16 Feb

Attack of the Oriental Pokies Theme

If you visit pretty much any online casino and scroll through their extensive list of poker machines, you’re likely to find they all have one thing in common. There’s an extreme over-abundance of oriental themed pokies games in the mix. I have nothing against oriental pokies, but the sheer redundancy has become a bit overwhelming.

To make matters worse, in spite of the excessive volume that already exists, digital gaming software firms continue to put out more and more titles with Asian symbolism. Whether it’s Chinese food or Chinese dragons, Japanese holidays or mystical fantasies of the Orient, regional dice games or gorgeous geishas, these themes have been done, and redone, and overdone, more times than any of us could possibly care to count.

In the midst of all these oriental pokies, every great, great once in a while, a game will come along that actually merits citation. With that in mind, I’ve selected three of the online gambling world’s best, most entertaining oriental themed pokies.

Geisha Wonders Pokies

Geisha Wonders Oriental PokiesGeisha Wonders is a 5-reel, 30-payline poker machine released by NetEnt in 2009. Due to it’s age, the graphics – which were stunningly gorgeous back then – are no longer the main draw for players. It’s most often the graceful geishas themselves, and the fast-rising progressive jackpot, that keeps players interested.

The Buddha is the Wild, and the Geisha the Scatter, both paying rather high rewards when enough appear on the screen. The Jackpot symbol is the best of all, as 5 on a line are capable of unleashing the progressive jackpot.

As the name implies, Geisha Wonders is a part of NetEnt’s “Wonders” progressive series, meaning the jackpot is linked across all Wonders pokies titles. There are currently three of them, including Geisha Wonders, Tiki Wonders and Icy Wonders.

Huangdi – The Yellow Emperor Pokies

Huangdi The Yellow Emperor Oriental Themed PokiesMicrogaming is probably the biggest culprit in over-doing the oriental pokies theme, but I was rather impressed with their recent release of Huangdi – The Yellow Emperor. Named for one of Chinese culture’s highest mytho-historical dieties, dating back to around 2600-2500 BC, this oriental themed pokies has some amazing aesthetics.

It’s nothing too special in terms of actual game play and features, and by ‘nothing too special’, I mean it mimics plenty of Microgaming’s other releases. But for what it is, Huangdi is an interesting game with 5 reels, 25 paylines and beautiful cinematic animations. It also has multiple features, including wilds, scatters, free spins, stacked symbols and expanding wilds.

Karate Pig Pokies

Karate Pig Oriental PokiesThis one I had to throw in because it’s just so entertaining. It is exactly as the name implies – a proud pig training to be a karate master in the orient. Set in feudal Japan, the game takes a comical turn as all of the characters have anything but their game faces on. From the riant Buddha to simpering geishas, this oriental pokies brings laughter and mirth to an otherwise serious lesson in old-school kung fu.

Throughout the game, the Karate Pig shows off his many talents, but not all of them have to do with karate. As it turns out, he’s a fanciful sushi chef, dedicated philosopher, and star musician. He’s also a stackable wild working to earn all 7 colored belts, granting him a match against the mightiest tusked warrior in the land.