Pandas are usually depicted as calm, docile and serene creatures. Picture the picturesque mountains of China, Guqin music playing peacefully, and a Panda sitting there without a care in the world.

Relax Gaming’s Panda isn’t here to sit around chewing bamboo; instead, he’s sporting a scowl and looks like he’s had enough. Thankfully, it’s only the Panda that’s not calm; everything else about it is.

Set in a thick Bamboo forest and with no hints of loud civilisation, Cranky Panda is fairly quiet and peaceful.

It’s a setup that doesn’t really give much away, but if we know Relax Gaming, then we know better than to judge it on its appearance alone.

Base Game and Features

Cranky Panda is played on a 5-reel, 4-row layout with 20 fixed paylines. Wins are awarded when 3 or more matching symbols land on consecutive reels, starting from the leftmost reel.

The paytable includes 10 regular symbols, made up of traditional card ranks (10 to A) and various Asian icons like Bonsai Trees, Koi Fish, and the Panda. Payouts range from 0.8x to 5x the stake for five-of-a-kind combinations.

Two special symbols can also appear:

Wilds: These are part of the Cranky Panda Wild Feature and substitute for all regular symbols except Scatters.
Scatters: These can land on any reel and are used to trigger the Free Spins feature.

Cranky Panda Wild Feature

Landing the Mega Cranky Panda Wild will populate from 8 to 15 frames anywhere on the reels.

If another Wild lands in a position that already has a Grid Frame, a multiplier is applied to that spot. This multiplier starts at x2 and can increase up to x5. These multipliers affect both Wild and Coin symbols.

Coin symbols can also land in the base game, each carrying a random cash value between 1x and 25x the current bet. Grid Frames remain in place until a Chau Gong symbol appears.

When it does, the Chau Gong activates all Grid Frames, turning them into either Wilds or Coins. After this activation, all marked positions are cleared and reset for the following spin.

Yin Yang Scatter Re-Spin

If 2 Scatter symbols land during the base game, a Respin Feature is triggered.

During this feature, only the reels containing the Scatters shift down by one row with each spin, while the other reels continue to spin as normal. The respins keep going until either no more space is left for the Scatters to move down, or a third Scatter drops in to trigger the bonus round.

Free Spins Booster Pot

Hitting 2 Scatters not only triggers the Respin mechanic but also unveils a Panda Coin from each. These coins are collected into a separate meter, which is the Free Spins Booster Pot, with each coin increasing the total by one.

Once 50 coins have been collected, the next time Free Spins are triggered, the bonus will begin at Level 1, starting with a x2 multiplier and 5 extra spins added to the standard total.

Free Spins

Land 3, 4 or 5 scatters to trigger 8, 10 or 15 Free Spins.

The Free spins begin at the entry level with no active multiplier, unless the booster pot is full with 50 Panda coins.

If the Free Spins Booster Pot is full when activated, the Free Spins will start at level 1 with a 2x multiplier applied to all wins from frame activations.

If a Cranky Panda Wild lands, then it will act as a Wild Symbol and leave behind its frame. Land a Mega Cranky Panda Wild will act as a Wild symbol and leave its frame in its position after the current spin is complete, and also generate between 8 and 15 other symbol positions and apply frames on those positions.

Frames that carry multipliers apply to both Wild and coin reveals, with the level multiplier added on top. Coin multipliers range between 1x and 1000x in Free Spins.

When a Chau Gong symbol lands, it activates all currently marked Grid Frame positions, turning them into either Wilds or Coins. Each Chau Gong collected is also added to a tracker, which progresses the bonus to a higher level.

Collecting 3 Chau Gong symbols upgrades the bonus to the next of four total levels:

Level 1: Awards a x2 Multiplier and +5 Free Spins
Level 2: Awards a x3 Multiplier and +5 Free Spins
Level 3: Awards a x4 Multiplier and +5 Free Spins
Level 4: Awards a x5 Multiplier and +5 Free Spins

Bonus Buy

There is an option to buy the Free Spins feature for 50x your current bet. Choosing this will guarantee that 3 Scatter symbols land on the next spin, triggering the bonus round.

Using the Bonus Buy increases the RTP slightly to 96.50%.

Our Honest Verdict

Cranky Panda proved to be alright, but just alright – not good or excellent or anything noteworthy by their standards.

This one looks to be one of their Unibet exclusives, whether it’s timed or permanent, we’re not sure, but there’s an undeniable dip in quality when it comes to exclusive games. After all, why pour your heart and soul into something with such a limited audience?

Cranky Panda has a number of great features, including frames that can reveal wilds thanks to the Cranky Reveal, which puts Wilds in framed positions. The Base Game gives you enough to keep things ticking over nicely, but the Free Spins are desperately needed after a hundred or so spins – it just feels a little boring after that.

Our limited experience with Free Spins was good; it feels like quite a reliable game, it’s not overly volatile, anything mega brash or out there, just reliable. Its 5,000x win potential might not be enough for some, seeing as 10,000x seems to be the new norm, but it’s acceptable.

Overall, we think Cranky Panda is fairly forgettable, mainly due to its limited reach of being an exclusive title. If it releases elsewhere, then it may garner some more fans, but it’ll fade fairly quickly into irrelevance, we think.

Cranky Panda is an exclusive release, so you won’t find it at every online casino. If you’re looking for where to play it, or want to explore other top games, you can check out our best online casinos list.

*The images found in this slot review are currently from Demo Play. On average, our reviews are written prior to the initial release date and before real play is available.

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