Original Release: Konami, 2008
A landmark title for Konami that defined their main slot offerings for several years around the turn of 2010
China Shores (Konami, 2008)
Review by: C. M0use
China Shores was a foundational game for Konami. They had dabbled in slots and pachinko for several years before, but this release set a pattern of 3×5 style games with very similar rules, reel designs and bonus features.
The game became so popular that it’s still hanging around over 15 years later, both at online and offline casinos. The online version tends to set a fixed minimum bet (usually 30 cents USD) that covers all lines automatically, but with the live casino versions you can choose both bet amount and number of lines.
That makes it one of the last true surviving “penny slots” in casinos, in that you can bet just one cent for one center line if you really want to. If you want the minimum bet covering all possible lines, it’s 30 cents per spin. The versions that are still hanging around brick and mortar casinos will also probably include the “Xtra Boost” or “Boosted Wins & Spins” feature that Konami retroactively introduced to some of their games. This is basically a “buy better odds” feature, the one time I tried it out it asked 450 credits to change up the rules about how the symbols are evaluated for winning combinations which I guess works out in your favor? I felt like it was a lot of money for something you don’t really fully understand just sitting at the machine though.
I think most people won’t care about that feature, this one’s utility is as a “grinder” that you can sit at for a long time with very little money and maybe pack some loyalty credits away without losing too much. The main appeal is that free spins are fairly frequent, can be very numerous when they land, and can also re-trigger. I think the minimum you get is six but it’s more common to land 16 or 24, and not uncommon to get at least eight more on a re-trigger. This is offset by the fact that you don’t really see improved chances of line wins or any other bonuses added during the spins, so they could very well end up not being all that lucrative. You can also take an “instant win” alternative payout when the bonus spins pop, but I feel like that’s probably always a bad deal given the possibility of re-triggering free spins.
And that’s about all there is to it. Like many of the similar Konami slots that would follow, China Shores is simple and easy to understand, has about as low of a minimum bet as is possible, and doesn’t ask a lot of money if you just want to hang out and play for awhile … no wonder it’s hanging in there, especially with the trend of gaudier and more expensive games these days.
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