Chinese New Year Slot Review

Published: 29/01/2025
Chinese New Year Slot Review

Celebrate Chinese New Year anytime with Play’n GO’s cute and cheerful slot! In our Chinese New Year review, we’ll take you through the bonus features, cash prizes, RTP, and other details you need to know before you play. You can win up to 5,000x your stake in this 5x3 slot, trigger a Free Spins round, and use the optional Gamble feature to potentially quadruple your prizes.

Rating: 8/10
Released: 29/04/2014

Chinese New Year

Game Provider
Play'n GO
Themes
Asian
RTP
96.65% (varies)
Paylines
15
Bet Amount
£0.15 to £18.75
Max Win
Up to 5,000x
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Chinese New Year RTP and Wagering

RTP and Wagering

Chinese New Year features 5 reels, 3 rows, and 1 - 15 paylines. Bets range from £0.15 to £18.75, depending on the number of paylines in play. 

Land enough matching symbols on any active payline to build a winning combination. The high and medium symbols award prizes for two or more. Low symbols, though, pay out for three or more instead. 

Chinese New Year has a 96.65% RTP, which is well above the 96% average for slot games. The volatility is in the medium range: while it can pay out less frequently than low-volatility slots on average, there’s still a solid top prize of 5,000x your stake available. Land five Wild symbols on a payline to win that.

Best Casinos to Play Chinese New Year

To help you find the best online casinos for playing Chinese New Year, here’s a list of the top UK slot sites on the UK market.

Exclusive Welcome Bonus

Spin Genie

9.3 / 10
Spin Genie Logo

New Player Offer
100% up to £100
+ 65 Spins on Book of Dead

18+. BeGambleAware.org. Automatically credited upon deposit. Cancellation can be requested. First Deposit Only. Min. deposit: £10. Max Bonus £100. WR of 30x Deposit Plus Bonus amount (Slots count 100% and any other game 10%) within 30 days. Spins Game: Book of Dead. WR 60x free spin winnings amount (only Slots count) within 30 days. Spin value: £0.10. Max bet is 10% (min £0.10) of the Bonus amount or £5 (lowest amount applies).Bonus must be claimed before using deposited funds. Bonuses do not prevent withdrawing deposit balance. First Deposit Bonus can only be claimed once every 72 hours across all Casinos. Bonus Policy applies.
Gambling Zone Exclusive

Genting Casino

9.4 / 10
Genting Casino

Get 100% up to £150
+ 50 Spins on
Big Bass Bonanza

18+. BeGambleAware.org. Automatically credited upon deposit. Cancellation can be requested. First Deposit Only. Min. deposit: £10. Max. Bonus £150. WR of 30x Deposit Plus Bonus amount (Slots count 100% and any other game 10%) within 30 days. Spin Game: Big Bass Bonanza. WR 60x spins winning amount (only slots count) within 30 days. Spin value: £0.10. Max bet is 10% (min £0.10) of the Bonus amount or £5 (lowest amount applies). Bonus must be claimed before using deposited funds. Bonuses do not prevent withdrawing deposit balance. First Deposit/Welcome Bonus can only be claimed once every 72 hours across all Casinos. Bonus Policy applies.

The Hippodrome Online Casino

8.0 / 10
The Hippodrome Online Casino logo

Up to £100 Welcome Bonus
+ 100 Free Spins

18+. GambleAware.org. New UK based customers only. You must opt in (on registration form) & deposit £20+ to qualify. Offer valid 7 days from registration. Debit card deposits only Debit Card deposit only (exclusions apply). Welcome Bonus: 100% match bonus up to £100 on 1st deposit. 50x wagering applies (as do weighting requirements). Free Spins: Awarded on Big Bass Bonanza once you have staked £20. Spin value = 10p. No wagering requirements on free spin winnings. Full Terms Apply

Chinese New Year Symbols and Audio & Video Design

Chinese New Year has a fun design, featuring the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac. Each creature is illustrated in a cute and cartoony style, from the adorable horse to the dragon with its smouldering gaze.

