Floating Dragon New Year Festival: Slot Overview

Two developers well known for producing slots with strong Asian influences are Pragmatic Play and its partner brand Reel Kingdom. The Floating Dragon series is a clear example, having rolled out of the studios’ pipelines starting in early-mid-2021 with Floating Dragon. Since then, we’ve covered a Dragon Boat Festival Hold & Spin edition as well as a Megaways take. Now there’s another Megaways entry: Floating Dragon New Year Festival. Or, using the full official name, Floating Dragon New Year Festival Ultra Megaways Hold & Spin. It’s a mouthful, and if you enjoyed the previous Megaways instalment, the “Ultra” label might make you wonder what’s been upgraded.

Without spoiling the point too much, the most noticeable difference between the two Floating Dragon Megaways titles is largely cosmetic. Here, the base game plays out at night in a blue-glowing plaza, bordered by wonky pagodas that look like they’re leaning in to watch the action on the larger-than-usual reel set. The other fresh addition is the ante bet, but beyond that, the features and core mechanics remain largely unchanged. If you’re a fan of the FD series, the new setting should still provide a satisfying change of scenery.

One of the big strengths of Floating Dragon Megaways was its numbers, and the nice part is that they’ve carried over intact to Floating Dragon New Year Festival. That includes a default RTP of 96.7%, regardless of how players choose to approach it. There are four routes in: bet 20 c to $/€240 per spin (slightly different), switch on the ante bet, buy free spins, or buy the hold & win round. The ante bet increases the stake by 50% and provides an extra chance of getting scatters. Floating Dragon New Year Festival uses a layout of 6 main reels plus 3 extra rows of symbols above reels 2, 3, 4, and 5. These added rows randomly lock or unlock each spin, and the maximum number of ways to win is 147,456.

Winning symbols are removed via the tumble mechanic, after which new symbols drop in to fill the spaces. If the refill creates another win, the process repeats with another tumble. This continues until no further wins land. On the paytable, the lower symbols are ten through Ace, paying 1 to 1.5 times the bet for a 6 OAK hit, while the premium icons include fish money symbols, a red letter, a lantern, a little tree, and a golden frog. These picture symbols return 1.5 to 50 times the bet for 6-of-a-kind. Wilds assist by substituting for any paying symbol, though they only show up on the topmost row.

Floating Dragon New Year Festival: Slot Features

Every key feature from Floating Dragon Megaways Hold & Spin returns, including fish money symbols, mystery symbols, free spins, a hold & spin bonus, and feature buys.

Fish Money Symbol

Fish money symbols carry a random value of 2x-5,000x the bet, and they can only be won during free spins. In the base game, fish money symbols are cleared away and tumble like standard symbols, but during free spins they are not removed, instead dropping to the bottom of the screen as tumbles happen.

Mystery Symbols

Mystery symbols can appear in both the base game and free spins. In the base game, all mystery symbols transform into the same type of pay symbol. In free spins, if the lady symbol is visible and no fish money symbols are present, mystery symbols may randomly appear, then change into any other random symbol.

Free Spins

Hitting 3, 4, 5, or 6 dragon scatter symbols grants 10, 15, 20, or 25 free spins, respectively. The lady symbol shows up in free spins and collecting the value of fish money symbols whenever both are on screen together. Lady symbols are also collected whenever they land. Each time 4 ladies are collected, +10 free spins are retriggered and a multiplier is created. Multipliers are applied to the fish money symbols collected. The first collection milestone produces an x2, then an x3, then an x10 multiplier. After that, each retrigger adds +x10 to the multiplier – without limit. Multipliers remain active in the retriggered spins, which begin once the current set of free spins finishes. Occasionally, at random, if lady symbols are on the reels but no fish are present, fish may be added to the grid.

Hold & Spin

Coin money symbols can land anywhere except the topmost reel and come with values of 1 to 2,000 times the total bet. Getting at least 3 coin symbols activates the hold & spin bonus round. The feature starts with the triggering coins locked in place as all other symbols disappear. 3 respins are awarded, and any new coin symbol that lands is locked while resetting the respin count back to 3. Also watch for diamond symbols showing values of 50 to 2,000x the bet. When the round ends, all visible symbol values are paid out, and if players win less than 20x the bet, 3 additional respins are granted.

Feature Buys

Using the feature buy, players may purchase the free spins bonus for 100x the bet or the hold & spin bonus for 120x the bet.

Floating Dragon New Year Festival: Slot Verdict

The “Ultra” in Floating Dragon New Year Festival’s name is debatable, considering how closely it mirrors the previous Floating Dragon Megaways release. At times it feels less like a bold new chapter and more like pushing the same concept yet again. Or, depending on your viewpoint, it’s simply another opportunity to enjoy an Asian-themed slot. Either way, it’s hard not to notice how near-identical it is (aside from visual adjustments, a slightly altered bet range, and the ante bet) to its slightly older relative, Floating Dragon Megaways Hold & Spin. Then again, with a new title, Pragmatic Play and Reel Kingdom may be positioning Floating Dragon New Year Festival around Chinese New Year celebrations, which take place between Jan 21 and Feb 20 on the Gregorian Calendar. Cultural nod or commercial move? Up to you.

Putting the cynicism aside, Floating Dragon New Year Festival is an action-packed slot with plenty happening when it gets going. Prag and CO. threw almost everything imaginable into Floating Dragon Megaways Hold & Spin, and by extension they’ve done the same here. Even more so thanks to the ante bet, which should, with a bit of luck, help you reach the more entertaining moments more often. The win potential remains the same hefty 20,000x the bet as before, and the RTP is solid, so Floating Dragon New Year Festival should be at least as fun as the earlier game—unless you’re already feeling a bit of Floating Dragon fatigue.

That reaction would be fair, as Floating Dragon New Year Festival expands the series rather than introducing anything truly new to push it forward. It’s not a poor slot on its own merits, but it’s also one that even dedicated Asian-themed players could probably have done without.