Bruce Lee Slots

Bruce Lee is arguably the most legendary martial artist of all time. Lee lived a complex life that included everything from street fighting to making hit martial arts movies like Fist of Fury,Way of the Dragon, and Enter the Dragon.

Given that Lee’s legacy lives long after his untimely death in 1973, WMS made two online/land based slot machines about the icon, including Bruce Lee and Bruce Lee: Dragon’s Tale.

Bruce Lee is part of WMS’ Money Burst series, which include 60 pay lines in a strange 5 reel grid. You’ll notice that the first two reels are on a 2 x 2 grid, while the last three reels are on amore traditional 5 x 4 grid.

This is as ugly a reel setup as you’ll find, and it’s more for advanced players who want something different.

The reason for the strange layout is that all 60 pay lines go through the first two reels in an effort to create more volatility. If you get the right symbols in the 2 x 2 grid, you can lookforward to huge payouts when the 60 pay lines are taken into account.

Aside from the Bruce Lee theme and the odd reel setup, this game looks like most other Asian style slots. You’ll see a dragon and lantern above the 2 x 2 grid along with a dark red background.

None of this makes for a visually appealing experience, and you can tell that this is one of WMS’ older games.

Bruce Lee’s symbols and payouts are as follows:

• Bruce Lee Photo Wild

  This symbol, which features Lee with Chinese writing behind him, pays 400 credits for 5 symbols, 100 for 4, and 30 for 3. The Bruce Lee photo is also wild, substituting for everything exceptthe Feature symbol, discussed later, and sometimes expanding to fill reels 3, 4, and / or 5.

• Bruce Lee Icon

  The game icon, which features a dragon on it, pays 200 credits for 5 symbols, 100 for 4, and 30 for 3.

• Bruce Lee Kicking

  Lee was a great martial artist, so it makes sense that at least one symbol shows him in action. This kicking symbol pays 200 credits for 5 symbols, 75 for 4, and 20 for 3.

• Chinese Hat

  The hat pays 150 credits for 5 symbols, 20 credits for 4 symbols, and 10 credits for 3.

• Chinese Coins

  Coins pay 100 credits for 5 symbols, 20 credits for 4, and 10 for 3.

• Scroll, Blue Vase

  Both the scroll and blue vase pay 100 credits for 5 symbols, 20 credits for 4, and 5 for 3.

• Nun Chucks

  As he showed in the Chinese Connection by taking out an entire room full of fighters, Lee was excellent at wielding nun chucks. This weapon pays you 60 credits for 5 symbols, 10 credits for4, and 2 credits for 3.

• Throwing Stars

  Throwing stars pay 50 credits for 5 symbols, 10 credits for 4, and 2 credits for 3.

• Sai

  Although more closely associated with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Raphael, the sai makes an appearance in this game. It pays 40 credits for 5 symbols, 10 for 4, and 2 for 3.

• Knife

  The knife pays 30 credits for 5 symbols, 10 for 4, and 2 for 3.

The symbol graphics aren’t very good.

While you can tell what everything is, the low quality visuals won’t inspire you to play this game for very long.

The graphics remind us of a 1980s arcade game or, at best, a Nintendo game. If Bruce Lee’s name wasn’t in the title, this game could represent any of the countless Asian themed slots.

You also don’t see any animations when playing the main game. Instead, you only see the border flash around winning symbols with a line going through your connected pay line.

One more complaint we have here is the lack of sound effects. While you hear a pleasant jingle when spinning the reels, it’d be nice to hear Bruce yelling when the kick symbol comes up oranything similar.

Even if you’re a fan of Bruce Lee, you’ll find it hard to play this slot based on the poor graphics, and lack of animations and sound effects.

The Money Burst setup is a special feature in its own because it helps give you big wins. This is especially the case when factoring in the expanding wilds.

Here’s one example: we got a wild symbol and two golden dragons in the 2×2 grid along with expanding wilds in reels 3 and 4. On a $0.30 total bet, $0.01 per 2 lines, we won $25.88.

This isn’t a life changing jackpot, but it shows the big wins that you can get in relation to your bet.

The other feature in Bruce Lee slots is the Money Bonus, which is explained below.

When you get 3 or more Feature treasure chests anywhere on the reels, the chests light up and you’ll be taken to the Money Bonus.

This bonus gives you 5 free spins, and the background switches from red to green. One other change is that you hear authentic Chinese music playing, which sounds better than the music during themain game.

We unlocked this bonus round twice, and the first time we won $11.50 credits with no expanding wilds appearing. The second time, we got expanding wilds on all 5 spins and won $15.30 credits.

