Kathmandu POKIE

Kathmandu Pokie Review

Kathmandu is a 5×3 video pokie from Microgaming that has 9 paylines and an Asian twist. The game features a strong Oriental feel with elegant pagodas, bagged spices and big elephants as pokie symbols. Having plain design that some users would call outdated, the pokie is still lucrative for many gamblers seeking good winning opportunities as the jackpot prize here reaches an astonishing $30,000. Pokie developers have diversified the play by adding the second wild symbol that becomes especially helpful during free spins. The pokie will appeal to those gamblers who gravitate toward basic gameplay and like classic solutions without plenty of bonus options.

The game is played over 5 reels and has nine regular symbols that create winning combinations when three or more matching symbols land left to right. Ten is the only symbol that pays out for two of a kind. Low-paying symbols in Kathmandu are represented by card denominations from 10 to ace. They will often complete combinations in the pokie and pay x3 to x150 times a line bet. Other regular symbols include a map (x200), spices in bags (x250), an elephant (x400) and town scenery (x600). Since the maximum line bet stake in the pokie is $5, the top award that regular symbols are able to generate is $2400.

Bet options

The UI under the reels has three bet settings that can be changed to adjust a current bet size for each specific spin. These are the number of lines (up to 9), the number of coins per line (up to 20) and a coin value that goes in reasonable increments from $0.01 to $0.25. Therefore, the minimum and maximum stakes in Kathmandu are $0.09 and $45 per spin.

Two wild symbols

Most pokies tend to come with one wild symbol. Unlike these pokies, Kathmandu has two wilds and this makes the action more beneficial for the player. A regular wild symbol is represented by a prayer wheel. It is called regular because it appears at all stages of the game and acts as a normal substitute for other symbols. Besides, the Prayer Wheel is able to complete combinations without the help of other symbols; hitting 2 to 5 of them pays off x12 to x6000. The latter is the top jackpot prize in the pokie which equals to $30,000 if playing at the maximum bet.

A Temple is another special symbol that behaves as a non-feature symbol in base game and as a wild in free spins. When 2+ of them occur on a payline in base game, you get an award of up to x750 ($3750 at max). After free spins have been activated, the Temple becomes an extra wild that substitutes in addition to the Prayer Wheel wild symbol.

Scatter and free spins

A Bell is a scatter symbol that pays off the maximum of $4500 when five stop in any position in sight. Getting less scatters also brings an award, though lower, at x1 to x25 a total bet for two, three or four scatters. Three Bells activate 15 re-triggerable free spins with a random multiplier of x1 to x5 awarded on each spin. Recall that free spins benefit from two wild symbols that give more possibilities to complete paylines.

Gamble feature

Any win in the base game is followed by a gamble feature offered as an option. If you want to keep on spinning, ignore clicking the Gamble button. In this feature, you are to predict correctly the color or suit of a face-down card. A right guess will double or quadruple the coins won in the triggering base round.