4 Seasons Slot
4 Seasons is an enchanting 5-reel, fixed 30-pay line slot from Betsoft. This February 2016 release was the first 2016 release from Betsoft, and what with it being 'that time of year', it came only as a slight surprise that Betsoft chose to theme this slot around the Chinese New Year, or more accurately, the Chinese Zodiac. This meant that Betsoft joined the club of software houses that have released Chinese New Year or Zodiac games, such as Microgaming, who released Lucky Zodiac in 2015.
All the symbols used in this game are very cute renditions of each of the twelve animals associated with the Chinese Zodiac (we won't entertain you with a full list). The graphics are something to behold all round in this game – for example each trio of symbols is associated with a specific season, and when the seasons change, so does the background scene. In winter you get snow, spring brings rain, summer is full of sun, and in autumn all the leaves on the trees turn brown. Betsoft have really gone to town on this one.
To get things moving you need to select your coin, which can be anything from 0.02 to 1.00. The thirty lines are fixed, which means you pay thirty coins for each spin. You can also select the number of coins you wish to play with on each spin from one to five. Your final bet-per-spin is your coin size mutliplied by the number of coins multiplied by thirty. When you're ready to read your horroscope, hit the spin button.
Payout & bonus rounds
4 Seasons comes complete with a unique pay table system. All winning symbols are worth the same: Three on a pay line wins you ten times your coin value, four wins you twenty times and five wins you fifty. However, a selection of symbols contain multipliers. There is a wheel to the left of the screen that shows which symbols are multipliers – the one at the top of the wheel is 10x, while the symbols one space either side of the 10x multiplier are 5x. The symbols at the three and nine o'clock positions on this wheel are 2x multipliers. Every thirty spins this wheel rotates one symbol counter-clockwise, so that every symbol has a chance to become the best paying one.
You also receive multipliers for 'block wins' – if the first two reels are identical after a spin (with the same symbol on all three rows), then your win is doubled. For three it is tripled, four is multiplied by five and all five means a ten-fold multiplier is added to your win.
The 'Golden Cat Wild' symbol substitutes for all other symbols except the scatter. If you land five wilds on a pay line you win 10,000x your line bet.
The 'Ying & Yang' symbol is a scatter symbol here and wins you free spins. If you land three anywhere on the reels you win eight free spins; four wins you a dozen and five wins you twenty. Free spins can be re-triggered.
You can gamble all wins. Click the 'double up' button for game of 'double or nothing' in which you flip a coin. You cannot double up during free spins.
This game is utterly enchanting, and a worthy addition to Betsoft's portfolio. The graphics are simply out-of-this world, and everything combines to makes this game one online slots game that's a joy to behold. The multiplier wheel is a great innovation, although it does make it hard to remember which symbols are the current big payers. The gameplay could be a little more entertaining too. This is one of the best-looking slots out there though, and is well worth a prolonged playing session.