If there’s one thing that New Jersey’s online slots players want to have on their side when they spin the reels, it’s luck. Unfortunately, luck doesn’t grow on trees.

Hang on, wait a minute…

Lucky Tree is the latest online slot to hit the shores of the Garden State. Developed by award-winning casino software maestros Bally Technologies, based out of Nevada, this 30-payline online slot is one fresh from the experts.

Overview of the Lucky Tree online slot

Frequent visitors to live casinos in Atlantic City may recognize this game, as Bally have made it a staple of bricks-and-mortar casinos in the US and indeed the world over. Now, it has hit the virtual casino floor with New Jersey players able to spin the reels on this fantastic game.

The game, like many of the most popular online slots in the world, is Asia-themed. In fact, the Lucky Tree in question lines the reels with cherry blossoms.

In Buddhism, the cherry blossom is a symbol of graceful acceptance of destiny and karma – appropriate, for an online slot!

Where can I play this New Jersey online slot?

Any New Jersey online casino fans wishing to pluck a fruit of fortune from the Lucky Tree can do so exclusively at Golden Nugget online.

If you sign up to Golden Nugget, you’ll receive an exclusive $20 free to try out some of their hundreds of online slots and classic casino games when you use the Golden Nugget casino bonus code PLAYBONUS.

If you decide this is the New Jersey online casino for you and commit to your first deposit, they’ll match it dollar for dollar up to $1,000!

All in all, Golden Nugget is one of the best online casinos in New Jersey, with a the largest selection of games (head to any NJ online casino forum to read rave reviews from players). Of course, the selection just got huger with this new addition.

Inside Lucky Tree’s gameplay

The slot is, at first glance, a standard five-reel and 30-payline affair. As mentioned, the graphics, symbols and sounds are all very Asian; specifically, the coins and symbols evoke images of ancient China.

Alongside the usual online slots card ranking symbols you’ll find lucky cats, koi carp, elaborate dragons, golden frogs, wise tortoises and various lilies.

Of these, the dragon is the highest-scoring symbol (as befits its status as the most powerful creature in China) with 2,000x wins available for five-of-a-kind scores.

With a theoretical average Return to Player (RTP) of 96 percent, though, there are obviously many profitable symbols to hit. However, it’s outside of the base game and in the special features where you’ll find the biggest online slots wins.

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Lucky Tree slot noteworthy features

Wild Coin Mystery

This feature may be triggered after any randomly-determined spin during the base game.

Don’t worry, you’ll know when you’ve hit it: After a triggering spin, the tree shakes loose coins from its boughs. Whichever symbols these coins land on will turn into wilds and all wins will be recalculated.

If coins land on symbols that also serve another purpose (i.e. feature triggers) then these symbols will both trigger their respective feature round and also act as wilds at the same time.

Free Game Bonus

If you hit three Yin Yang symbols on the three central reels, you’ll be awarded 10 free spins.

If these symbols have been hit by coins in the Wild Coin Mystery feature, they will also act as wilds. The free spins can be re-triggered by another trio of Yin Yang symbols or Wild Yin Yang symbols.

Oh, and on top of that, the Wild Coin Mystery feature will be automatically triggered after each spin during Free Games.

Pick Bonus

The Pick Bonus is the simplest feature and is triggered by three Fortune Cat symbols appearing on reels one, three, and five. If these cat symbols have been hit by coins in the Wild Coin Mystery feature, they will also act as wilds.

Once featured, you must pick from one of three ornamental spheres. After this, you will then have a choice of between six and 15 mystery picks which will result in an instant win cash prize.

Positive aspects of Lucky Tree

The Wild Coin Mystery feature

Any feature that can be triggered at random is not to be sniffed at, and tends to score an online slot extra marks.

It’s a fantastic way to make base spins more exciting, and you get that excitement without the frustrating “almost this time” feeling you get in a lot of feature round near-misses.

Combining feature rounds

This could be another plus in the Wild Coin Mystery feature column, but we’re big fans of how that feature crosses over into other features. The cat and Yin Yang symbols both trigger their own features, but what’s great about Lucky Tree is how these scatter symbols can also be wild if the coins fall in the right places.

Graphics and symbols

It’s not the most mind-boggling set of online slots graphics we’ve ever seen, but it’s nice that Bally haven’t simply settled for styling their letters in a Chinese fashion and calling it a day.

There are a lot of different Asian symbols on the reels and it all adds nicely to the game.

Not-so-positive aspects of Lucky Tree

Music

Now, the music is pretty heavily Asia-themed as is the entire game. However, the main criticism from our perspective is a lack of dynamic shift in the soundtrack.

No matter whether you’re near a big win or just spinning a bunch of losers, the music is the same – there’s no excitement or build-up.

Animation

Like many of the simpler online slots available to play in New Jersey, Lucky Tree suffers from fairly flat animation. The game, in stasis, looks fine enough.

However, when you spin the reels, there’s not a lot going on besides the occasional symbol popping a little.

The final analysis

The graphics are great and the soundtrack is adequate, which gives Lucky Tree a pretty middle-of-the-road score here.

Lucky Tree is many things, but original it is not. The Wild Coin Mystery feature is the most original thing about the game and even that isn’t unique.