White Orchid Slot Machines

There is nothing quite like cavorting in the fabulous, romantic Amazon river with your lover.  The birds are singing, the Jaguars are sleeping lazily by the riverside, and blessed whiteorchids symbolizing your eternal love blossom magically amid the trees. Of course that is pure fantasy but International Gaming Technology (IGT) has a reputation for evoking the fantastic withits game themes. What else can explain the random inclusion of big cats and little birds in a slot game?

If there is a theme to White Orchid it is about the enchanted possibilities that a romance story set in the jungles of South America might in the imagination. White Orchid features a picturesquebackdrop that might be a lovely garden view on some Brazilian plantation. It’s idyllic in a raw jungle boy and girl way.

It’s hard to summarize this game’s appeal. It appears to be directed at female slot players because men don’t normally reflect upon the beauty of flowers and butterflies, although the frogs arethe stuff of whole summer adventures for boys. White Orchid was released to land based casinos in 2007, a time when video slot games were just starting to explore the possibilities offull-featured soundtracks and interactive animations. IGT ported the game for online casinos in 2010. This article reviews the online game.

White Orchid is a 5 reel, 4 row, Multiway video slot game using up to 40 selectable pay lines. Pay line prizes are paid from left to right and are multiplied by Coin Value. Each pay line costs 1coin per spin.

Multiway prizes are only awarded when Multiway (1024 Ways to Win) mode is active and when the same symbol appears in clusters of four or five across as may reels. If the same symbol appears morethan once on any reel the Multiway prize is multiplied by the number of times the symbol appears on that reel. The Multiway mode costs 40 coins per spin in addition to the 40 coins for the activepay lines.

The White Orchid Logo is the game’s Wild symbol. It substitutes for all other symbols in the game except the Scatter symbol. The White Orchid only appears in reels 2, 3, 4, and 5.

The White Orchid Flower symbol is the Scatter symbol. When two or more of these symbols appear in any positions the Free Spins Bonus game is triggered. See below for details.

There are two sets of playing reels in White Orchid. The basic game has one set of reels and the Free Spins Bonus game has its own set of reels. The symbols described in this section are for thebasic game.

• For the Girl symbol five of a kind pays 5000 times Coin Value, four of a kind pays 800 times Coin Value, and three of a kind pays 125 times Coin Value. Her Multiway prize for five of a kindis 500 times Coin Value and her Multiway prize for four of a kind is 100 times Coin Value.
• For the Boy symbol five of a kind pays 2000 times Coin Value, four of a kind pays 500 times Coin Value, and three of a kind pays 100 times Coin Value. His Multiway prize for five of a kind is350 times Coin Value and his Multiway prize for four of a kind is 75 times Coin Value.
• For the Jaguar symbol five of a kind pays 1000 times Coin Value, four of a kind pays 400 times Coin Value, and three of a kind pays 75 times Coin Value. The Jaguar’s Multiway prize for fiveof a kind is 250 times Coin Value and its Multiway prize for four of a kind is 75 times Coin Value.
• For the Butterfly symbol five of a kind pays 500 times Coin Value, four of a kind pays 100 times Coin Value, and three of a kind pays 50 times Coin Value. The Butterfly’s Multiway prize forfive of a kind is 100 times Coin Value and its Multiway prize for four of a kind is 40 times Coin Value.
• For the Frog symbol five of a kind pays 500 times Coin Value, four of a kind pays 100 times Coin Value, and three of a kind pays 50 times Coin Value. The Frog’s Multiway prize for five of akind is 100 times Coin Value and its Multiway prize for four of a kind is 40 times Coin Value.
• For the Ace and King symbols five of a kind pays 300 times Coin Value, four of a kind pays 75 times Coin Value, and three of a kind pays 15 times Coin Value. Their Multiway prizes for five ofa kind are both 40 times Coin Value and their Multiway prizes for four of a kind are both 10 times Coin Value.
• For the Queen and Jack symbols five of a kind pays 150 times Coin Value, four of a kind pays 50 times Coin Value, and three of a kind pays 10 times Coin Value. Their Multiway prizes for fiveof a kind are both 40 times Coin Value and their Multiway prizes for four of a kind are both 10 times Coin Value.

The yellow button for the pay table help system is located in the upper right hand corner of the screen. Click on this to activate the 8 screen window for the pay tables and instructions. A blueand silver navigation widget is located at the bottom of each screen. Use the left and right arrows to move from screen to screen and click on Close when you are finished viewing the help system.

20 color coded indicators line each side of the playing reels area. These indicators serve as anchor points for highlight lines that show you which combinations of symbols are paying prizes. Thesymbols will be outlined in these colors as well as connected by lines to the indicators.

An information marquee runs along the bottom of the playing reels area. This marquee displays messages to the playing, including reports on individual line wins, Multiway wins, and the total ofall prizes awarded for any given spin. The total prize amount is displayed on the far right side of the marquee in bright white text. The line wins are displayed on the left in colored textmatching the pay colors. The Multiway prize amounts are displayed in a distinctive dark brown color.

The game control widgets are positioned across a dashboard at the bottom of the screen.

The line control widget displays how many pay lines have been selected. A light blue indicator bar shows whether the 1024 Ways mode is active. An information marquee in the middle of the widgetdisplays how many coins each spin costs at the current pay line setting. An information marquee at the top of the widget also displays the total number of active pay lines and whether 1024 Waysis active or not. Use the Minus and Plus keys to change the number of active pay lines or to disable the Multiway mode. The Plus button is disabled when Multiway is active. The Minus button isdisabled when only 1 pay line is active.

The Coin Value widget consists of a Minus button, information marquee, and Plus button. The Minus button is disabled when the widget is set to the minimum value of 1.00. The Plus button isdisabled when the Coin Value is set to the maximum value of 10.00. The marquee displays the currently selected Coin Value amount.

