Pong Pong Mahjong 2 Slot Review

If you're a fan of mahjong-themed slots, Microgaming's Pong Pong Mahjong 2 (released in January 2026) will probably catch your eye. It's a solid sequel that keeps the charming tile-matching vibe of the original, though seasoned players will definitely notice some familiar mechanics borrowed from other games, as well as a slight dip in the RTP. I decided to give it a spin to see how it actually plays.

Getting into the free spins is pretty standard: landing three red scatters gets you 10 free spins, while two red scatters plus a special scatter on the fifth reel bump you up to the upgraded "Dragon" free spins. If you're in a jurisdiction that allows bonus buys, they are priced pretty reasonably at 40x and 100x your stake.

When you buy the bonus, a wheel spins first to pick your modifier for the round, and a natural trigger takes it from whichever side panel was lit on that spin. You can get extra wilds, instant coin conversions, multipliers, or sticky respins. I actually really like this feature, as whatever you land stays active for the whole bonus.

Once you're in the free spins, the pacing picks up. The side panel reveals its modifier tiles right away on every spin, rather than making you wait for a winning cascade. There's also a multiplier trail above the reels that climbs from 2x up to 10x as you hit consecutive cascades. The downside is that the multiplier resets back to 2x on every new spin. You really need a long chain reaction to hit those bigger numbers. Scatters are also removed during the bonus, replaced by a dice symbol that can randomly add between one and six extra spins.

The main draw of the 100x Dragon mode is that it completely removes the five lowest-paying suit tiles, leaving only the premium winds and dragons on the board. It sounds great on paper, but I wanted to test both options.

First, I bought the standard 40x round and the wheel gave me the wild modifier. It actually played out beautifully. The modifier triggered on about half of my spins, tossing wilds all over the board. I got a few extra spins from the dice, and one lucky cascade pushed my multiplier to 4x, completing a nice combo that paid 32x on its own. I ended up walking away with about 1.3x my buy-in, which is a solid result for a standard bonus.

Next, I bought the 100x Dragon round and landed the multiplier modifier. Even though the cheap tiles were gone, the modifier just didn't connect well without wilds to link the premium symbols together. My trail never broke past 6x, and the round only paid back about a third of what it cost. It was a good reminder of how volatile slots can be: a board full of premium symbols can't always save a weak modifier. In my two rounds, what I landed on the pre-bonus wheel mattered far more to the payout than the price I paid for the feature.

So, how does it stack up? If you loved the original Pong Pong Mahjong, you might be slightly disappointed to see the RTP drop from a very generous 96.94% to 96.19%. That said, 96.19% is still perfectly respectable for a modern slot, so it's not a dealbreaker by any means.

Mechanically, it's hard not to compare it to Pragmatic Play's Mahjong Wins Triple Pot. They use an almost identical multiplier trail, though Pragmatic's version boasts a massive 100,000x max win compared to the 7,000x top win listed here.

Within Microgaming's own lineup, the 40x bonus buy matches their Mahjong Wilds Link & Merge, though that game uses a grid layout and a hold-and-win feature. Ultimately, Pong Pong Mahjong 2 is a fun, good-looking game, but the hard reset on the multiplier keeps the payouts strictly in check. The studio's Merlin's Secret Maxways is the one with a free-spins multiplier that carries over between spins and keeps building.