Monkey Warrior (Pragmatic Play): Review

After putting out a handful of noteworthy releases in 2018, the output this year has felt less inspiring so far. Pragmatic Play hasn’t just slowed down; it also seems to have slipped back into familiar territory, repeating the same patterns again and again. Unsurprisingly, the newest release is another by-the-numbers Chinese themed slot, which suggests we could be looking at something fairly standard.

Inspired by the classic 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West and the myth of Sun Wukong—a monkey warrior with enormous power and magical abilities—this 5×3, 243 ways Pragmatic Play slot includes a Free Spins round where only premium symbols appear on the reels. You’ll also have the opportunity to land jackpots via a Respin feature, where cash prizes of up to 200 times your stake are available. It’s playable across all devices with stakes ranging from 25 cents and 125€ per spin.

From a presentation standpoint, Monkey Warrior does plenty right. The visuals are polished, the rich scenery looks great, and the soundtrack fits the theme as expected. Still, it’s hard to shake the feeling that everything is straightforward, expected, and lacking in surprises. That becomes more noticeable when the overall game setup doesn’t really do anything to distinguish it from other Pragmatic slots. On the reels you’ll find A, K and Q royals, alongside potion bottles, scrolls, and three characters from the story. The best-paying symbol is the holy monk, with 5 across a full payline awarding 20 times your stake. The main character, the Money Warrior, acts as the wild and replaces all regular symbols.

Monkey Warrior (Pragmatic Play): Features

Monkey Warrior is fairly straightforward, offering just two features. The first is the Money Respin feature, which activates when 6 peaches (money symbol) land at the same time (in the Sun Wukong legend, the peach trees only produce fruit once every 3000 years, and eating one grants eternal life.) Each money symbol carries either a cash value or a Mini, Minor or Grand jackpot, letting you win 30, 50, 100, or 200 times your stake respectively. You begin with 5 respins on a reel set containing only peaches and blank spaces, and whenever peaches land, they lock in place and their value is secured.

After a spin, three treasure chests may appear at random, inviting you to choose one for a chance to gain extra respins. The Money Respin feature ends either when you run out of respins or once all 15 positions are filled with peach symbols, at which point every cash value is totalled and paid as your overall prize. If you manage to fill all 15 positions, the final payout is multiplied by 2x.

On top of that, there’s a Free Spins feature, triggered by landing the bonus symbol on the three middle reels. It begins with 8 spin, can retrigger without limit, and removes all lower-value symbols entirely. The downside is that the wild symbol is also removed, which is a little disappointing.

Monkey Warrior (Pragmatic Play): Verdict

A free spins round without low-paying symbols might sound ideal initially, but with no wild symbol—and with both the money and bonus symbols still appearing to get in the way—it can still feel cramped. Even though the regular symbols can show up stacked, they don’t seem to connect that way very often. Technically, it’s possible to hit a full screen of the top symbol for an instant win of 4,860 times your stake, but the odds of pulling that off must be extremely slim. For that reason, the advertised maximum win of 6000 times your stake feels a bit optimistic, so it’s not something to count on.

Monkey Warrior is a competent, well-produced medium variance slot with respectable upside. That said, it would be great to see Pragmatic step outside its comfort zone and deliver something less expected, because the formula is starting to feel overly familiar and even repetitive. And while it may be unfair to demand deep storytelling from a slot (it’s a virtual gambling machine, not a video game), for a game rooted in a tale known for spiritual insight and enlightenment, Pragmatic Play’s take ends up feeling surprisingly hollow.