The game’s background scene depicts a street lined with traditional Chinese buildings. The reels are contained in a gateway with a green tiled roof and a realistic dragon statue on both sides. The Chinese-inspired music is calm and soothing for the most part, and a little triumphant tune is triggered each time you line up winning symbols. 

Chinese New Year includes 12 symbols, one for each animal of the Chinese zodiac: pig, dog, rooster, goat, horse, snake, rabbit, ox, rat, monkey, dragon, and tiger. The Tiger symbol pays the top prize: land 5 on a payline to win 5,000x your stake. 

The Tiger is also the Wild symbol. It substitutes for all symbols except the Bonus Scatter, Free Spin, and Scatter symbols to help form winning lines. The Dragon is the Bonus Scatter symbol, and the Monkey is the Free Spin symbol.

Pig

Pig

3 — 5x bet / 4 — 20x bet / 5 — 100x bet

Dog

Dog

3 — 5x bet / 4 — 20x bet / 5 — 100x bet

Rooster

Rooster

3 — 5x bet / 4 — 20x bet / 5 — 100x bet

Goat

Goat

3 — 5x bet / 4 — 30x bet / 5 — 150x bet

Horse

Horse

3 — 5x bet / 4 — 30x bet / 5 — 150x bet

Snake

Snake

2 — 2x bet / 3 — 20x bet / 4 — 100x bet / 5 — 500x bet

Rabbit

Rabbit

2 — 2x bet / 3 — 20x bet / 4 — 100x bet / 5 — 500x bet

Ox

Ox

2 — 3x bet / 3 — 30x bet / 4 — 150x bet / 5 — 750x bet

Rat

Rat 

2 — 5x bet / 3 — 50x bet / 4 — 200x bet / 5 — 1,000x bet

Chinese New Year Mobile Features

As Chinese New Year is a HTML5 slot, you can play it on most mobile devices. The game has the same fun visuals, and works in portrait and landscape mode. 

Whichever way you prefer to play, Chinese New Year will adjust to your device to provide you with a convenient user experience. The game’s layout looks a little bit different in portrait mode as less of the background is visible. However, landscape mode offers a wider view and is identical to the desktop version. 

Basegame
Bonus
Win

Chinese New Year Bonus Features

In Chinese New Year, you can trigger three different bonus features that can help you pick up more prizes. 

Bonus Game

Land Dragon Bonus Scatters on reel 3, 4, and 5 to trigger the Bous game. Launch fireworks to win prizes: each firework that you shoot successfully awards a payout, but any that explode on the ground will end the feature. 

Free Spins

Get Monkey Free Spin symbols on reel 1, 3, and 5 to trigger the Free Spins feature. The monkey will start a bonus wheel: this will spin then stop, choosing one of the animal symbols at random. This symbol will become an Extra Scatter. 

The monkey will then strike a gong to award a specific number of free spins. The Extra Scatter can land on any free spin and pay according to the paytable. You can’t retrigger the Free Spins round, sadly.  

Gamble Feature

The Gamble feature is available after each winning spin in the base game. If you choose to play it, you can double or quadruple your win by correctly guessing the colour or suit of a face-down playing card, respectively. If you get the colour or suit wrong, though, you’ll forfeit the triggering win.

Chinese New Year Final Thoughts

There are plenty of Asian-themed slots on the market, and Chinese New Year is a great addition to the set. You can win a generous top prize of 5,000x your bet, and the RTP is above average at 96.65%. Some players might find the max bet of £18.75 a bit lower than they would like, though, and most payouts tended to be tiny when I tested the game. Bigger payouts may be sporadic at best. 

The Free Spins feature incorporates an Extra Scatter symbol to help you land more winning combinations, and the festive Bonus game lets you launch fireworks for the chance of an extra payout. You can also use the Gamble feature to potentially double or quadruple your wins in the base game. 

Overall, it’s an entertaining slot with Play’n GO’s usual polish and smooth performance.

Rating: 8.0

If you like Chinese New Year, then check out these other Asian Theme slot games

Matsuri

Game Provider

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Themes

Asian

Paylines

25

Chinese New Year

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Paylines

15

Big Win Cat

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5

Chinese New Year FAQ

Here are five frequently asked questions about Chinese New Year:

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