Just as we’re now in the year 2025, the Chinese zodiac saw the dragon make way for the snake - and with it the release of Pragmatic Play’s Floating Dragon Year of the Snake slot. This update should prove familiar to fans of the Asian-themed Floating Dragon series, but does it bring anything new to the table? That’s why we’re here, so join us as we reveal all in the definitive Floating Dragon Year of the Snake slot review.
At first glance, Floating Dragon Year of the Snake doesn’t appear to stray too far from the original Floating Dragon slot, which was released back in 2021. We have a similar 5-reel, 3-row setup with a total of 10 paylines formed by landing 3 or more matching symbols on adjacent reels. That said, it does have a change of bonus feature, since instead of a Hold and Spin round we have free spins with a collect feature that’s much like that found in Pragmatic Play’s fishing-themed slots.
The RTP is set at 96.71%, although we’ve noticed that this can vary between different casinos so do check the About section before you play. The volatility, on the other hand, is reliably high, leading to some excitement once you spin the reels enough times. Wagering can start from as low as £.010 to reach to as high as £250, something that should please both casual players and the high rollers among you. Since we’re on the topic of wagering, the maximum win is capped at 5,000x the stake. If you reach this sum during the bonus feature then any remaining free spins will be forfeit as the slot game will pay out the total and return you to the regular spins.
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Pragmatic Play is well known for its clean and clear visuals, and Floating Dragon Year of the Snake certainly does not disappoint here. Sure, it’s not the most spectacular-looking slot from the developer, but it does feature a dramatically red landscape complete with swaying trees, mountains, and floating lanterns. Take a closer look at the right-hand portion of the sky and you’ll even notice a faint outline of the snake formed with the stars in the sky.
The reels making the game proper are pleasingly transparent, and hold the different symbols. Of these, 10 are the paying symbols. The golden snake, gold ingots, lantern, envelope, and coins are the high pays, while the A, K, Q, J, and 10 card royals make the low pays. The lady wild only appears during the free spins, which are triggered by landing 3 or more dragon scatters. This round adds the collect feature to the game, something we’ll detail further on in the relevant section of this review. Now let’s check how much each of the game’s paying symbols is worth:
Ten
3 - 0.2x / 4 - 1x / 5 - 5x
Jack
3 - 0.2x / 4 - 1x / 5 - 5x
Queen
3 - 0.2x / 4 - 1x / 5 - 5x
King
3 - 0.2x / 4 - 2.5x / 5 - 10x
Ace
3 - 0.2x / 4 - 2.5x / 5 - 10x
Coins
3 - 1x / 4 - 5x / 5 - 20x
Lantern
3 - 2x / 4 - 10x / 5 - 50x
Envelope
3 - 2x / 4 - 10x / 5 - 50x
Snake
2 - 0.5x / 3 - 5x / 4 - 20x / 5 - 200x
It’s the year 2025, so mobile compatibility pretty much comes as standard across all slots. Floating Dragon Year of the Snake is no exception here, as it plays perfectly on any device you throw it on. Just make sure to play it in landscape mode as the visuals lose some clarity if played in portrait mode on small displays.
Floating Dragon Year of the Snake has one bonus feature, the free spins. This is very similar to the round found in Pragmatic Play’s Big Bass series, as it includes a collect feature, a multiplier trail, and even modifiers that can randomly before the round starts. With this in mind, let’s take a closer look at this round.
Landing 3, 4, or 5 dragon scatters awards you with 10, 15, or 20 free spins. If you land 2 scatters there’s a random chance that you’ll get a series of free respins as the scatters drop by 1 position on their respective reels while the rest spin as usual. This boosts your chances of triggering the bonus round.
Before the free spins chance you can randomly get one or any of the following modifiers:
During the free spins the lady wild collects the values of any coins in view. The values of the coins can range from 2x all the way up to 5,000x the bet. In addition, any wilds landed are collected in the multiplier trail. This fills up with 4 wilds, which awards you with 10 more free spins and adds a 2x multiplier to the values of all coins collected during the retriggered feature. There are 4 levels to the multiplier trail, and once the 4th level is reached the free spins cannot be retriggered again.
If a wild hits together with no coins during the free spins then there’s a random chance you’ll get a dynamite spin that adds more coins to the reels. In the case of the reverse - coins on the reels with no wild - then a snake might pull down one of the reels to reveal a wild. A third random feature is the firecracker, which replaces all symbols except any wilds with new ones to potentially bring coins in view.
While the venerable Floating Dragon slot was in need of an update, we weren’t expecting the Year of the Snake version to essentially be a reskinned Big Bass Splash. If you enjoyed that fishing-themed slot and can appreciate an Asian reskin then sure, much power to you. Likewise you haven’t played Big Bass Splash and want to experience its gameplay. But if you’re like us, and have played more than a few slots over the years? Then this is a shockingly low effort affair from Pragmatic Play and partner studio Reel Kingdom that, as cheerful as it is, just feels a little cheap. It’s fun enough for a few spins and the 96.71% RTP is nice, but ultimately it’s nothing to write home about, not even if your family happens to be celebrating the New Year in far-off China.
Rating: 6.0
These are some questions we’ve been asked about playing Floating Dragon Year of the Snake: