Mining Fever slot's best feature is the easily triggered Free Spins bonus round

Rabcat have released some cracking games for Microgaming over the past few months in particular, with the likes of North Storm, Sherlock of London and Treasure Heroes all being well worthy of a closer look.

However last week they released their latest game, heading underground once again in the new Mining Fever slot. Featuring three gold miners, who also just so happen to be dwarfs, the game is a medium variance 5x3 reel slot that has 243 Ways to Win instead of standard pay lines.

So does the new slot keep up the excellent reputation that Rabcat are developing or does Mining Fever leave you feeling a little lukewarm? We decided to don our miners hat and head deep underground in an attempt to find out.

Overview

• Game: Mining Fever
• Developer: Rabcat Games (for Microgaming)
• Reels: 5x3
• Pay Lines: 243 Ways to Win
• Minimum Bet: 0.20
• Maximum Bet: 40.00
• Jackpot: 25x (per way to win)
• Free Spins Bonus: Yes
• Other Bonuses: Yes
• Progressive: No
• Volatility: Medium

Presentation

One of the hallmarks of a Rabcat Game is the fact that they tend to look and sound spectacular and the Mining Fever slot, although it is based on a somewhat unappealing premise, certainly manages to uphold the high standard that you have come to expect from previous Rabcat releases like Sherlock of London, North Storm and Treasure Heroes.

The soundtrack of the slot and the sound effects used at various junctures in the game are excellent and really enhance the experience for the player. The graphics and animations are top notch and the slot has a cartoon-like feel to it that brings the game and the characters, Driler, Bombur and Thundar, very much to life.

With some neat introductory graphics to pull you into this underground realm, the Mining Fever slot certainly upholds the high standards you have come to expect from any Rabcat release.

What is on the reels?

There are a total of nine standard symbols on the reels, plus the Scatters and the Wild, more of which we will explain a little later. The lowest value symbols are the four playing card symbols from the Jack through to the Ace and these offer wins ranging from the very small (0.15x your bet) up to 1.25x your bet.

These amounts seem very small but it should be noted that the symbols can be stacked on the reels and you can win these amounts across more than one line on each spin. As such, it is possible to win the same amount across multiple lines on any spin, or indeed trigger different types of win on the same spin and this can increase the total amount won on a particular spin markedly.

There are five higher value symbols on the reels and these are the rocks, some unusual coins, a ring, a chest and a crown. Wins on these symbols range from 0.6x your total bet up to 25x your total bet for five of the crowns across the reels.

Wild features

The Wild symbol is the gold hammer and pickaxe symbol and this can appear on any of the five reels in the game. It generally serves as a standard substitute symbol, able to replace any of the symbols outlined above to help create a winning line or to increase the size of the win. The Wild is notably more valuable when it appears on the first three reels.

You can also land a Wild across all five reels on a spin in any position and if you do, then you will trigger a top jackpot prize in the base game for a single way to win of 25x your total bet, which is the same value pay out as the highest win in the base game.

On a slightly negative note, there are no multipliers attached to Wild wins and the symbol cannot substitute for Scatter symbols.

Free Spins features

The main bonus features of the slot, including the Free Spins bonus, are activated by using the three different Scatter symbols in the game. Each Scatter relates to one of the three dwarf miners that are the stars of the game. Driller, Bombur and Thundar. The Scatters can be used both with examples of the same Scatter, or with all three different Scatters, to produce different results.

To trigger the Free Spins bonus, you need to land one of each of the three different Scatter symbols on the reels on a single spin. This will grant you 8 Free Spins and these Free Spins are played with the Dwarven Gold Train Feature in operation.

This feature sees the Gold Train move across the reels from left to right leaving a trail of Wild symbols on the reel behind it. After each spin, the train will move one space to the right and once it moves off the screen, it will reappear on the first reel. On each spin it moves one reel to the right as well as vertically in a random direction.

In addition to this main bonus feature, each of the three individual Scatter symbols has their own bonus game, each of which is triggered when you land two of the same Scatter symbols on the reels on a single spin.

Land two Driler Scatters and you launch the Driler's Dwarven Drill feature which sees you land one bonus spin and on this bonus one of the first three reels is turned into a golde vein, and will turn completely Wild for that spin.

If you hit two of the Bombur Scatters, then you will trigger the Bombur's Dwarven Bomb bonus round. You get two bonus spins for this bonus and for each spin Bombur's Bomb will be placed on a random position on any of the second, third or fourth reels. The bomb will explode as the reels spin and turn 3-4 symbols Wild for that spin. This is repeated for the second bonus spin.

Finally, two of the Thundar Scatter symbols will see you land one bonus spin on Thundar's Dwarven Hammer game. In this bonus spin, two adjacent reels (either the first two reels, or the second and third reels) will become entirely filled with a specially selected symbol for the spin.

Best feature of the Mining Fever slot

Although the presentation of the Mining Fever slot is top notch, for me the parts of the game that have most appeal are the bonus features. There's no doubt that the Free Spins bonus is the part of the game where you could land the better value wins, but I feel the three different bonus spins features trigger more easily and offer something a little different to the standard slot. As such, I feel these are the features that will have players coming back to play more spins on the slot in the future.

Conclusion

Once again, Rabcat have hit the mark with their latest slot release. Sure, it is pretty much standard nowadays for a Rabcat game to look and sound fantastic and the Mining Fever slot certainly does that, but it is the addition of the different bonus features, allied to those 243 Ways to Win, that really give this slot added excitement. It isn't the highest variance either, so some of the wins are on the small side, but despite that this is still a very enjoyable and fabulous looking slot to play.

You can play the Mining Fever slot at any of the Mega Moolah casinos.