Wishing You Fortune Slot: Will It Be Your Lucky Day?

I have to say that I do rather like the name of this slot. It sounds unfailingly polite and good-natured, as if it actually wants you to beat it and take home a rather sizable payday. That’s great news, as with five different jackpots available, including a top jackpot of 12,500 coins, the Wishing You Fortune slot is arguably one of the most pleasant and relaxing I’ve played in many a year.

With a gentle musical accompaniment, soft sound effects, and gentle hues of red as the overriding color of the slot (in Chinese culture, red is seen as a lucky color), this Asian-themed slot packs a number of exciting bonus features into the game, including a chance to win five different-sized jackpots. Let’s now take a closer look at the basic details of this attractive-looking slot.

Overview: Wishing You Fortune

The first thing you’ll notice when you load up the Wishing You Fortune slot at Virgin Casino is that it is a 5×4 reel game. Instead of paylines there are 1,024 ways to win in play on each spin. However, to get the reels spinning costs just $0.40 coins for a minimum bet. You can increase that bet by factors of $0.40, up to a maximum bet of $50.00 per spin. This means this is a slot aimed more at your medium to lower stakes player, rather than high rollers.

Of course, the more you play for, the greater the value of the progressive jackpots. Play for the minimum bet and the prize is 12,500 coins, whereas for the top bet of $50.00 that top prize increases to a huge 156,250 coins. In addition to the standard reel set you’ll notice the playing card low and a number of Asian-themed high symbols on the reels. Above the reel is the Fortune Reel containing Fortune Wild and Festival Reel symbols. We will explore how these two sets of reels are linked in more detail in the Gameplay section.

Who will the Wishing You Fortune slot appeal to?

Without doubt, the Wishing You Fortune slot is a game that will certainly appeal to players who enjoy trying to win large jackpots. The fact that there are five jackpots to play for, including a large top prize, will certainly get this slot noticed amongst the big jackpot hunters.

In addition, the Asian theme will attract players that enjoy these games (of which there are many). What will likely draw in many more players is the different types of bonuses available in this game. This includes not just the five jackpots to be won, but the innovative Fortune Reel and the way that different multiplier bonuses are tied in to the different type of Wild symbols you can trigger in the Free Spins game.

Gameplay: Wishing You Fortune

The first thing to note is that selecting your total wager is relatively easy on a 1.024-ways-to-win game. You simply select how much you want to bet per spin using the Total Bet feature, rather than picking a coin and having to multiply that by the number of paylines. That makes budgeting far easier.

Once you start hitting the reels you’ll discover that Wishing You Fortune may sound like a rather gentle slot wanting you to win, but it plays a lot tougher. This is a medium to high variance game. Although you do win regularly, these tend to be smaller amounts of money and often don’t amount to more than a quarter to half of your total bet.

The lower value symbols are the playing card lows. An assortment of Chinese-themed symbols, such as a crane, a beautiful fish, Chinese cards, a frog and a Bonsai tree are the higher value symbols, and these have been stylishly rendered.

However, unless you hit five across the reels of these symbols, the payouts for three and four symbols are small. That means you’re reliant on some help when it comes to boosting your bankroll in the base game.

That help is available, however, in the form of some special symbols. The first of these is the Dragons head symbol. This acts as the in-game Wild. This symbol can be used to replace any high or low value symbol to create winning paylines in the game.

Bonus features

The other symbol you need to trigger to land a chance at a top prize is the Bonus symbol, represented by a Chinese dancer. If you can land these symbols adjacent to each other from the first reel on the left, then you trigger the free spins bonus round.

Here you get to select your bonus, which is either 10, 13, 15, 20, or 25 free spins with a selection of three multipliers available for each. The more spins you select, the smaller the multipliers. Conversely, the fewer spins you select the greater the potential multipliers are.

During free spins, any winning spin completed by one of the Wilds (which change color depending on the game you selected) will earn one of the three multiplier bonuses selected at random in the game.

To trigger the Festival Reel bonus you need to land the Fortune Reel trigger anywhere on reel 3. When you do this, you immediately spin the Fortune Wild reel and you can land either a Fortune Wild or Festival Wheel symbol.

