reels 1 and 5, Golden Tree Scatter Bonus feature is triggered and the golden coins from the tree are being shed off onto the reels, duplicating the value of other symbols and potentially increasing the total bet by x15.

Treasure Pot Scatter can only land on reel 3, triggering the picking game with coin prizes and offering x20 to x100 bet multipliers. Additional prizes are awarded when Little Gods Bonus is activated, with a bet multiplying range of x4 to x40.

Bonuses do not end there; the combination of at least three Candle Scatter icons will initiate Free Spins session, during which a new spin will be awarded for each new Scatter and reels 1 and 5 will become Wild.

88 Fortunes by SG Scientific

SG Scientific release, 88 Fortunes is a 243 ways win slot with a symbolic Max Bet amount of 88 coins (value ranging from $0.01 to $1.00). The maximum payout is quite appealing and a single spin can cash out 200,000 coins,  the slot’s Grand Jackpot. Players can win three smaller jackpots – Major (75,000 coins) Minor (3,750 coins) and Mini (2,000 coins).

In order to win one of the jackpots, the player has to land Fu Bat symbol, which will trigger Fu Bat Jackpot Feature, a picking game with the goal of revealing three matching icons. The number of Fu Bat icons that activated the feature will determine if the player will be eligible for all or just one of the main cash prizes. For example, for the combination of two icons, only the Mini jackpot will be unlocked, while five Fu Bat icons will unlock all four of the jackpots.

Free Spins are won after the Gong symbol appears on the reels, awarding 10 Free spins played on a different set of reels. During additional spins, the player can either re-trigger new spins or unlock the Fu Bat Feature. If no new Gongs land, the session will expire.

Dragon Palace by Lightning Box

Another 243 ways win slot, Dragon Palace by Lightning Box carries a strong oriental theme, featuring symbols such as Pagoda Scatter, Dragon Wild, Chinese Warrior, The Turtle, Lotus Flower, Gold Coins and The Fish – regarded as an omen of good fortune and prosperity in Chinese culture.

The Pagoda symbols will start the re-triggerable Free Spins round, with the minimum of 8 and maximum of 20 extra spins, depending on how many Pagodas triggered the bonus round. The Dragon Wild will act as a multiplier during the Free Spins bonus feature and multiply the winnings by 2, 3, 4, 5, 10 or even 15 times. In the base game, the same Red Dragon icon can complete any winning combination by replacing other icons (except for the Pagoda, which is the slot’s Scatter). The RTP for this game is on a lower side – 95.58% – but with 6 different multipliers and re-triggerable Free spins, it is definitely worth the try.

Chinese Treasure by Red Tiger

Amateur treasure hunters can celebrate the Spring Festival by playing Chinese Treasure, 5 reels and 20 fixed paylines slot by Red Tiger. The design is remarkable in this slot, and all the lower value symbols look like they are painted by hand in calligraphy style; symbols of higher value are represented by Fish, Dragons and other Chinese mythological creatures.

The Wild of the game is both the highest paying symbol and a multiplier, doubling the wins and replacing all other icons to form a winning combination. Red Envelops with Chinese letters unlock the Free Spins, which also double the wins and can be re-triggered, awarding more spins. Dragon icon can land on any spin and transform one, two or three reels into Wilds reels, thus producing Big Wins. Offering a theoretical return to player of 96.22% and a potential win of 150,000 coins, Chinese Treasure is a medium volatility slot, with a lot going for it – beautiful visual profile, re-triggerable Free Spins and x2 multipliers.