Ninja Magic

Ninjas have been a pretty big thing in Western society for a while in terms of stories, movies, television shows, video games and other forms of media. These mysterious and dangerous fighters have really tapped into something for us that generates a lot of excitement, and Ninja Magic is Microgaming's attempt at bringing these fighters to the reels for a chance to win some pretty big pays. The graphics are strong and the music is very solid in this game, and you'll have chances to win some dangerously good prizes as well.

Game Format

Microgaming has departed from the norm in a subtle way with this game. It uses five reels, three rows and 40 paylines. What's a little odd about this is that 40-payline video slots typically have five reels and four rows, so they're already getting a little atypical. Bet sizes are pretty flexible in this game as well, and you can start with just $0.40 per spin. You have plenty of options as far as the number of coins on each payline and the size of coins to pick appropriate bet sizes per spin no matter what stakes you're comfortable with.

Ninja Free Spins

The key feature of this online slots is the free spins feature. Get three or more of the scatter symbol to trigger this feature. You'll start with one free spin and a 1x multiplier with three scatters, two free spins and a 2x multiplier with four, and three free spins with a 3x multiplier for five. From there, you have a chance to increase your number of free spins or the size of your multiplier, and it can go as high as 40 free spins with a multiplier at the incredible 8x rate. This obviously gives you chances for impressively large pays.

Top Payouts

The payouts in this game are scaled according to your bet size. We're going to assume a bet size of $1.20 for these pays. The wild symbol shows up on all five reels, and it will give you a whooping $360 for five of a kind. You can win with just two as well, which lends itself to a higher hit-rate than average, especially with so many paylines. The scatter is a cauldron, and it pays $120 for five of a kind. You can win with three or more.

The ninja in white will pay you $60 for five of a kind, and you'll also be able to pick up $45 for five of the ninja in black. The wasp with the flame gives you a win worth $30 when you get five on an activated payline, and five of the spider with the ninja star pays $22.50. Each of these symbols are paired off based on the motif of the two ninjas, and that's a cool way to incorporate a lot of symbolism into the game.

Low-End Wins

Players also get opportunities for smaller wins with the five ranking symbols. You can pick up five of the red A symbol to earn $7.50. A win of $6.00 is also available for five of the orange K, and you'll get $4.50 when you win with five of the yellow Q on an activated payline. Five of the green J on a payline gets $3.75, and a $3.00 payout is yours when you pick up five of the blue 10. These symbols are presented in a way that really matches the ninja theme, and this stylization makes them blend in really well. This is atypical compared to what many Microgaming-powered titles do when it can seem like they're just thrown in without much thought to how they fit with the rest of the game.

Our Thoughts

Ninja Magic is a game that offers up pretty decent gameplay, and the theme comes together well, but it doesn't really have much to make it stand out that much from other similar Microgaming titles. While it's still well above average for the industry as a whole, the bottom line is that this particular company has a habit of focusing on quantity over quality at times. This game is adequate as a whole, but we'd like to have seen something to make this game more different from other games that they have produced that have similar formats, features and gameplay.