Land a Fortune Wild and up to five Wild symbols will be placed on the reels to help you land a big winning payline and the feature will then end. However, if you land a Festival Wheel symbol then you launch the Festival Wheel bonus which gives you a chance at winning a jackpot prize.

In the Festival Wheel bonus you can place the Mega jackpot icon on any empty space on the reel, or click on the Place All Icons button to place the icons more quickly. Once this is completed the wheel is spun. The icon you land is the prize you win, which is one of the five jackpot bonuses available.

Special features: Wishing You Fortune

Fortune Wild & Festival Wheel bonuses

Land the Festival Reel bonus on reel three and trigger either up to five Wilds on the reels for a bigger payline win, or the Festival Reel bonus with a chance to win one of the five jackpot funds available in the slot.

Free Spins

Hit three or more of the Chinese dancer symbols on adjacent reels, starting at the leftmost reel, and you earn a chance at the free spins game. You can select from five options which combines free spins and multipliers. Fewer free spins means higher multipliers and vice versa.

Wild

The in-game Wild symbol is the Golden Chinese dragon. (Although different colored Wilds are used during the Free Spins bonus rounds, depending on the option you select.) This symbol substitutes for all high and low value symbols to help create winning paylines.

What works?

Presentation

The presentation of the Wishing You Fortune slot is absolutely first rate. The color scheme and graphics are beautifully done. The music is perfectly suited. As slots go, it’s an exciting game, but is played through in a very quiet and calming gaming environment.

Fortune Wild symbol

The Fortune Wild symbol is a great addition on reel three. It awards either additional Wilds on the reels, or a shot at one of the five jackpot prize funds in the slot.

Big jackpot prizes

The top jackpot prize for even the lowest possible wager of $0.40 of 12,500 coins. That prize increases if you increase the size of your wager up to a maximum of 156,250 coins. This means that this slot has plenty of pulling power when it comes to the jackpot sizes.

What doesn’t?

Low value base game wins

One of the biggest issues with the slot is the fact that most of the base game wins, especially using 3 or 4 symbols on a payline, only reward players with a small amount of money. The majority of wins are less than the 40 coins you wagered in the first place. So this slot has the potential to eat through a bankroll very quickly if not played at a sensible level.

Hard-to-trigger features

This is a medium to higher variance slot. As such, there are times when you can spin and spin and spin and you don’t get anywhere near triggering some of the better paying features on the slot. However, there are times when you can trigger two or more features very quickly one after the other.

Sizeable jackpot drop off

The although there are five jackpots you can chase, the drop off from the top jackpot is very severe, with the remaining four jackpots all considerably smaller and the smallest jackpot only commensurate with a medium-sized base game win and unfortunately, if you do get to play for the jackpot, it is usually the smaller jackpot you will hit.

The scores

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Graphics & soundtrack 4/5

The graphics and soundtrack of the Wishing You Fortune slot are beautifully done and immaculately presented. The only slight niggle is a lack of animation and action as you play but in terms of aesthetics, this slot hits the spot beautifully.

Originality & creativity 4/5

With the addition of another reel, a choice of free spins bonuses and the chance to play for five jackpot prizes, including a very large jackpot prize, this is a slot that has all the key features wrapped up in a 5×4 1024 payline game.

Play value 2/5

The one knock against the Wishing You Fortune slot is while it may wish you fortune, it isn’t going to give you any without putting up a fight. Low base game wins in the main make this an expensive slot to play when it runs cold.

Jackpot potential 5/5

The fact that you can win such a large jackpot when wagering small amounts and that the jackpot is scaled up when you bet larger amounts makes this a hugely appealing slot to jackpot hunters, even if hitting that big top jackpot prize is difficult to do.

Repeat play 4/5

Although this can be a rather pricy slot to play, there are so many attractive features to the game and with lots to unlock and the chance of a top jackpot prize, this is definitely a game people will want to play repeatedly.

Total score: 19/25

Wishing You Fortune can be an expensive slot to play at times but it is fair to say that the potential to win big on this slot and the amount of features you get crammed into this game make it value for money.