Xing Guardian Slot – New 1024 Payline Slot from Nextgen Featuring Locked Reels Free Spins.
Videoslots Casino has just added the entire back catalogue of Aristocrat slots to their casinos, players will now find classic slots such as Wheres the Gold, Lucky 88, Miss Kitty, Choy Sun Doa and many more awesome slots added to their casino, if you have yet to play Aristocrat slots online then definitely make sure to check out some of these land-based casino classics.
Along with this brilliant back catalogue of games, they have also added the brand new 1024 payline linked reels slot from Nextgen titled Xing Guardian.
Xing Guardian – Base Gameplay
The Xing Guardian slot uses a slightly larger 5×4 reel set and uses a “pay any-way” payline format giving a total of 1024 paylines, there are stacked wild symbols on all reels and some extra bonus features such as Xing Guardian Locked Reels and Rise of the Dragon Feature and of course a free spins bonus round too.
The Locked Reels feature is similar to slots such as Medusa II and Twin Spin and can activate randomly in the base game, and on every single spin during the free spins round, this will make at least 2 and up to all 5 reels locked with matching symbols on them, the good news here is that these locked reels can land 3 Scatters quite easily instantly triggering the free spins round, or re-triggering the free spins multiple times when already in the bonus round.
The Rise of the Dragon is another randomly activated feature and can turn at least 1 but several of the reels into fully wild reels, this can lead to some decent wins when the other reels have stacked wilds on them.
Xing Guardian – Screenshots
| Xing Guardian Slot - Summary | |
|---|---|
| Paylines | 1024 |
| Variance/Volatility | Medium |
| Free Spins | Yes |
| Multipliers | No |
| Re-Trigger Bonus Round | Yes |
| Special Features | Free Spins Re-Triggers Locked Reels Rise of the Dragon Feature |
| RTP (Return To Player) | 97.01% |
Xing Guardian – Free Spins Round
The main bonus round is triggered by landing 3 or more scatter on the reels, this can be done in a regular spin and during the linked reels mode and grants you with an initial 10 free spins.
During the free spins round the Locked Reels feature is active on every single spin, with a minimum of 2 locked reels and up to the maximum of 5, the stacked wilds are still present during the bonus round meaning a full screen of wilds with 1024 paylines is a rare possibility.
The most noticeable feature during the bonus round is the ease of re-triggers, with locked reels on every spin it seems to be quite easy to re-trigger the bonus round multiple times, although it’s worth noting that re-triggers only grant a further 5 spins each time.
During our playtests, our best bonus round ended with a total of 30 free spins (10 spins + 4 re-triggers).
Xing Guardian Slot
Overall Thoughts
Xing Guardian is a missed opportunity by Nextgen, the main problem with this slot is low paying paytable and the 1024 paylines, this means although the wins are very frequent they are underwhelming at best (less than 1x stake).
This is a shame since the theme, graphics and mechanics are all done very well, and the locked reels feature is definitely one we normally enjoy playing, Xing guardian may have benefited from a 243-way design.
There are of course some huge wins on offer with 5 wild reels a possibility, but the reality of most bonus rounds is much lower in the 10x to 80x range during our tests, even with multiple re-triggers.
Unfortunately, we still think Medusa II holds the crown for an exciting and rewarding linked reels slot.
