Jade Shuriken: Slot Overview

Hearthstone fans might be disappointed to learn that Jade Shuriken from Slingshot Studios isn’t connected to the famous card game at all. Instead, Jade Shuriken is an online slot tied to other titles in the Microgaming cluster of studios thanks to the Epic Strike feature previously seen in Pear Fiction Studios’ Blazing Mammoth. Alongside that, it also brings in additions like an Epic Strike Trail, Epic Strike Respins, and three free spins bonus rounds featuring win multipliers.

You may as well dust off the gi, because shurikens are those sharp throwing discs ninjas hurl at each other, and Jade Shuriken leans fully into martial artists clashing in combat. The base game shows a moody rural backdrop of cliff faces, pagodas, and a winding river (or lake?) under a thin moon in a purple night sky. Mechanically, a 5-reel, 4-row grid sits front and centre, flanked by a rising ladder of cash prizes (the Epic Strike element) and a trail of green and gold shurikens above the reels. Slingshot delivers the cartoon kung fu style well, with heroes, villains, fan-waving damsels, and bearded Wisemen appearing at key moments to give everything a graphic novel vibe.

If you’ve played Street Fighter II, you’ll likely remember E. Honda’s Hundred Hand Slap—simple to do, just hammer a punch button quickly to unleash a rapid barrage. In a way, Jade Shuriken has a similar feel. It’s a low volatile slot that dishes out a strong hit rate of 42.76% on the default 96.24% RTP version. On the 92.24% or the 94.24% version, the hit rate shifts only slightly, while volatility stays low across the board. Betting is unchanged too, running from 20 p/c to $/€80 per spin, and it’s playable on any device.

Running across the grid are 40 fixed paylines where three to five of a kind can form wins. The paytable starts with four lower-value Asian-themed symbols, returning 1-1.5x the bet for five of a kind, then moves up to the premium 7s, double 7s, and triple 7s, which pay 3.75-18.75x for five of a kind. In addition, any mixed combination of 7 symbols also pays, reaching up to 1.5x for five. Lastly, the Jade Shuriken logo acts as a wild and can land on every reel. It substitutes for any regular pay symbol or forms its own winning lines, paying up to 62.5x the bet for five of a kind.

Jade Shuriken: Slot Features

First up is the Feature Trail, which is one of Jade Shuriken’s more recent twists. The Feature Trail sits along the top of the reels and shows green shurikens or golden shurikens. With the leftmost shuriken acting as the activator, the trail moves one step to the left each spin. When a green shuriken is activated, only green shuriken symbols can land on the middle three reels of the main grid, giving players a chance to trigger the Epic Strike feature. Alternatively, when a golden shuriken is active, gold shuriken symbols can appear on the middle three reels, offering a chance to trigger Epic Strike Respins.

Epic Strike

Hitting 3 or more green shuriken symbols on reels 2, 3, or 4 awards a cash prize. When 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12 land, the payout is 1x, 3x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 30x, 100x, 250x, 1,000x, or 2,500x the bet, respectively.

Epic Strike Respins

If 3 or more golden shuriken symbols appear on reels 2, 3, or 4, they activate the Epic Strike Respins feature. The triggering symbols are held in place while all other spots on the middle three reels respin. Any additional golden shurikens that land are held as well, and another respin is granted. When no new shurikens appear, or once the middle reels are full, a prize of 1x, 3x, 5x, 10x, 15x, 30x, 100x, 250x, 1,000x, or 2,500x the bet is paid for showing 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12 symbols.

Free Spins

Landing 3 scatter symbols on the middle three reels pays 1x the bet and triggers the free spins bonus rounds. Players are then offered three options to pick from:

• Pools of Prosperity (low volatility) – 15 free spins with an x2 multiplier and at least one golden shuriken symbol on the Trail.
• Forest of Fortune (medium volatility) – 10 free spins with an x3 multiplier and at least four golden shuriken symbols on the Trail.
• Canyon of Courage (high volatility) – 6 free spins with an x5 multiplier and only golden shuriken symbols on the Trail.

The win multiplier affects line wins only, and does not apply to Epic Strike wins. Lastly, free spins are retriggerable.

Jade Shuriken: Slot Verdict

At its core, Jade Shuriken is a fairly straightforward slot built around free spins and a scatter-triggered cash prize feature. That said, Slingshot has threaded in a few fresher touches to liven things up, while keeping everything aligned with its kung fu, goodies-versus-baddies theme. It isn’t as standout or unconventional as, for example, Infectious 5, but it also doesn’t feel like Slingshot was trying to reinvent the wheel with Jade Shuriken. It comes across as more broadly targeted, and plenty of players should find it easy enough to enjoy over a few spins.

Its strengths include the comic book/anime presentation, the changing bonus round settings, and the animated-movie feel. The smaller touches are enjoyable too, such as how the premium lucky 7 symbols shift into themed scenes when they form non-mixed winning combinations. The Epic Strike mechanic (and similar ideas) is fairly common, but adding the Feature Trail and Epic Strike Respins is a nice upgrade. Jade Shuriken is a relatively light slot, though anyone wanting more intensity can push it by trying the different free spins choices. Even then, it won’t produce gigantic payouts since it tops out at 2,500x the bet, but that seems reasonable for a low volatile, high hit rate title.

After seeing some of the creative touches in Jade Shuriken, it’s hard not to think Slingshot could benefit from stepping away from the Link&Win, Power Stack, and Epic Strike streak they’ve been on. That might give their ideas more room to run. Then again, perhaps the studio does its best work within a tighter framework, like composing a haiku. Hard to tell. Either way, while there are plenty of 9 Masks of Fire-style slots out there with 2-2.5k max wins, Jade Shuriken’s polished comic-book production and the appeal of ninjas help it stand out a little more than many others in this corner of the market.