Lucky 88 is another Asian-themed pokie from Aristocrat. Yes, the provider has quite a few of them, but can you blame the designer for choosing luck-related visuals for their pokies? In Chinese legends and tradition, good fortune is extremely important. One must be in accordance with traditional ways in order to attract prosperity and good luck.

It is particularly interesting that the number 8 is considered the ultimate lucky number in Chinese mythology. In Chinese culture, 8 (八, BĀ) sounds like 發 (fa), which means “wealth” and “fortune” in Chinese. What’s better than one 8? Multiple eights!

Therefore, we have 88 which is associated to double happiness. Incorporating the number 8 in daily life is considered a sign of good luck and you will witness this in all Chinese-speaking countries. Here’s an example: the opening ceremony of the Beijing Summer Olympics began at 8:08 pm on 8/8/08. You will also see a lot of eights in mobile numbers, house numbers, car identification numbers and so on.

Now, let’s get back to Lucky 88. The pokie draws inspiration from the whole prosperity concept in Chinese culture, brining symbols such as lanterns, drums, pagodas, lion statues and birds into the mix. Lower values are attached to playing card icons and there are some special symbols to be mindful of.

A Chinese man is the Wild. He looks like the god of wealth and prosperity. Aside from its regular role as a substitute, the Wild can also add a multiplier to a winning combination. The red lantern is the Scatter, paying in any position for two or more in a single spin.

The Lucky 88 pokie is played across 5 columns with 3 rows of symbols. This configuration results in 25 paying lines, but the players are at their liberty to decrease the number of active lines.

The Max buttons make it possible to adjust settings to their highest values, whereas the Autoplay initiates a set of automatic spins, as indicated by the player.

Base game play would quickly become repetitive if there weren’t any special features to spice things up. Lucky 88 has Free Games feature which is triggered by hitting at least 3 Scatter lantern icons on the same spin. If you find yourself in such a situation, the game will ask you to make a choice. You will be offered different scrolls presenting the feature specifications. The options include:

• 20 free games with Wild-powered payouts being multiplied by 5 or 18.
• 10 free games with Wild-powered payouts being multiplied by 8 or 38.
• 3 free games with Wild-powered payouts being multiplied by 18 or 88.

The feature can be replayed after a retrigger. This, of course, is not all Lucky 88 developers have prepared and executed so masterfully. You will notice an extra feature in the lower right corner of the screen. This is an additional element, which you can activate by playing max bet on all winlines. This will also unlock the Lucky Dice feature and different free games options.

During the Lucky Dice round, the player gets to roll three times and earn prizes for the number of eights rolled. One can also score 3 more games by rolling the corresponding indicator.  The set of special features in Lucky 88 are one of the most creative we’ve seen in all Aristocrat pokies we’ve reviewed so far. The Gamble feature comes like a cherry on top of a fun cake.

Since the motif of good fortune and wealth is not uncommon among online pokies, there are quite a few similar games to Lucky 88 available at internet casinos.

However, it was our goal to present the best alternatives you can have fun with, at home or on the go, for free of for real money. Here they are below.