Dragon Egg review

Do you dare enter the lair of the elemental dragons and steal one – or three – of the golden eggs to trigger big wins in this excellent and fast Tom Horn online slots game? Beautiful graphics, a superb soundtrack, and customisation on lines and bets makes Dragon Egg an exciting and enthralling game for fans of dragons and for super-fast slots.

The basics

Provider: Tom Horn Gaming

Type: Video slots

Reels: 5

Rows: 3

Paylines: 9

RTP: 96.44%

Bet range: 0.02 to 10.0

Bonus features: Wilds, Scatters, Free Spins, Bonus Game

Volatility: High

Mobile version: Yes

Hit or miss: A bit of both

The OCR review

Gameplay

Tom Horn is one of those studios that seem to be able to create magic out of almost every theme or slot variation they put their talented hands to. Dragon Egg shows just how well this great online slots game provider can do with a relatively simple offering.

Dragon Egg is uncomplicated and doesn’t have a lot of features – but it is so well crafted that the Online Casino Review team actually forgot all about looking for more and more bonuses and got lost in the hunt for the Dragon Egg and the Free Spins. Because they are incredibly hard to land!

But it makes Dragon Egg a challenge, and we love challenges.

Dragon Egg is a very modern Asian Dragon slash Fantasy themed online slot. The dragon part is pretty obvious, but the Asian influence is actually quite hidden. The font used for the name is a hint at the Eastern origins of these scaly beasts but it’s the brilliantly well-done dragon artwork that gives the game away. These dragons all have ties to the Wuxing elements, and they are so exquisitely drawn that we were quite confused as to which was which (hint: the elements are wood, earth, fire, water, and metal). And they’re done in a modern style that has such painstaking attention to detail we could believe we were in that dragon’s cave for real.

With the ominous background of a dark and icy cave looking out over a frozen valley, and a gorgeous modern music track playing, players are immediately drawn into a tense and sombre environment where the rewards can be great but the dangers from the creatures can be fatal.

Gameplay is fast, the reels shoot down so quickly we thought they were running from bottom to top at one stage. There are only 9 paylines, so players need to get those symbols lined up perfectly. And, while landing the dragons and the Wild Dragon are great, it’s the incredibly elusive Golden Dragon Egg players will especially want.

Before getting into the spin of things though, players should be aware that Tom Horn have added quite a bit of customisability to Dragon Egg and one of these options could catch players out. While the usual auto play, bet max, and bet range are all present, there is also a ‘lines’ option where players can choose to bet on anything from 1 line to 9 lines. The bet amount choice then adds that amount to each line that is being bet on. This did catch the OCR team by surprise. We bet 1.00 thinking that was it only to find that each spin was costing us 9.00 because we had opted for 9 lines. So, keep an eye on that because automatically going for Max Bet is going to hit you for 90.00 per spin (10.00 max x 9 lines).

Bet amounts aside, Dragon Egg is great. As we mentioned, the features are a little thin on the ground with only Wilds and a Scatter that triggers a Pick Me bonus game to launch Free Spins and Multipliers. And yet, Tom Horn have designed it in such a brilliant way that we found ourselves not minding that Dragon Egg is actually really simple.

The artwork is incredible. The sound is superb. The action fast and furious. And, when we did land the eggs to trigger the little bonus game, we were PSYCHED!

Symbols

Dragon Egg has amazing artwork on the symbols. We mentioned the details, but players will need to check it out themselves to truly see what we mean. Even the low value royals have details that had us staring at them trying to decide whether they were ice or the scales of a dragon (we decided on cracked ice, by the way, but we could be wrong).

Symbols from lowest paying to highest: 9; 10, J, Q (same value); K, A (same value); Green Wood Dragon, Purple Earth Dragon (same value); Blue Water Dragon; Red Fire Dragon, Gold Metal Dragon (same value).

The Black Wild Dragon is Wild and substitutes for all symbols except Scatters. Wins with Wild as substitute pay double.

The Dragon Egg is the Scatter and triggers the bonus game and Free Spins and Multipliers.

Graphics

Dragon Egg is an absolute delight on the eyes. Tom Horn are well known for creating fun and quirky cartoon style graphics that make their games unique and interesting but here they’ve gone for an ultra-crisp and detailed artwork style – and it works beautifully!

Being able to see every fang and almost every scale on the dragons adds to the sense of danger and the thrills as players spin the reals. But even the cave background which is essentially a rocky border to the screen gives a chilling sense of fatality to the game.

It really is superb artwork and big kudos to Tom Horn.

Sound

Where most Asian dragon themed slots would have the usual pipes and string with an Eastern vibe, Tom Horn have gone for a brooding and modern soundtrack that is splendidly suited to the game.

Bonuses and extras

There is only one major feature in Dragon Egg, and it is not easy to trigger. But it is well worth it if you do, with some big wins capable from the Free Spins and accompanying Multipliers.

Wilds

The Black Dragon is the wild and substitutes for all symbols except Scatters. Wins with Wild as substitute pay double. Landing 5x Wilds will also pay out a whopping 10,000x.

Dragon Egg Bonus

The big bonus game comes from landing 3, 4, or 5 Golden Egg Scatters to trigger the Bonus Game. Players choose from a 5×3 grid of Golden Eggs to uncover 3x eggs from the same dragon. This will reveal how many Free Spins they are awarded and also what multiplier will be added to the Free Spins wins.

Players can get from 10 to 30 Free Spins with Multipliers of 3x, 4x, or 5x.

Pros and cons

Pros

Gorgeous artwork

Fantastic music

Fast and thrilling

Cons

Can be costly

Could use more bonuses

The OCR verdict

OCR very much enjoyed spinning Dragon Egg. We adore Tom Horn games and this one turned out to be surprisingly thrilling when you take into account there is only one feature.

But the artwork, the action, and the music won us over and we would certainly come back and play this again.

Highly recommended.