Lucky Lion - Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Introduction

At first glance, the five reels, 40 paylines and Asian theme may make Lucky Lion seem a fairly average slot, but One Touch have filled it with sharp graphics, exciting gameplay and a host of bonus features, including ever-thrilling Cascading reels, a free spins round and a Wheel of Fortune bonus with increasing prizes.

Theme, Graphics & Soundtrack

Lions in Chinese culture aren’t quite the beasts we’d see in an African slot theme. You don’t find wild lions in this part of East Asia, but you do find what are colloquially known as lion dogs or fu/foo dogs, as seen in the 5 Lions slot. These large stone sculptures are often used to protect buildings from evil spirits or people who might wish to do harm. Imperial guardian lions are found at the doors of palaces and royal tombs. There’s also a lion dance performed at Chinese New Year where people dress as lion dogs.

Foo dogs are a Buddhist concept that have spread throughout Asia. They will often come in pairs of a male figure with a ball and female figure with her cub. In Lucky Lion, they sit alongside other traditional Chinese symbols, such as firecrackers and coins (and the slightly less common pak choi, another lucky emblem), with an equally traditional background of solid red. The reels are set in a temple that isn’t just thematically appropriate but drawn with an engaging detail made even more lively by the energetic soundtrack and the cascading reels and animated wins.

Lucky Lion RTP and Variance

You might not find an official RTP on the Lucky Lion paytable, but other casinos that host it have stated the average return at an impressive 97.01%. This is only a guideline figure - don’t forget that any average can come with some pretty wide deviations higher and lower - but there are very few slots that pass the 97% mark. 

Lucky Lion also appears to be medium variance, so there's a balance between size and frequency of wins.

How to Play Lucky Lion

These lions won’t block you from prizes. Instead, they’ll offer you a chance to win!

1. Look at the top of the screen. There are displays for Balance, Win and Bet. If you’re playing responsibly, you’ll set yourself a budget with win and loss limits, and that means you need to keep an eye on all of these figures.
2. Also at the top of the screen, this time at the right corner, is a Menu button. Here, you'll find links for the Game Rules, History, Game Settings, Language and Lobby.
3. In the Game Settings are toggles for Background music, Game sounds and left-hand mode.
4. Back on the main screen, there’s an info button to the right of the reels. This will open the paytable and a more in-depth description of the bonus features than you can find on the rules page.
5. Next to the info button is another settings button shaped like a gear. Here you have on/off buttons for Turbo mode and volume as well as another link to History.
6. Lower down the main screen but still on the right is the stack of coins that opens the bet adjustor, with all the possible stakes available to you.
7. Bet sits next to autoplay. Choose a number of spins, a loss limit and a single win limit, and then you can step away and trust your game to keep going without breaking your budget.
8. Alternatively, press the largest button of all - big, bold and red - and see the reels spin once, at which point you can decide whether or not to adjust the settings further. Either way, remember to have fun!

Bet & Win Sizes

The minimum total bet is 1.00 and the maximum is 5000.00. You get there by adjusting the bet size between 10 and 100 and the coin value between 0.10 and 5.00.

As your bet changes, so does your dynamic paytable. If you’re starting at the minimum bet, payouts are as follows for three, four and five matches of each symbol on a payline:

J, Q, K, A - 5, 15, 50

Lantern - 10, 30, 150

Firecrackers - 15, 40, 250

Lion - 25, 100, 300

Max-win 6,000x

Volatility Medium

Top RTP 97.01%

Lucky Lion Bonus Features

Cascading Wins

Cascading Wins, sometimes called an Avalanche feature in other slots, are when after a winning spin, the winning symbols all disappear. New symbols then tumble or “cascade” to fill their place, meaning another opportunity to create a winning line off of the same original spin.

Free Spins

There is a Free Spins symbol that appears on the first, second and third reels. Should it appear as part of a winning line, you’ll be awarded six free spins. During the free spins round, the higher-paying themed symbols (lantern, firecrackers, lion) will all function as Scatters. The free spins symbol will also appear on all reels during the round and can retrigger six more free spins.

Wheel Bonus

Find the Wheel Bonus symbol three or more times in a winning line, and you could trigger one spin of this Wheel of Fortune-like feature. Whether you start on level one, two or three depends on how many Wheel Bonus symbols are in your triggering combination. Spinning the Wheel will either win you an instant prize or earn you one more spin on the next level.

Lucky Lion Review

We’ve all seen the red and gold of an Asian-themed slot before, though they are not all made with such high-quality graphics and smooth gameplay. These are the things that allow Lucky Lion to stand apart, along with its rich range of bonus features and all their extra potential for wins. It should encourage you to try some other OneTouch slots.
 

Disclaimer: Lucky Lion trademark / license is owned by OneTouch. This site is not endorsed by OneTouch.