How to win at Moon Princess

Moon Princess from the Swedish developer Play'n GO was based on the manga animation of the same name. It is a full-fledged anime-fest filled with pastel colors and cute touches. You won't find Princess Serenity or Sailor Senshi here, but players will be entertained by three long-legged doe-eyed beauties, each with her own special abilities. Get ready for plenty of female power and surprisingly manic, though confusing, gameplay.

Fans of Japanese cartoons will feel right at home with Moon Princess. Simple visuals are accompanied by counters, collection boxes and multipliers that make more sense if you've seen them in action a few times. On the right side of the screen are Princess Love, Star, and Storm, who cheer players on as they spin. The game grid consists of a 5×5 grid, which is filled with 25 symbols with each new spin.

When three or more matching symbols appear (horizontally or vertically), they explode and collect in the field to the left. The remaining symbols fall into gaps to potentially form new winning combinations. Helping this process, the middle position of a three symbol combination stays in the grid and becomes wild, helping to create extra chances to win. Further upping the ante is the win multiplier, which starts at x1 and increases by 1 with each new hit. With this clever mechanic, epic chain reactions of consecutive wins with increasing multipliers are possible. This will not always be the case, as Moon Princess is quite volatile, resulting in sharp swings in the game. Another important characteristic of the mathematical model is the RTP, which has a default rating of 96.5%, although some operators may switch to a lower setting, so be sure to check before you run.

Players should be ready for some brilliant rain when they open the paytable. The low payout symbols are a set of trinkets such as a gold-green keychain, a moon star, a heart and a winged bell. The three high payers are the three princesses, which offer payouts of 10 times the bet for a combination of 5. The wild symbol, which can replace the payout symbols, plays an important role; it also offers payouts of 50 times the bet for a group of five. If only wild symbols remain in the grid, they are removed, helping players trigger the free spins feature.

Moon Princess: Features

Moon Princess has many features that add to the overall chaos of the game. On any non-winning spin, the Girl Power feature can be activated randomly. There are three, depending on which princess is standing next to the grid at that time:

Love turns one set of symbols into another type of symbol.
Star adds one or two additional wildcard characters to the grid.
Storm removes two character sets from the grid.

Keep an eye on the power indicator to the left of the screen. When it is full, it activates the Trinity Princess feature. The meter consists of three sections, which fill as follows:

3 species fills 1 section.
4 fours fill 2 sections.
5 identical combinations fill 3 sections.

When the counter is filled and there are no more wins in the grid, one free spin is awarded. This spin allows Love, Star and Storm to activate their powers one at a time to create more chances to win.

The main goal of Moon Princess is to clear the entire grid to activate the main free spins feature. When this happens, players choose either Love, which gives 4 free spins, Star brings 5, and Storm gives 8 free spins. The chosen princess has an active female power for the duration of the action, and, even better, the multiplier of the roll is not reset between game rounds, although its ceiling is x20.

The counter participates in free spins as described above, but now it also gives more free spins when it's full. Players get four extra spins for the Love Princess, three for the Star Princess, and two for the Storm Princess feature, up to a maximum of 20. The Princess Trinity feature is not part of the free spins, instead, if the grid is cleared then players instantly win 100 times their total bet.

Combinations lead to fill counters, modifiers, free spins and so on. A maximum win potential of 5,000 times seems a bit of an exaggeration. More realistic is a maximum win of half that number.

Often when Moon Princess starts, you have no idea what's going on, even if you've read the rules completely. But that doesn't matter at all. Moon Princess is a riot of activity where it's best to just sit back and enjoy the anime madness.