Wild Catch slot comes with Rolling Reels and three Free Spins bonus games

I have to be honest and say one of my ideal holiday vacations would be a trip to somewhere like the wilds of Canada or Alaska during the warmer months to enjoy a spot of fishing.

Perhaps it was this which made the new Wild Catch slot from Stormcraft Studios, released by Microgaming, so appealing to me at first glance as that is exactly what this slot appears to be about.

Now Microgaming have released a few slot games based on fishing before and some have been rather fun to play. However, Wild Catch promises to be far more in depth than any other game released on this subject previously. It features Rolling Reels across 50 pay lines and a 5x5 reel set up, plus a trio of Wild Jackpot prizes which can be won at any time and three Free Spins game which you must unlock in sequence.

It all sounds very exciting and so we decided to give the Wild Catch slot a play to see what the fuss was about. This is what we found out.

Overview

• Game: Wild Catch
• Developer: Stormcraft Studios (for Microgaming)
• Reels: 5x5
• Pay Lines: 50 (non-selectable)
• Minimum Bet: 0.20
• Maximum Bet:
• Jackpot: 180,000
• Free Spins Bonus: Yes
• Other Bonuses: Yes
• Progressive: No
• Volatility: High

Presentation

It is fair to say that the new Wild Catch slot is very pleasing to look at. The reels are set against a rather pleasant green forest backdrop with a large lake or river in the foreground and tall mountains in the distance bringing to mind the wilderness of North America, such as in Canada or Alaska.

Accompanying the excellent visuals is a rather pleasant and relaxing soundtrack which does capture the somewhat calming effects of fishing. The main reels are located centre of the screen, with the three different Wild Jackpots (more on those later) shown on the left of the reels. The main controls of the slot are on the right.

It is a 5x5 reel slot with 50 pay lines but also with the Rolling Reels feature in play, which means you can land more than one win from any single spin. Spins start at a very cheap 0.20 per spin, but you can increase that up to 20.00 if you prefer.

Wild Catch slot video review

Where can you play the Wild Catch slot?

You can play the Wild Catch slot at any of the Mega Moolah casinos on the Where to Play page, Bonus page, Rewards page or Country page.

What is on the reels?

I am delighted to say that Stormcraft Studios have done away with the ubiquitous Playing Card low symbols and instead, every symbol on the reel is linked to fishing and that fits so much better with the theme of the slot. The lower value symbols include the main items you would need for fly fishing, a brown fly, a brightly coloured fly, a spinning reel and a basket and net for hauling your catch back home.

Wins on these symbols range from 1/20^th of your bet up to 2x your bet. This doesn't seem much, but it is worth knowing that in the base game and Free Spins, you can win across many different pay lines on a single spin, which can radically increase the value of a win.

Higher value symbols include the pictures of fishermen and women in action plus two fishing aces holding their catch, one female and the higher value one is the male. Wins on these higher value symbols range from ¼ of your bet, up to 10x your bet on a single pay line.

To help you, all symbols can be stacked on the reels as can the Wild symbol, which is one of the two main bonus symbols that are also on the reels.

Wild features

The Wild Catch symbol is the in game Wild and it can be super-stacked on the middle three reels in the base game and also during the Free Spins round. The Wild is used as a substitute symbol only and can substitute for all symbols on the reels apart from the Scatter symbol.

There is also a randomly triggered Wild bonus in the base game called the Splashing Wild feature. This bonus triggers entirely at random and when it does it can turn either the second, third or fourth reels entirely Wild. The reel will then stay Wild for a number of subsequent rolls until you land a win.

Free Spins features

The Scatter symbol in the game is the golden fish symbol and when you land three or more of these across the reels, you trigger the Free Spins bonus round. There are three different Free Spins rounds and you have to unlock rounds by triggering Free Spins on a set number of occasions.

All the Free Spins bonus game features a Multiplier Trail and Growing Wilds although how many spins you land and the size of the multipliers on the trail differ from game to game.

For your first five Free Spin triggers, you will play the lower volatility Free Spins game. This sees you land 15 Free Spins and the multiplier trail offers values of 1x, 2x, 3x, 5x, and 10x for successive Rolling Reels wins. Furthermore, after each spin the Wild Stacks on the reels will grow by one symbol.

For your sixth to tenth Free Spin triggers you play the medium volatility Free Spins game. For this game you get 10 Free Spins but the multiplier trail values are increased to 2x, 3x, 5x, 10x and 15x. In addition, the Wild Stacks grow by two symbols after every Free Spin too.

After your 10^th Free Spin and for your next five triggers, you play the higher volatility Free Spins game. Here you get just 5 Free Spins, but the multiplier trail is very high 3x, 5x, 10x, 15x and 25x and the Wild Stacks grow by three symbols every spin.

Once you have played through each of the Free Spins games, on every subsequent trigger, you will be able to select which one of the three games you wish to play.

There is one other feature on the Wild Catch slot and that is the Jackpots bonus. You can win three jackpots, Wild (2000x your bet), Silver (100x your bet) or bronze (10x your bet). Every time you land a Wild, these are collected and give you a chance of triggering a jackpot prize at random. The more Wilds you collect in a spin, the more chance you have of triggering a win. The jackpot prizes can trigger in both the base game and during Free Spins.

Best feature of the Wild Catch slot

Stormcraft Studios have put an awful lot into the Wild Catch slot and it does show as this is an action packed game with lots of bonus features. Usually Rolling Reels is pretty hard to beat when it is included on any slot game, but even though this has the potential for some big wins in the base game, I feel the Free Spins bonus games, and the fact that there are three of them and you have a quest element in unlocking each of the games, means that this is the most exciting part of the game and with that 25x multiplier on the higher volatility of the three games, it is also the one that offers the greatest chance for a big value win.

Conclusion

Wild Catch is a fantastic slot game. Microgaming have ventured into the world of angling and fishing with a few older releases in the past, but this is a game that has a depth that matches some of the very best games like Thunderstruck II or Immortal Romance. With a sizeable potential jackpot of 180,000 coins, plus three Wild Jackpots to play for, added to Rolling Reels and, in Free Spins, a generous Multiplier Trail that increases as you progress through the three Free Spins rounds, it is easy to see why Wild Catch has been one of the most eagerly awaited releases of the summer. This is a cracking slot and well worth spending a bit of time to get to know.