Pandastic Adventure

Pandastic Adventure: Slot Overview

What's up with pandas at the moment? Within a span of about 6 months or so, players have been slung options ranging from the likes of Slotmill's Cash Pandas, Pragmatic Play's Fat Panda, and Hacksaw Gaming's Eye of the Panda. Now we've got Pandastic Adventure from veteran slot maker Play'n GO. Pandastic Adventure might suit players interested in a panda slot with a strong Asian focus, more so if they're in the mood for a hold 'n win escapade. We're not talking about a monumental hold 'n win round as such, but something somewhat rudimentary, though it is capable of dropping wins of 5,000x and over.

A short but sweet intro video introduces players to Pandastic Adventure, where they are greeted by a gaming grid housed in a tiled pagoda type of building framed by bamboo, set in the midst of a base game winter (things get sunnier when free spins trigger). When you think of pandas, falling snow isn't often the first thing that springs to mind in terms of the weather. After that little jolt, the rest of Pandastic Adventure was relatively light on major creative thinking, though it doesn't look bad or sound bad for a slot wedged deep in the Asian slot category.

Clicking the plus or minus buttons on the bar below the reels is how players in Pandastic Adventure can choose a stake of 10 c to $/€100. Each spin sees 15 symbols drop onto a 5-reel, 3-row gaming board where there are 20 paylines for evaluating winning combinations. With a medium-high volatile math model in charge of this adventure, players can expect a default RTP in the region of 96.2%.

Bamboo has been used again to form Pandastic Adventure's low-pay 10-A card rank symbols. It looks like bamboo also appears on the first high pay symbol too, followed by a golden armband, a hat, and a panda. Hitting winning combinations made up of 5 low pays is worth 1.5 to 2 times the bet, rising to 5 to 30 times the stake when lines of 5 matching high pays hit. Wilds may land on all reels, substituting for every symbol except scatters, and worth 30x the bet for a five-wild winning line.

Pandastic Adventure: Slot Features

China might be a highly populous country, but Pandastic Adventure does not have a huge amount in the way of features. What it's got is Journey to the Temple Free Spins, which may lead to the Temple Treasure Bonus hold 'n win round where cash prizes and bonus prizes can be won.

Journey to the Temple Free Spins

In the base game, when 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols hit, players win 3x, 5x, or 15x the bet plus 8 free spins. Each scatter landing in this round grants +1 free spin, and when wilds land during the feature, they contribute 8x the bet to the bonus prizes. Collecting 8 wilds activates the Temple Treasure Bonus. Any excess wilds collected continue to contribute to the bonus prizes, but no further Temple Treasure Bonus is awarded.

Temple Treasure Bonus

The Temple Treasure Bonus begins with 3 respins when activated. Gold flower symbols land to award cash prizes of x2 to x10 the bet or bonus prizes. The Mini, Minor, Major, and Grand bonus prizes have starting values of 50x, 100x, 1,000x, and 5,000x the bet. When gold flowers hit, they lock in place and reset the spin count back to 3. The feature ends when no more respins remain or all positions are filled with symbols. Any increased bonus prizes are reset to the initial values when returning to the base game.

Pandastic Adventure: Slot Verdict

Not only is Pandastic Adventure evidence of a panda streak, but it's also evidence of an Asian-themed slot bender Play'n GO has been on of late, following on from games of varying entertainment value, such as Temple of Prosperity, Monkey: Battle for the Scrolls, and Legacy of Dynasties. None were particularly special, and neither, sorry to say, was Pandastic Adventure. They looked and sounded fine, in their way, but did nothing to help pull Play'n GO out of the rut it appeared to be in, churning out a lot of mediocre stuff, struggling to make much of an impact while a number of competitors passed them by.

Other than seeing panda bears in a snowy environment for a change, there really isn't much else astounding here to check out. Two possible moments of intrigue are the way the Temple Treasure Bonus is only accessible by passing through free spins and collecting enough wild symbols. Plus, the way collected wild symbols are able to improve the bonus prize values. Not to extraordinarily increased totals, but hey, the more, the merrier and all. At best, Pandastic Adventure can shoot off wins of up to 6,500x the bet, with the supposition that this would have to include the Grand prize in some way or another.

Outside those quirks, Pandastic Adventure is pretty straightforward. The base game has little besides feisty pandas, bamboo, and snow before leading into free spins when triggered, and with luck, a basic hold 'n win feature should enough wild symbols hit. Panda bear charm only goes so far, and not quite far enough to prevent Pandastic Adventure from feeling stale, like Play'n GO has barely moved on from the stuff it was making several years ago.