Slot Review: Finn And The Dragon Tales Takes Flight

Finn’s back, baby!

Sorry for the hollering, but Finn — who debuted in NetEnt’s Finn and the Swirly Spin — is back for his fourth adventure, titled Finn and the Dragon Tales.

Released in March, the game features our favorite Irish-themed, leprechaun-ish cartoon slot dude, Finn, as he tries to turn that key into the promised land.

The name “Finn” isn’t that far from “fun,” and that’s what this game is. Mostly because Finn’s gameplay is different from virtually every other game on the market.

The nitty gritty

First off, the mechanics of the game are different than most slots. The layout is a whopping 7×7, and any three items matched across or vertically pays out. From there, those symbols disappear, and new symbols come in from the back, moving all symbols forward by the number of spaces available.

If that sounds a little confusing, it’s because it’s a little confusing to explain using human words. Basically, it’s not line-by-line on the payouts; they circle around. It’s a unique spiral grid where symbols swirl inward toward the center with each spin, clearing winning clusters and triggering special features when a key reaches the middle (we’ll get to the key in a moment).

So that’s the gameplay. For basic wins, you’re hoping for the dragon, followed by the red gems, followed by the blue gems, followed by the green gems. Additionally, each time you win you will get either a wild or a wild x2 symbol as one of the replacement symbols. Win again, the process repeats.

Also, if you match five or more symbols, all of those colors on the grid will snap out of existence, replaced by a new symbols and wilds that will range from 1x, to 2x, to 5x.

But what you’re really after is trying to get the key — which starts each game in the bottom left corner, or first position — into the center of the grid. This occurs if you keep winning. And if that happens, you launch the bonus game, which can be bronze, silver, or gold, and there are free spins and treasure chests and multipliers everywhere.

Additionally, you can buy your way into potential riches at every turn. For 5x your bet, you can activate the Wild Hunt feature, which guarantees at least one payline winner. For 10x, you can guarantee a dragon on your spin. For 50x, you’re promised a pair of dragons. For 100x your wager, you can guarantee your key reaching the center and you getting either the bronze, silver, or gold feature. And for 300x your bet, you can buy yourself the gold feature.

Despite all these choices, the RTP doesn’t change by much at all. The base game features a 94.03% return, and the best return is the Wild Hunt, which brings the RTP all the way to … 94.09% at theScore’s online casino.

Let’s spin

Pretty light on the music, just some … leprechaun lite? Not sure. 

The spins are fun. Each time you hit it — from 20 cents to $20 at theScore — you watch as 49 symbols cascade into the world.

NetEnt says 26% of spins result in something, and that something — in my experience — is usually less than the cost of the spin.

But sometimes things happen, and yep, things happened to me. Got five symbols in a row, which got me all those wilds, then got seven symbols in a row, which got me more wilds, and next thing I knew Finn was unlocking the key and I was in some blue dragon area where I got eight free spins. I cannot, with any certainty, explain to you what exactly happened in there, but I do know it spun, treasure chests appeared, they contained either money or multipliers, and I ended up 82X-ing my bet, so I was pretty F’in’n happy, to coin a phrase.

The verdict

You’re playing for the bonus round. This is not news to anyone who spins slots, as that’s where the money is, but for Finn and his dragons, this seems doubly so. The vast majority of my “wins” were for less than the cost of the spin, and if you don’t unlock the bonus, this one will bleed you dry pretty quickly.

But that bonus round can make up for a lot of losing.

Bottom line? If you liked the three other Finn-themed games, you’ll love this one. If not? See you for the next Casino Reports slot review.