Fu Dao Le Pokie
Fu Dao Le is one of the most successful pokies made by Bally.
We often get the question of what Fu Dao Le means. Fu is the Chinese word for luck. You can often find this word more often in other pokies with Eastern theme. Dao has various meanings in Chinese, of which "arrived" is one. Le is an auxiliary verb. Fu Dao Le means "Happiness has arrived".
How Does Fu Dao Le Work?
Fu Dao Le has no paylines but works according to the well-known 243-ways-to-win principle. That means that a golden bowl of lucky cookies on the first, second and third reels will win a prize anyway. It does not matter where precisely these symbols are on the reels.
You wager per 40 credits. Already you get 2 credits discount if you play with the minimum bet. You then play at $ 0.38. The number 38 has a special meaning in China, namely "the road to success". And so Bally has done more of these jokes. You put € 2.38 instead of € 2.40, and the maximum bet is, of course, € 88. 8 is the supreme lucky number in China.
In terms of structure, Fu Dao Le differs in some respects from what players are used to. It's all about stacked symbols and even better: combinations of stacked symbols. The payout per combination in the basic game is meagre, but if you win, you will soon have several winning combinations at the same time. Almost everything on this pokie shines and laughs from the smiling Chinese child on a big carp to the shiny golden bowl with Chinese fortune cookies.
Features in the Basic Game
Bally has not been too frugal with adding features that should make playing on Fu Dao Le extra exciting:
Mystery Stacked Reels
The first thing to notice is the Mystery Stacked Reels. There is a kind of wooden ornament on the reels. Does it stop on your play screen? Then the decoration disappears, and a symbol appears. All decorations change to the same symbol. Fu Dao Le randomly determines which symbol that is. This exciting feature can ensure several winning combinations at the same time.
Clumped Wild
On the third reel, there is another decoration, a Chinese character that is stacked on the reels. This is an expanding Wild symbol. If you turn a part of the symbol, the symbol shoots up. Or down. In any case, it shoots in the direction required to fill the entire reel with this Expanding Wild symbol.
The symbol is wild for all regular symbols.
Jackpot Bonus Feature
If the symbol comes to such a standstill that without this "nudge" the reel is full of Expanding Wild symbols, you can trigger the Jackpot bonus game. This jackpot bonus is what we call a "pick and click" game.
There are fifteen coins ready and you turn them one by one. You do that as long as you have three identical symbols. These symbols give you a jackpot. The smallest jackpot is the Mini Jackpot (up to $ 18) and the largest jackpot is the Maxi Jackpot of up to $ 8,888.00.
Please note: this jackpot bonus feature can only be unlocked in the basic game.
Red Envelope Jackpot
There are five jackpots, and one of them is the Red Envelope jackpot. Bally has also thought about this. In China, the red envelope, also known as hóngboa in Mandarin, is the envelope where you put the money in when you go to a birthday, wedding or a maternity visit (if possible, the amount must contain 8, whereby $ 8 is of course not settled).
The Red Envelope jackpot on Fu Dao Le is a minimum of $ 7.60 and a maximum of $ 1,780. You win it if you have the two red envelopes on your play screen. These envelopes spin on the first and fifth reels. The envelope is on top of another symbol.
Free Spins Bonus Game
The spectacle does not stop with all these features. There is also a bonus game. You can unlock it by spinning three WONUS symbols which appear in the basic game on the second, third and fourth reels.
Of course, you do not get 10 free spins, but 8 free spins. Winning combinations yield twice as much because you play the bonus spins with an X2 multiplier. The winnings can be multiplied by a bigger factor, as some Wild Multiplier symbols spin during your bonus spins. These are the 2x Wild and the 3x Wild. This symbol is Wild, and if, for example, the 3x Wild symbol is part of a winning combination, the (already doubled) win is multiplied by three.
However, you must do it during these bonus spins without the Jackpot Feature, Envelope Jackpot and the Expanding Wilds. You can then unlock extra free spins during the bonus game. Every WONUS on the final reel means one extra bonus spin. WONUS only appears on the fifth reel in the bonus game.
What Do We Think of Fu Dao Le?
This pokie is fantastic. Bally has delivered a world success. Putting so many features in a slot machine is an art in itself. And despite so many features, the game does not look messy. In fact, due to the many features in the basic game, this basic game is also worthwhile. With lots of other pokies, it's often a matter of struggling through a boring basic game and hoping every spin for the bonus game. Fu Dao Le offers a lot of spectacle in the basic game. For example, there are five jackpots that you can win.
The graphics also look nice. This pokie is all cheerfulness. Even if you lost, you are almost happy.
Five stars out of five
