More Oriental-themed Real Money Slots – thanks Microgaming!

As always, Microgaming is delivering new internet slots this month to all of its licensed operators. The latest addition is called Shanghai Beauty, introduced in October 2016, and the name alone tells us they’ve added yet another Oriental-themed game to the constantly growing line-up of real money slots.

I’m all for playing new titles, and always look forward to the start of each new month because I know Microgaming will deliver a few new games. But I was ultimately disappointed to see one of the most overused themes slapped atop the same old cookie-cutter slots set-up, yet again.

That’s not to say the game itself isn’t a good one, just blatantly repetitive. And of course, they didn’t get too imaginative with the symbols either, filling half the reels with generic playing card symbols of 9, 10, J, Q, K and A.

Now that I’ve gotten my rant out, let’s look a bit deeper at what else these real money slots have to offer in the way of features.

Shanghai Beauty Features

The new internet slots employ Microgaming’s typical 243 Ways to Win interfaces on a 5×3 reel set. The background music is fairly enjoyable – not too rambunctious, or slow enough to put you to sleep. It’s also multi-system compatible, so players can access the new game via desktop, mobile and tablet. It’s even available in ‘Portrait Mode‘ for smartphones (i.e. turn the phone to rotate the screen).

Shanghai Beauty follows the oriental theme well enough, filling the reels with images like the Geisha, Junk (oriental ship), Woman playing a Pipa (Chinese lute), Gold Bowls and Silver Bowls, along with Wilds (Shanghai Beauty Logo) and Scatters (Jade Box).

In the base game, things are fairly standard, except that Wilds pay 2x on all wins in which they are involved. Otherwise, because there are no actual paylines, all wins are paid as a derivative of the total bet placed, divided by all possible ways to win.

The game’s most notable feature is free spins, which are triggered by landing 3, 4 or 5 Jade Box scatters anywhere on the reels during a single play. This automatically triggers 15 free spins, regardless of the number of scatters that appeared (i.e. 4 or 5 won’t deliver more free spins). However, the player will receive Scatter pays, which do give nice payouts on their own (2 scatters = 18 credits, 3 = 45, 4 = 180, 5 = 4,500).

While the free spins are active, all winning combinations will pay at a 3x multiplier rate, based on the stake that triggered them. Free spins can also be retriggered at this time by landing 3 or more scatters during free spins.

Shanghai Beauty Slots Worth A Spin?

Shanghai Beauty Slots by Microgaming Not only did Microgaming’s latest internet slots fail to pique my interest in terms of thematic overlay, it doesn’t seem to bring anything interesting or innovative to the table either. There are no special bonus features outside of free spins, and no exceptional graphics or animations to draw players in.

If you’re a big fan of Oriental themes, you may want to give it a go, just to see if you like it better than the dozens of other similar games out there. Otherwise, give it a pass. You can find lots of more interesting real money slots at Royal Vegas, or any other Microgaming powered online casino.