Shadow of the Panther Free Play in Demo Mode by High 5 Games

Shadow of the Panther review

Theme and Storyline

Shadow of the Panther from High 5 Games is set in a kind of South American Jungle Book. A boy, face scarred by jaguar claws, seems to have been raised among the panthers of the Amazon.

Backstory is slim. Perhaps he is a twin, appearing on some reels as a double symbol. Perhaps he is a shapeshifter.

The Shadow of the Panther won’t ever fully explain itself to the player. Perhaps to allow the player to come up with the explanation for themselves.

Graphics, Sounds and Animations

The symbols look like they were culled from the covers of 1990s fantasy paperbacks. That strange blend of spray paint and photorealism with trippy neon colouring that made the animorphs books and Star Trek Voyager DVDs so distinctive.

The rest of the slot is a bit clunky. The visuals have not aged that well and the soundtrack is dull.

The whole slot looks and feels dated, and more than a little cheesy to boot.

Gameplay

Shadow of the Panther is played on five reels with three rows and thirty win lines.

Most of the high value symbols come in a double format, which counts as two symbols towards any winning combination. This means the player can get as many as 10 symbols on a winline for the biggest wins.

Features are thin on the forest floor with one simple bonus game, no random features, and no gamble feature. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is worth taking into account if you’re a fan of more complex and varied slots.

Wilds, Bonuses and Free Spins

The Wild symbol substitutes for all symbols except the Scatter symbol.

Five or more Scatter symbols anywhere on the reels trigger the Free Spin Bonus. A double Scatter counts as two Scatters for this purpose.

Five Scatters give the player five spins, with each additional Scatter increasing the number of spins. Free Spins cannot be retriggered and use different reels.

Mystery symbols are added to the reels during free spins. Mystery symbols all transform into the same, randomised symbol at the end of each spin.

Bet Sizes, RTP and Variance

The return to player of this game is 96.0%, dead on our yardstick for average of roughly 96%.

The range of bets on the site we tested ran from a minimum bet per spin of $/£/€0.30 up to a maximum of $/£/€150.00 per spin.

The volatility of this game is medium-high, which makes it a moderately good match for our preferred slot machine strategies. Our slot strategies target the highest possible volatility.

Conclusion

Shadow of the Panther is underwhelming in almost every possible way.

The volatility is high enough to work with our strategies, but only just. The RTP is exactly in the middle of our rough estimate for average. And it has the exact minimum number of features to avoid being counted as minimalist. The visual style isn’t very good, but not so bad as to be distracting.

As a result, we can recommend this slot. But only barely.