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Dancing Drums Link Review
invites you to an idyllic mountain village in Dancing Drums Link slot, where classic Chinese architecture is on display in the background. The game plays out on a 5x3 grid with 243 win ways, but this may change depending on your bonus round choice. With no soundtrack accompanying your spins, you may be charmed by the retro sound effects when the reels stop.
You can play with bet levels between $0.18 and $88 per spin, highlighting the game’s focus on the Asian lucky number of 88. You win by landing 3 to 5 matching symbols across at least one payline, starting from the leftmost reel towards the right. The premium symbols, consisting of dragon statues, sailboats, money trees, gold ingots, and coins, award between 1.13x and 9x your stake for 5 of a kind wins. The royal symbols pay between 0.17x and 0.22x your stake for the same.
Don’t worry, though, the paytable makes more sense when you choose a default bet like $0.88 per spin or similar. There are no base game features to speak of in the Dancing Drums Link slot, but you can land Wild symbols on the 3 middle reels. The Wild substitutes for any pay symbol to help complete wins, and other symbols to look out for are scatters and red, green, and purple bonus symbols. These are collected in the pots above the grid, which triggers the bonus round at random times.
You can trigger the bonus round via scatters as well, and either way, you can choose between 5 options of spins and grid size. When one or more pots trigger the bonus round, you get each triggering pot's special feature included in the bonus. This includes jackpots, extra spins, and multiplier wilds, and the Dancing Drums Link max win is 2,840x your stake. The RTP of 94.02 % is a bit below the industry average, and there is a Turbo Spins option that I recommend you take advantage of in this game.
Dancing Drums Link Features
Dancing Drums Link is all about triggering different bonus rounds, and you can combine 3 different features while choosing your preferred number of free spins and grid size. Let’s check it all out!
Dancing Drums Link Free Spins
There are 4 free spins bonus rounds in the Dancing Drums Link slot (in addition to combinations of 3 of them), and we’ll start with the scatter-triggered feature. You need 3 drum scatter symbols on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost reel, to trigger the Bonus Round Choice Screen, and it gives you the following options to choose from:
- 15 free spins with a 5x3 grid and 243 win ways.
- 10 free spins with a 5x4 grid and 1,024 win ways.
- 5 free spins with a 5x5 grid and 3,125 win ways.
- 3 free spins with a 5x6 grid and 7,776 win ways.
- A randomized option from the above possibilities.
Regardless of which bonus round you choose, you win +3 extra free spins when you land 2+ scatters on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost reel.
The 3 other free spins rounds are triggered randomly when one or more bonus symbols are collected in their corresponding pot above the reels, closing the pot triggering pot or pots. You can thus combine up to all 3 modifiers represented by these pots in the same bonus round. You still get to choose between the 5 options listed above.
Jackpot Free Spins Bonus
When the Jackpot Free Spins Bonus triggers, 4 different overlay symbols appear to be collected. These are collected in the corresponding jackpot meter, and you must collect 3 in the same meter to win the corresponding jackpot:
- The Grand Jackpot pays 2,840x your stake.
- The Major Jackpot pays 568x your stake.
- The Minor Jackpot pays 28x your stake.
- The Mini Jackpot pays 11x your stake.
More Free Spins Bonus
If you trigger the More Free Spins Bonus, you get upgraded options to choose from:
- 25 free spins with a 5x3 grid and 243 win ways.
- 15 free spins with a 5x4 grid and 1,024 win ways.
- 10 free spins with a 5x5 grid and 3,125 win ways.
- 5 free spins with a 5x6 grid and 7,776 win ways.
- A randomized option from the above possibilities.
Multiplier Wild Free Spins Bonus
If you trigger the Multiplier Wild Free Spins Bonus, you’ll benefit from multiplier wilds of x2 and x3, and these can appear on reels 1, 2, and 3 only. The wilds not only substitute for regular pay symbols to help complete or improve wins, but also boost the wins by their respective multiplier value.
Theme & Graphics
Dancing Drums Link is a typical Asian-themed slot, featuring intricate temple-style buildings towering above the foliage, set against the misty mountain backdrop. Cherry blossoms frame the scene, with jackpots stacked up on the right-hand side. The 3 pots of gold are prominently placed above the reels, growing in size each time they collect a bonus symbol. You’ll land classic Asian symbols on the reels, such as money trees, gold ingots, and a dragon statue. There is no soundtrack, which enhances the retro vibe of this game.
Pros and Cons of Dancing Drums Link
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Choose between 5 Free Spin options | No base game features except wilds |
| Get up to 3 special FS features | Somewhat awkward spin pace |
| Win up to 2,840x your stake |
Our Verdict
Clearly, there is a market for these kinds of old-school Asian-themed slots, but Dancing Drums Link is hardly everyone’s cup of tea. I don’t mind an exotic theme once in a while myself, but several things about this game ticked me off. First of all, I prefer slot games where you can play with nice, rounded numbers, including $1 per spin. This is not possible in Dancing Drums Link slot, but at least there is a thought behind it.
If you go with the default bet of $0.88 per spin, both the jackpots and the paytable align perfectly with round numbers. Of course, it’s a well-known fact that 88 is considered a lucky number in many Asian countries, so it makes sense to gear the game towards the preference of these markets. The spin pace is another thing that immediately stuck out like a sore thumb in my test session, but luckily the turbo option helped a bit.
Not nearly enough though, as I prefer fast-paced games or at least having the option to choose that. Without the turbo turned on, you have to wait for ages before the spin button becomes active again. Even in turbo mode, you can expect frustrating delays, especially when bonus symbols are collected in the pots. The base game doesn’t offer much either, so it would’ve been a good idea to speed things up a bit for this game.
Being able to trigger a bonus round without any of the pot features seems unnecessary in a game where you can combine 3 different bonus rounds anyway. The bonus round features are well-known, focusing on jackpots, multiplier wilds, and extra spins, but hardly revolutionary. You seldom get to combine the features, which is a general problem with this concept, and I don’t see myself returning for more Dancing Drums Link sessions anytime soon.
