Panda's Coins Slot Review

Evoplay just dropped Panda's Coins, another Chinese good-fortune slot. There are a million "hold-and-win" coin games out there right now, but this one caught my eye because of a specific twist it puts on its multipliers. It's definitely an interesting game, though it can be equal parts exciting and frustrating.

Like most of these games, the base game is just the lead-up to the Bonus Game. You need six Bonus symbols to trigger it, though the game will sometimes randomly bump you up to six on a losing spin, which is a nice surprise.

If you don't want to wait, you can buy the bonus. I appreciate that the buys aren't outrageously expensive: 40x your bet for the standard bonus, or 60x for the Premium (which guarantees you start with two Wilds).

Once you're in the bonus, it's the classic setup: you get three spins that reset every time a new Bonus symbol lands, and in my round a lone Wild reset them too. The coins are worth anywhere from 1x to 12x your bet, plus MINI, MINOR and MAJOR jackpot coins.

But the real gimmick here is the Wilds. When a Wild lands, it turns that square into a multiplier (anywhere from x2 to x10). If another Wild lands on that same spot, the multiplier goes up, capping at x20. On paper, that's great. Here's the snag: that multiplier is completely useless unless a coin actually lands on that exact spot later.

I bought the 60x Premium feature to see it for myself. My two starting Wilds turned into a x10 and a x2 spot, and another Wild quickly bumped the x10 up to a x12. I was hyped. But then... nothing. That x12 spot sat completely empty for about a dozen spins while coins landed everywhere else. Right at the end, a 1x coin finally dropped into it, paying out 12x. It was a nice chunk of change, but I still only won back about half of what I paid for the feature.

There's also a Collector symbol, but I found it a bit stingy. When it lands, it scoops up the value of everything currently on the board. However, it takes a snapshot and freezes: it doesn't collect any of the new coins that land after it. You really have to hope it drops late in the round to get any real value out of it. (You can also win a 5,000x GRAND jackpot if you manage to fill all 15 spots, but I didn't get anywhere close to that).

If you play a lot of Evoplay slots, this will feel pretty familiar. It's really similar to their game 3 Flaming Clovers. Personally, I prefer the collector in Clovers because it keeps absorbing new coins until the round ends, but Panda's Coins does have a higher overall max win potential (10,000x your bet compared to 7,324x).

It also reminded me a bit of RTG's Crimson Castle, which uses almost the exact same sticky-multiplier mechanic. But Panda's Coins is definitely stricter.

Panda's Coins is a decent, fair slot. The multiplier spots add a really fun layer of suspense: you find yourself staring at the screen, begging for a coin to drop into that x20 square. But because those spots can so easily end up empty, and the collector only works once, the game can feel a bit stubborn when your luck is running cold. If you like high-volatility hold-and-wins, it's worth a few spins, just keep your expectations in check regarding those multipliers!