Playtech has created a real beauty as far as the look and sound of Jade Emperor is concerned - enclosed within a traditional temple and set against a star-filled night sky, the reels include a quartet of lower dragon style emblems and four Chinese characters. The Jade Emperor is the top payer of these standard symbols, awarding 600 coins for a full 5 combo.
There's also a scatter, the golden dragon, which pays 5, 25 or 100 times your total stake. The best payer overall is the wild. As well as substituting for every other symbol bar the bonus and scatter, it offers payouts of a whopping 10,000 coins if you land 5 in a line.
Jade Emperor also comes with a 2-part bonus feature, the Emperor’s Treasure Bonus feature, which is triggered when you land the Bonus symbol on reels 1 and 5. You'll be taken for an audience with the Emperor himself. First pick from 1 of the 6 lanterns - this will reveal the number of free spins you've been awarded. This can be anything from 5 to 16 free spins. Then choose 1 of the 6 treasure chests which will reveal a multiplier of between 2x and 6x.
There's also a progressive jackpot element, the Wu Shi Jackpot, which is triggered at random. Once activated, spin the wheel and match three lions to be awarded one of the four jackpots on offer.
The variance in Jade Emperor is on the high side with the bonus feature the likeliest route to securing something big. We found the free spins to be a real hit and miss affair. On a number of occasions, it delivered just 10-15 times our stake. We also manage to turn a 20p bet into a payout of over £90. That's over 450 times our total stake which shows that big wins are definitely possible.
The Chinese theme is one of the most popular in the online casino world. With its quality design and potentially explosive feature round, Jade Emperor is a very welcome addition. I would also recommend you try Sun Wukong, by Playtech, which is part of the same progressive jackpot pool.