Sakura Masks

Theme and Design

A Classic Asian Slot Design For Fans of the Genre

Red Tiger are taking us back to their roots in this Asian-themed online slot game. Sakura in Japanese means cherry blossom, the flowers of the cherry tree which are known for their bright pink color and fragrance. To be honest there are not many cherry blossoms in this game, but Japanese culture is invoked with girls in traditional Japanese dress with fans, and the elaborate masks of the title. The reel set has a refined look and the backdrop is a sophisticated pattern of golds and deep reds. A vivid and attractive production then.

RTP and Variance

Like all Red Tiger slots these days, Sakura Masks has multiple RTP settings. The optimum is 95.74% which is a little under average. You want to play at this setting and not a lower one, so check the game info screen before you start to be sure you aren’t getting short-changed. Many UK slot sites opt for the lower RTPs. I recommend MrQ from Lindar Media who consistently run slots at their highest available RTP.

This is also a high variance slot so it will be volatile and a grind at times, though that is offset by a nice win potential and good gameplay that can trigger some big win sequences.

Maximum Win

The top payout here is 15,138x. Not bad for a Red Tiger game and certainly enticing enough for most players. With a minimum 10p bet that would be a £1,513.80 win. If you like high max win slots check out this article featuring some classics.

Symbols and Paytable

Sakura Masks is a simple 5-reel slot with 3 rows and 20 paylines. Wins are triggered in the usual way by landing 3 or more identical symbols along a payline from left to right, starting at the left-most reel.

There are 8 pay symbols to trigger wins with. This includes 4 low payers, the Jack, Queen, King and Ace, worth up to 2.5x for 5 Aces. The premiums are the Asian-style accessories of a bracelet, fan, hair clip and shoes. These are valued at up to 30x for 5 of the shoes.

There is a standard wild that will substitute for any pay symbol to complete a payline. Special wilds come in stacks which is explained in the next section.

Features and Gameplay

The name of the game here is getting onto the prize ladder in both base game and free spins round. But there are also re-spins and stacked wilds to help propel you towards that 15,138x max win. Here is how it all works:

Prize Ladder, Re-Spins and Multipliers

Aside from standard paytable wins, you should be looking out for the Sakura Mask symbols to land on the reels. The masks come as either regular, re-spin or multiplier. For the purposes of the prize ladder, you can land from 3 to 10 of ANY kind to win the following prizes:

• 3 masks – 1x win
• 4 masks – 5x win
• 5 masks – 15x win
• 6 masks – 40x win
• 7 masks – 100x win
• 8 masks – 500x win
• 9 masks – 2,000x win
• 10 masks – 5,000x win

The prize ladder is displayed above the reels with the current prize value lit up.

Aside from the regular masks, the two others have special attributes:

Sakura Mask Respin – this one can only land once on a spin. It triggers a re-spin where all other masks AND Sakura Wilds are held in place.

Sakura Mask Multiplier – this one can also only land once on a spin. It carries a 2x or 3x with it which will be applied to the value of any prize win from the ladder that it helps to trigger.

Sakura Stacked Wild

As well as regular wilds you should also look out for the Sakura Wilds which come as a stack of 3, only dropping on the middle reel. It’s also powerful because it counts as THREE masks towards a prize ladder pay out. When it appears, up to 7 more masks can land.

Free Spins With GUARANTEED Sakura Wild

And of course, there is a free spins round. This is triggered by landing scatter symbols on reels 1, 3 and 5. You’ll need 3 to land at once to get you 8 spins and when the round starts a Sakura Wild is locked onto the middle reel where it remains throughout. This gives you better odds of hitting the prize ladder on every spin.

NOTE: during the base game you cannot land scatters and Sakura Wilds on the same spin.

You can also extend the round by landing 2 more scatters on reels 1 and 5 at any point. That gets you an extra 5 spins.