If you’re a fan of NetEnt you might be familiar with the Aloha Cluster Pays mobile slot which came out in March of 2016.
It’s been surprisingly popular, and we’d be the first to admit that we didn’t see it coming. We gave the game an OK review, but nothing that predicted we’d see another one again within a year or so.
So let’s investigate this new Cluster Pays slot machine and whether it will be able to keep our attention this September.
The video of the Legend of Shangri La Cluster Pays slot
It’s a little over 3 minutes long, so if you’re busy, or at work, don’t worry. We’ll go through it below.
As you can see, it’s a beautiful casino game, with graphics that are worthy of game software NetEntertainment.
So let’s start out journey right there: the slot theme.
- Warlord
- Wild Wild West
- Joker Pro
- Hansel and Gretel
Have we had enough Shangri La slots?
You wait for a theme to come along, and suddenly you get two at once.
Like how we’ve gotten Microgaming’s EmotiCoins slot in the same months as Emoji Planet from NetEnt.
Or how NextGen released their Shangri La slot only a couple of months ago and now we are heading straight to the far east again.
But honestly, it’s hardly like it’s the same theme. Or, more to the point, it’s hardly like the themes are that specific.
“Shangri La” doesn’t actually mean anything; it’s the name of a fantasy land of peace and youth in a book by a long dead writer.
So basically, it can mean whatever you want it to mean.
The red panda monk and the evil dragon spirit
Say what you will about NetEnt, but they are rarely boring.
So when someone said ‘hey, create a far east theme’ they weren’t quite sure whether to head to India or China, so they settled somewhere in between.
You have Nirvana slot look-alike gods, but with monkeys, elephants and tigers as well as a friendly portly red panda monk and dragons.
It works, but mostly because it’s NetEnt and the beautiful graphics and animations make you forget that the theme might not quite mesh as well as it should.
We suppose it’s a little like trying to do an Irish themed game; no matter what you do, you’ll end up looking like you’ve made a copy of one of the Rainbow Riches slot machines.
Because how many different ways can you draw leprechauns, green hills and Guinness?
But will this Cluster Pays slot be exciting?
It’s hard to be excited about a game mechanic that we didn’t rate that highly to begin with.
But obviously, we are in the minority so lets look at what bonus features you’ll get in this Legend of Shangri La slot game:
- Stacked symbols: The high paying animal symbols come stacked
- Mystery symbols: the monk will randomly give you mystery symbols on the reels to provider win
- Sticky re-spins: the wheel will re-spin, keeping two sets of potentially winning cluster of symbols on screen
- Nudge reel: if two free spin symbols appear, the reels might nudge to potentially show a third free spins symbol
- Free spin bonus: random mystery symbols will be added and removed from the reels as you spin anything from 5 to 8 free spins
- Extra spin: if you get less than 10x your bet during the free spins, you’ll be awarded one extra spin
- Max win: 1,000 times your bet in a single spin
That’s a whole load of slot bonus game features.
And that’s only the beginning of your welcome package at Vera & John
Hold up: what is a slot with Cluster Pays?
This is why this Legend of Shangri La video slot shares its name with Aloha Cluster Pays.
Basically, you get a win when 9 or more symbols touch each other on screen.
So there’s no paylines in this 6 reels by 5 rows slot machine. Just lots of symbols stacked together to hopefully give you some wins.
The problem with the original is that when 9 symbols are the lowest win you can get, all you seem to get was small wins.
With this Legend of Shanri La Cluster Pays game, on the other hand, you’ve got the added advantage of those mystery symbols.
If they can make enough connections, it might be worth of our attention come the 21st of September 2017.
A long time to wait for this Legend of Shangri La Cluster Pays slot
As we write this, the summer is shining and we are a long way to thinking about snowy mountains full of dead dragon spirits.
- Microgaming’s Summertime
- Goldwyn Fairies
- Yggdrasil’s Spina Colada
- Play’n Go Matsuri
- NetEnt Fruit Shop
But August is a traditionally slow month for NetEnt, as now they’ve released their Emoji Planet game exclusively to Mr Green casino, they don’t have much more on the books.
Even their next game, the Wolf Cub slot, isn’t expected till 7th of September – and who knows if their Phantom of the Opera game will ever see the light of day?
It was canceled earlier this month and we haven’t heard a word since.
What to play until the 21st of September
So until then, we highly recommend Emoji Planet who also has similar ‘cluster pays’ mechanics.
However, if you want to go off the beaten path (or rather not play at Mr Green), then Viking Runecraft grid slot, or the new Moon Princess game, are both brilliant machines by Play’n GO.
You can find both, and many more NetEnt slots amongst 50 other software providers, at the aptly named Video Slots casino.
