The wombat says: Let’s head East with NetEnt, to the land of the Giant Panda. Have you ever met one Wombat fans? With all that cute tumbling and clumsy tomfoolery you’d think they’d permanently been at the sauce. Well, rumour has it, they’ve actually got baijiu stuffed into those bamboo stalks. Now it all makes sense, he looks like he would enjoy a stint on the Kitchen Drama BBQ Frenzy slot doesn´t he?
But back to the game. If coming face-to-face with this legendary monochrome mammal isn’t enough for you, then get your laughing gear round this; Happy Panda slot also comes with 3 jackpots, one of which is progressive.
Yeeeeaaaaah. It’s spin time.
Look and Feel
As we’ve come to expect from NetEnt, the graphics here are excellent! The first thing you’ll notice is the slot’s seriously chilled-out vibe, set in a colourful serene jungle with verdant bamboo trees as the backdrop to your reels. Then there’s that panda – gently nibbling on a bit of boozy bamboo – the big drunk giant!
Traditional Chinese music is makes up the soundtrack to your spins with gongs, flutes and stringed instruments -giving this game a real feeling of peace and tranquility. Ommmmmmmmm.
Game Play
Happy Panda slot has 5 reels, 3 rows and 20 pay-lines. That´s nowhere near the number that you´ll see on the Lady Earth slot, for example (51 lines in case you were wondering), and that´s because this bamboo shoot eating game is pretty high variance.
Symbols-wise you’ll see the A to J playing cards done up in bamboo, as well as koi carp, exotic birds, ducks and bamboo trees. The bamboo icons are the most lucrative in the game and will pay out 80x your bet for 5 in a row. It´s all cuddlier than the Dragon Ways Multiplier slot, that´s for sure!
The Panda symbol is the wild icon here. He can appear on all 5 reels and substitute for all other symbols except for the bonus icon and the scatter. He can also land as stacked from time to time.
The pink lotus flower is the Scatter symbol, while to trigger off the Jackpot bonus round you’ll need to keep your eyes peeled for the gold panda paw coins.
Free Spins and Bonuses
Falling Wild Re-Spins
This is triggered every time a panda Wild lands on the reels. Next, you’ll be given a re-spin and the wild will move down one row until all Wild symbols reach the bottom and disappear from the reels.
Gift of Double Wilds
If a Wild icon lands behind a falling wild during the re-spins, you’ll set off this nice little number which will transform the whole reel wild. Bonza! Expect some nice chunky pays here…
Free Spins
Land 3x, 4x or 5x of the pink lotus flower and you’ll be given 5, 8 or 12 free spins respectively. During this bonus, every time a wild panda lands it will expand to cover the whole reel. Nice one! Oh, and the Falling Re-Spins feature is in play here, too.
Giant Panda Jackpot
Now, here’s where things can get a little crazy…
You can trigger off the Jackpot feature by landing 3x or more of the Panda paw print bonus coins. Next you’ll be carried along a bright blue stream where you will discover your destiny! Your Bonus panda coins will now be randomly arranged on the reels where each symbol has a value of between x10 and x200 times your stake. Depending on the number of rows you fill with the bonus symbols, you’ll win 1 of the 3 jackpots:
Minor Jackpot – 1 row of = 20x your bet
Major Jackpot – 2 rows = 100x times your bet
Mega Jackpot – This is the progressive Jackpot and you’ll need 3 full rows of bonus symbols to scoop it. FYI: it starts at £10,000. Yippppeee!
Conclusion
Let’s cut to the chase Wombat fans – with a maximum win of 80,000x your total bet on offer, Happy Panda slot is highly volatile. But with decent base game wins (thanks to the Wild features) plus that chilled-out vibe, what’s not to like about this game? And of course there’s that tipsy Panda…
NetEnt have done the business once again!
Wombat score: 5/5
This game is no longer available at Wombat Casino. Sorry about that chaps!