The Monkey King Slots
The Asian gambling market has been the home of many exotic products throughout the years, most of which never found their way into western casinos. But with The Monkey King from Chinese game designers CQ9 Gaming, you now have an exclusive chance to try one of those products right from the comfort of your home. Foreign, unusual, and mobile-optimized for playing on a smartphone and tablet, the new Monkey King video slot is something you don’t get to see every day.
This new online slot was inspired by legends of The Monkey King – one of the most popular superhero characters in the world. Unknown to many westerners, The Monkey King (or Sun Wukong) is a sky-dwelling immortal from traditional Chinese literature who is now witnessing a renewed popularity in modern pop culture. The legendary warrior takes the center stage in this original casino game which works like a hybrid between a roulette table and an online slot machine. Featuring 12 types of bets but also a bonus side-game like in many online slot machines, this is a game for anyone that wants to try something different.
At first glance, The Monkey King seems like a complicated affair, especially since it features an info sheet that’s been translated badly into English. But, on the contrary, it doesn’t take long to figure out the basics of the game and understand the potential lying in this unique casino product. To learn more about how to play this slot game but also see what kind of prizes you can expect from it, you can read our full review of The Monkey King.
See the Light!
You start playing The Monkey King by choosing the size of your coins. The game has only four available coin sizes and they start at 1 credit and continue with 10, 50, and 100 credits per coin. Once you determine what coins you want to use, you can start placing them on some of the fifteen available bets in the game. Each bet has a maximum limit of 100 credits and allows you to place multiple coins on it. The maximum you can spend in total is 1,500 credits per round (100 credits x 15 bets).
The fifteen bets are split into five groups, four of which represent the characters of the game and one represents the banker/player/tie bets like in a game of Baccarat. For each of the four characters, the game gives you three types of bets to make: red, yellow, and green. Red bets pay the highest, yellow bets pay smaller prizes, and green bets pay the lowest payouts.
The Monkey King character hides the most valuable prizes, being able to pay you anywhere from 43x your wager (red bet) to 25x (green). He is followed by the girl, the blue giant, and the bull, which can give back rewards that vary between 4x and 21x your wager. And for the banker/player bets, they pay 2.2x rewards if you manage to win either of them and 8x payouts when the draw ends in a tie.
Once you press the spin button, the game will send a “light” that travels through 26 different stops. The character symbols and their different colors are represented in 24 of these stops while two of them are there to trigger small jackpot prizes. If the spin ends with the “light” stopping on your selected character and the same color, you will win the appropriate payout. But if not, you will lose that bet. While the “lights” keep spinning, the game also spins a separate reel which determines the outcome of the banker/player/tie bet. This way, you can still win a payout for these bets even if your character loses, or win two payouts should the “light” and the special reel both land where you need them.
Another special feature you can see while playing this game is the double reel that spins on the left side of your screen. This double reel is filled with seven special symbols which represent various enemies of The Monkey King. If both of the reels stop on the same symbol during any round, the game will trigger the “battle mode” bonus feature.
The “battle mode” is similar to the usual bonus games you can find in slot machines. Once this feature starts, you will see The Monkey King and one of his enemies battle it out to trigger one or more out of a whole roster of prizes. The princess Iron-Fan, for instance, can award you three bonus payouts (1 for each available color) for one of the four main characters. The Golden-Horned King, on the other hand, can give you four green, red, or yellow payouts, one for each of the four characters. And if you happen to win a battle over the Erlang Shen, you can win yourself a full or a partial jackpot prize, depending on how much you’ve staked during your round. Many other prizes are also available and they vary according to the character that triggers the round.
Taste Before You Buy
The Monkey King isn’t a simple slot machine that you can figure out in only a few minutes. So, if you don’t have plenty of experience gambling online, we suggest that you first try our free Monkey King slot before you play for real money. The free game you can see here is a demo that you can play for as many free hours as you want, betting whatever bet size you need to test. When you feel confident that you understand how this online slot works, you can then stop playing the demo and start playing for real cash.
You can only play The Monkey King for real money through an online casino website. To do so, you will need to have a registered account with a casino operator that’s powered by CQ9 Gaming as well as some money in that casino account. If you don’t know how to recognize a safe casino operator online, before you register with any site, you should definitely check whether it is licensed and secured by an encrypted (SSL) connection. You can also check out the banking options offered by the casino as well as the limits and fees applied to deposits and withdrawals at the platform. Once you’re certain that everything is in order, you can freely register, knowing that you’re signing up with a reliable casino online.
No Others Like The Monkey King
For almost any online slot machine, there are other slots that are either a clone of the game or they are at least similar in terms of the bet limits, bonus prizes, and/or mechanics. But when it comes to The Monkey King, you’ll hardly find any other online casino game that looks like it. The only similar games you can find are other slots that were likewise inspired by the legendary hero, like the identically-named Monkey King from Gameplay Interactive or Yggdrasil Gaming’s own Monkey King slot. In either case, you won’t find any special screen format or similar betting options but just 5-reels games with fairly standard bonus rounds.
Switch Things up a Bit
In short, The Monkey King is an interesting slot/roulette hybrid that will attract fans of Asian casino games. Giving you lucrative payouts and fifteen different bets to make per each round, this casino game can provide you with more opportunities to make money than many other online slots. And if you’re lucky enough to trigger some of its bonus rounds, you’ll have a chance to reap even bigger prizes. Therefore, the biggest drawbacks of the game are the bad translations into English as well as the fact that it doesn’t have an official RTP rate, which makes its fairness a mystery.
