Shinobi Spirit

Print Studios pulls its ninja theme, Shinobi Spirit, together across a transparent 5x4 grid framed by a tranquil rural Japanese backdrop - open grassland, a pond, and a low wooden structure completing the scene - scored by a sweeping orchestral soundtrack rather than the martial-arts stings a game like this might reach for. Twenty-six fixed lines run through the grid, the reels pay strictly left to right beginning at the first column, and there is no wild anywhere in the game to help stitch matches together.

Eight symbols make up the paytable. Four coloured sign icons - green, blue, purple and red - form the lower tier, returning 1x to 2.5x the stake for five of a kind, while a barrel, lantern, bamboo stalk and dragon sit above them, paying between 5x and 100x depending on which one lands.

Bamboo Power runs quietly through the base game: Bamboo Prize symbols can appear across the first four reels holding values up to 1,000 times the stake, and landing a Shinobi character on the fifth reel sends it slashing along that row, cashing in every Bamboo Prize it passes.

The Shinobi Bonus needs three or more scatter symbols to open, switching play to a wider 5x5 layout with at least one Shinobi character already active on it; four or five scatters also add an instant 20x or 100x stake on top of triggering. Rather than a set spin count, the round runs for as long as a Shinobi survives - each one begins with three lives, drops one per spin, and earns a life back for every Bamboo Prize it slashes, capped again at three, with each slash also doubling the value of whatever Bamboo Prize it hits.

Special symbols reshape the round further once slashed. One spreads its value across every Bamboo Prize still standing, another sends the active Shinobi cutting repeatedly toward whichever direction holds the richest combined total, a third grants it one extra slash at a right angle to its usual path, and a fourth causes every Bamboo Prize that Shinobi touches to be slashed twice for as long as it remains alive. Remaining Bamboo Prizes can also fuse together once a spin finishes, folding into one symbol carrying their combined worth; when that happens the resulting Golden Shinobi arrives with six lives instead of three and keeps spreading value to whatever Bamboo Prizes are left each time it slashes.

Players can pay 100 times the stake to jump straight into the bonus, or raise the stake by half through a Scatter Boost that puts more scatters on the reels without buying the round outright. Base betting runs from 0.10 to 20 per spin, hit frequency lands around once in every 2.89 spins, and RTP moves from 96.26% in ordinary play up to 96.67% with Scatter Boost active and 97.18% when the bonus is bought. Volatility is rated high at 4 out of 5, and the top prize available is 20,000 times the triggering stake.