Gong Hei Gong Hei: Overview

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We may as well start with what’s immediately clear. Gong Hei Gong Hei is simply a reskin of the classic Eye of Horus slot, a title that first gained popularity as a land-based machine (especially in Germany) before later making its way online too. The real question is whether they’re completely the same, or if there’s any reason to pick one over the other. Let’s take a closer look.

Developed by Blueprint Gaming and released under license from Reel Time Gaming, Gong Hei Gong Hei (which means basically means happy new year in Chinese) is a 5-reel, 3-row slot played using 25 fixed paylines. As with many old-school classics, the gameplay is very straightforward and there’s essentially just one feature to look forward to: the free spins round with symbol upgrades. With medium to high variance and a respectable RTP of 96.30%, it can be played from 0.25 to €/$125 per spin on all devices

The most noticeable change compared to Eye of Horus is, of course, the theme. Rather than ancient Egypt, the setting shifts to another great civilization: ancient China. The reels sit within a temple, flanked by two guarding dragons, while the symbols mix standard J to A royals with higher-paying icons like golden coins, lanterns, porcelain vases, medallions, and pots of gold. The last of these is the top payer, awarding 28 times your stake for five of a kind. The smiling Chinese character acts as the Caishen wild, and when it lands it expands to cover the entire reel.

Gong Hei Gong Hei: Features

Gong Hei Gong Hei doesn’t exactly come packed with extras. Since there’s nothing special happening in the base game, everything revolves around the Free Spins feature. To activate it, you need to land 3 or more temple scatter symbols anywhere on the screen in the same spin, which awards 12 free spins. During the feature, every Caishen Wild that lands will upgrade the high-paying symbols in the order displayed at the top of the game screen. On top of that, landing 1, 2 or 3 Caishen Wild awards 1, 3 or 5 extra spins respectively. And that’s essentially the whole feature set.

Gong Hei Gong Hei: Verdict

Even though the help file claims the game has a max win of 10,000 times your stake, it’s difficult to imagine how that could realistically happen when a full screen of the top symbol only pays 700 times your stake. There’s no chance in hell that you will land 15 of those kinds of wins in a single free spins around. More believable outcomes are wins in the 200-500 times your stake range, with a possible ceiling of around 2,000x.

So, is there any real advantage to choosing this over Eye of Horus, or the other way around? Not really. The gameplay is the same, and so are the RTP and volatility. Ultimately, Gong Hei Gong Hei is a straightforward copy, but since it’s based on a genuine classic, it’s still well worth a spin. That goes double if you’re a fan of Merkur’s classic offering, which can be tricky to find online these days.