Member Reviews

Shangri-La is supposed to be a paradise on Earth, a happy land whose inhabitants live in harmony and practically forever. This fictional place was first mentioned by James Hilton in his novel Lost Paradise, published in 1933, but some say it originates from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and a mythical kingdom of Shambhala.

Either way, Shangri-La has proven to be inspirational for several online game developers, among which also NetEnt. Delivering the expected top quality of visuals and sounds, NetEnt has also provided several creative features to make the game both engaging and potentially highly lucrative.

Developer

Net Entertainment is such a well-known brand of the online gaming scene that explaining who they are seems superfluous, but let’s re-cap for the benefit of the newbies among us.

The company has been developing casino games for more than 20 years. While they had their ups and downs, they eventually came out on top and today have their products present at close to 200 reputable online casinos.

NetEnt’s library is as diverse as can be, featuring classic and video slots, table games, video pokers, specialties and live dealer games. It’s unlikely there’s any player in the world who hasn’t heard of the omnipresent Starburst, Gonzo’s Quest, Jack and the Beanstalk, Blood Suckers and the likes, and fans get to rejoice on monthly basis as wonderful new releases hit the market.

How To Play

The Legend of Shangri-La is another NetEnt’s cluster pays affair, familiar from their popular Aloha! and recently launched Emoji Planet. Instead of winning combinations being formed by landing identical icons on an active payline, this mechanism makes symbols cash out when they appear vertically and horizontally adjacent.

Game area featuring 6 reels and 5 rows is set in an idyllic green valley and populated by stacked cherry blossoms, butterflies and goldfish, along with high-value Guru symbols – Monkey Guru, Elephant Guru and Cat Guru, all paying out when in clusters of 9+ matching icons. With bet levels of 1 to 10 and coin values ranging from $0.01 to $2.00, players can stake as little as $0.10 and as much as $200 per spin.

Special Features

Wild icons are depicted as question marks which will transform into the highest-value neighbouring symbol. Random Substitution feature is triggered when you land at least 2 clusters consisting of 4 identical icons each. To give you the needed 9-symbol cluster win, Wild will be added adjacent to the existing cluster.

Sticky Re-Spins feature is activated by at least 2 non-winning clusters of 5+ icons, making them stationery while other reels re-spin. Each additional symbol of the same kind becomes sticky and awards a further re-spin, and this action continues until no more matching symbols land on the reels.

Free games round is triggered by 3 or more Free Spins tiles. Should only 2 appear on the reels, while another one lands outside of the visible reel area, the latter will be nudged back to activate the feature. Depending on the number of triggering icons, you’ll be granted 5, 6, 7 or 8 free games during which Wilds get added to and removed from the reels.

The first two are randomly placed before the feature starts, and after each of the spins between 2 and 6 are added and 1 to 4 removed, with the minimum of 2 always remaining. Should you happen to win less than 10x your bet while spinning for free, an additional spin is granted with no Wilds deserting the reels.

Maximum Payouts

The Legend of Shangri-La is a medium variance game with an RTP of 96.59%. Getting all reel positions to display the Cat Guru symbol will deliver a win equaling 1,000x your total stake or 10,000 coins. Making good use of Wilds during the base game and Free Spins feature is the key to scoring big in this game.

Summary

The Legend of Shangri-La is a well-balanced package, with lovely design creating the feeling of harmony and tranquility which fits the theme, and a variety of unique features making the gameplay dynamic and ensuring high win potential.

The new NetEnt slot seems to have it all and therefore stands a good chance to become as popular as its older sibling, but we’ll know for sure only once it gets released and tested by the international gamers’ community.