The expanding wilds differ from what you see in the main game because an entire reel is taken up by Lee doing a karate move. This is the only animation that we’ve seen in the game.

It’s nice that WMS included an animation like this during the free spins, but we think they missed an opportunity by not doing the same in the main game.

One thing that we’ll give Bruce Lee slots credit for is offering you plenty of betting controls. Pay lines are fixed at 60, but you have a lot of other options for changing your bet size.

The game starts you off with the QuickBet Panel, which involves using a sliding bar at the bottom to increase your total bet from $0.30 to $60.00.

From $0.30 to $3.00, bet sizes go up in increments of $0.30; from $3.00 to $30.00, bet sizes increase in increments of $1.50; from $30.00 to $60.00, bet sizes increase in increments of $7.50.

You can also use the Min or Max buttons on the side to quickly place a $0.30 Min or $60.00 Max wager.

If you don’t like increasing your wager in increments like this, you can click the small C Classic Panel in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. It’s annoying how small the letter isbecause some players might miss the button, but at least it’s there.

In the Classic Panel, you can switch your bet per 2 pay lines from $0.01, $0.30 total, to $2.00, $0.60. We only wagered the $0.30 minimum every time, but if we changed betting options, theClassic Panel would be preferable.

Much like Bruce Lee, the Dragon’s Tale variation features a strange reel setup called Super Multi Pay.

You’ll see one main set of 5 reels on the left hand side, and three smaller sets of 5 reels on the right hand side. When pay lines from all four sets of reels are added up, there are 80 total paylines.

The main set of reels stop spinning first, and then the other three sets of reels stop spinning. Any wild or scatter symbols from the main reels transfer over to the smaller sets.

This creates more excitement because you can pick up wins on four different sets of reels. Below you can see more on what Bruce Lee: Dragon’s Tale offers along with comparisons to the originalgame.

One area where Dragon’s Tale reigns supreme over Bruce Lee is the graphics. Bruce Lee: Dragon’s Tale isn’t stunning compared to other 5 reel slots, but it’s better than the original.

First off, the symbols are crisper, and you see a couple of real life pictures of Lee. We also like how the background is more detailed, featuring dragons and a Chinese temple.

As for symbols, you’ll see a Bruce Lee icon, two pictures of Lee, a Chinese temple, Chinese writing, nun chucks, and generic letters.

We also like the music better because it sounds more like what you’d hear in a Bruce Lee movie.

If you land 3 or more yin yang symbols on any of the four sets of reels, you get 10 free spins with a 3x multiplier.

The presentation on these free spins is nice because you see Lee kick down a wall before the screen changes. Lee is then pictured holding a staff with a green background behind him.

The free spins work just like any other game, where you can win prizes without spending your money. But we like these free spins more than the first Bruce Lee game because the introduction andmusic is more dramatic. The only thing that’s missing is the expanding wild from the original game’s free spins.

Bruce Lee: Dragon’s Tale makes you play all 80 pay lines, and your betting increments are based on your bet per two lines. You can change your bet per two lines from $0.01, $0.40 total, to $2.00,$80.00.

The only drawback is that you can’t use the QuickBet Panel to increase your increments faster. But we like being able to increase your wager by one cent better anyways.

Our biggest problem with Bruce Lee’s Money Burst feature is that the volatility is too high. Dragon’s Tale solves this problem while still making this slot unique through the Multi Way Payfeature.

You can expect wins on most spins thanks to wilds transferring over to the smaller reels. And while many of these wins don’t cover your spin cost, they at least help sustain your bankroll.

We also like the graphics in Dragon’s Tale better because the symbols are nicer, and the background is more detailed.

A couple drawbacks to Bruce Lee: Dragon’s Tale include that you don’t have as many betting options, and the games only animation happens before free spins.

The fact that casinos feature slots games revolving around Bruce Lee over four decades after his death shows the impact that he had on the film world. Beyond this, he’s credited with changing thestereotypical way that Asians were depicted in the cinema world.

Given all of Lee’s accomplishments, it’s hard to make a slot machine that lives up to his legacy.

WMS falls short in making a game that captures Lee’s greatness, but it’s not terrible when compared to the gaming industry.

The graphics are poor and we’d like to see animations beyond expanding wilds in the bonus round. Another problem is that the Money Burst feature makes the reel setup look ugly.

Positives include the big wins that you can get thanks to Money Burst, and how the free spins feature a different background and music.

If you’re looking for the best designed slots games, then you should skip over Bruce Lee.