The round yellow Spin button initiates on paid spin. It becomes a Skip button pay line animation are playing.

The Win window displays the total amount of the prizes won on the last paid spin.

The Balance window displays your current available balance for the game.

The blue Auto Spin button activates a short menu with five options: 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50. Click on any of these options to initiate that many automatic paid spins. Click on the Auto Spin buttonagain to return to the game without starting the auto spins. Once the automatic spins begin the Auto Spin button becomes a Stop button. The game plays the automatic spins at your current betsettings. The automatic spins continue until you exit the game, you click on the Stop button, you win a bonus game, the last spin completes, or your available balance drops below the currentTotal Bet amount.

The Wrench icon activates a small dialog box where you can adjust the quality of the game’s graphics.

When two or more White Orchid Flower symbols appear anywhere on the playing reels a Free Spins bonus game begins. This game is named White Falls in the pay tables help system.

For four Scatter symbols you win 20 free spins.

Four three Scatter symbols you win 15 free spins.

For two Scatter symbols you win 10 free spins.

More free spins may be awarded during the bonus game. A maximum of 130 free spins can be awarded per bonus round.

The symbols described in this section are only for the Free Spins bonus game.

For the Girl symbol five of a kind pays 5000 times Coin Value, four of a kind pays 800 times Coin Value, three of a kind pays 125 times Coin Value, and two of a kind pays 10 times Coin Value. HerMultiway prize pays 500 times Coin Value for five of a kind and 100 times Coin Value for four of a kind.

For the Boy symbol five of a kind pays 2000 times Coin Value, four of a kind pays 500 times Coin Value, and three of a kind pays 100 times Coin Value. His Multiway prize pays 250 times Coin Valuefor five of a kind and 75 times Coin Value for four of a kind.

For the Short Beak Bird symbol five of a kind pays 1000 times Coin Value, four of a kind pays 400 times Coin Value, and three of a kind pays 75 times Coin Value. The Multiway prize for five of akind is 250 times Coin Value and for four of a kind is 75 times Coin Value.

For the Long Beak Bird symbol five of a kind pays 500 times Coin Value, four of a kind pays 100 times Coin Value, and three of a kind pays 50 times Coin Value. The Multiway prize for five of akind is 100 times Coin Value and for four of a kind is 40 times Coin Value.

For the Fish symbol five of a kind pays 500 times Coin Value, four of a kind pays 100 times Coin Value, and three of a kind pays 50 times Coin Value. The Multiway prize for five of a kind is 100times Coin Value and for four of a kind is 40 times Coin Value.

For the Ace and King symbols five of a kind pays 300 times Coin Value, four of a kind pays 75 times Coin Value, and three of a kind pays 15 times Coin Value. Their Multiway prizes for five of akind are both 40 times Coin Value and their Multiway prizes for four of a kind are both 10 times Coin Value.

For the Queen and Jack symbols five of a kind pays 150 times Coin Value, four of a kind pays 50 times Coin Value, and three of a kind pays 10 times Coin Value. Their Multiway prizes for five of akind are both 40 times Coin Value and their Multiway prizes for four of a kind are both 10 times Coin Value.

This is a confusing game. It takes a while to figure out what the whole “Multiway” thing is about.  One way to sum it up is “the casino gets more of your money”. This game is trying to befour things at once and it’s asking you to pay the bill for that burden. In other words, this is a game that works best for high rollers with big budgets. Here is why.

1. The minimum bet per line in the game version reviewed here is $1.00. If you play the full 40 pay lines you’re starting out with a $40 bet. But if you want to play for the Multiway prizes youhave to toss in another $40 per spin. That’s no way to roll up your $300 deposit.
2. The Multiway prize table takes some time to decipher. Basically you’re paying an extra 40 coins per spin to play a game without pay lines while you play a game with pay lines. Inother words, you are playing two games at one time and, frankly, the prizes for the second game don’t pay as much as the prizes for the first game even though it costs $40 to play in each game.

What the Multiway game offers, however, is the chance to double the prize any winning combination pays if the same symbol appears on one reel. We used to call that “winning two prizes of equalvalue” so why couldn’t IGT have put it that way?

3. The Multiway prizes only kick in when you get four of a kind or five of a kind. You might as well throw your money away as play this kind of a game. Admittedly there will be spins when yourscreen fills up with low value symbols. The Multiway prizes do enhance the value of those payoffs but if you’re hoping for four or five of a kind of the Girl on every other spin, keep dreaming.You’ll win more in your sleep than on a game like this.

The potential payoff is extreme, to be sure. With Multiway betting active all 20 positions on the playing reels become their own reels. What does that mean?  It implies that theprobabilities are different from when you are NOT playing in the Multiway mode. But the player really has no way of proving that the probabilities of winning back their money is improved in anyway by playing in Multiway mode.

The game’s graphics and sound effects are polished, as one would expect from an IGT game. The electronic music is soothing and even a bit mesmerizing. Many a slot player has spent hours in frontof a single IGT machine just clicking Spin, oblivious to everything around them. And that is of course why card players turn their noses up at slot game players.

White Orchid is not the kind of casual game you play for the bonus rounds

Because if you can get into a bonus round you stand to make a tidy sum ranging into the thousands of dollars, especially if you are playing the Multiway game.

The bonus game has a fully orchestrated smooth jazz soundtrack. It’s exciting, vibrant, and refreshing. If you have been playing the basic game for any length of time you almost feel like youhave emerged from the jungle at the end of a long adventure to face a beautiful landscape. The sun is setting in a glorious pastel pallet of a sky and your fortune is all but assured.  Itcould be the end of a great adventure movie as the credits roll.