I’m a little confused by the theme of iSoftBet’s new Cats Megaways online slot – upon seeing the game logo, I immediately thought of the famous musical of the same name, but a quick Google search did not throw up any recognisable results. Perhaps my mind is playing tricks on me, but I’m certain that I know it from somewhere! What I can say for sure is that it’s another Megaways game that offers up to 117,649 pay ways, a 94.93% RTP, and a 10,000x stake maximum jackpot. The RTP is a little underwhelming at a little over a full percentage point less than the industry average, so the developers have some making up to do regarding the game’s feature set!
Fortunately, iSoftBet has been putting up a strong showing in recent times when it comes to the features of their slot machines. Most of us are now familiar with the typical Megaways layout used by Cats, which utilises six main reels plus another horizontal reel above reels two through five, although the paytable calls this a ‘tracker’ on this occasion. A more unique aspect of the game is its doubled symbols – all of the high-paying cats can appear as both single and double symbols, creating the possibility of a 14-of-a-kind win in some scenarios. The paws scatter symbol also appears in both solo and duo forms, opening the door for a 12-scatter bonus trigger if the gods are smiling at you when you play. iSoftBet has also included a ‘side bet’ (AKA bonus bet) and a bonus buy facility at the cost of 75x the normal price per spin.
Do you recognise the logo used in this game? Is it related to the musical in some way, or is that me being silly? As always, answers on a postcard – but you’ll need to take a look at our free demo slot of Cats Megaways to see what it looks like first, won’t you!
| Provider | iSoftbet |
| Reels | 6 |
| Rows | 7 |
| Paylines | 117,649 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.20 - 20 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 10,000x |
| Bonus Buy | Yes |
| RTP | 94.93% |
| Our Rating | 6.0 |
Cats Megaways Slot Casino Bonuses
Cats Megaways Slot Free Play
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Cats Megaways Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
The cats that feature in this game aren’t of the regular old pets variety! No, these are some of the most aggressive and vicious animals found anywhere in the world – think lions, tigers, and leopards, and you will be on the right track. This makes quite a nice change because ever since cats were labelled as the internet’s ‘spirit animal’, they have been downgraded to an almost comedy-like status within many areas of popular culture. It’s easy to see this in effect when looking at the slot libraries of the most popular online casinos – Cats of the Caribbean, for example, or Phat Cats Megaways. There’s nothing wrong with those games, but, as Steve Irwin always said, it’s sometimes better to observe these animals in their natural habitat!
My first real issue with this game arose once I began checking out its paytable – a black panther is the highest-paying symbol of the bunch, but it’s still only worth 50x the total bet for a full payway of 14-of-a-kind! Considering that a typical Megaways game will pay you 50x your stake for hitting a regular old payway of six symbols, I struggle to understand why iSoftBet would allocate the available RTP in this manner. I guess that the best payout possible for a maximum pay way doesn’t change no matter how many symbols it comprises. The lion is worth 30x for all 14 possible symbols, followed by the leopard, tiger, and jaguar at 20x each. There are five more low-paying royals, but you’ll only need six of those to capture their top payouts – that’s 0.75x for the aces and kings or 0.5x for the queens, jacks, and tens.
iSoftBet likes to use coin sizes to control the amount of each bet in their games, but it’s completely irrelevant to how a payways-based game is played. The same screen that lets you choose a coin value also shows the total bet amount, which is all that matters, the limits of which are set at €0.20 and €20.00 per spin, respectively.
Base Game & Modifiers
The standard Megaways layout, as used here, is based on a six-reel design. The ‘top tracker’ displayed above reels two through five are explained separately in the paytable, but if you think of those symbols as being part of reels two through five, then it simply balances things out so that all six columns can include up to seven symbols each.
Double Symbols
I was initially intrigued by this aspect of Cats Megaways, but my interest quickly tempered once I saw the numbers listed on the paytable. The four high paying symbols, and the scatter, can all appear as single and double symbols.
In the case of the four high-paying cats, hitting a wild on the top row simultaneously as a winning combination on the main reel set will boost the number of included symbols by two. That makes sense, considering that the wild is always counted as a double symbol, but it’s a little less logical when you factor in that the low-paying symbols do not receive the same benefit.
Mystery Cat
The base game includes a single modifier which forces the reels to only stop on a combination that includes the maximum possible number of Megaways. Many iSoftBet games feature a Max Megaways modifier, but this one doesn’t work the same way – only empty fields and mystery cat symbols can land here, and the modifier doesn’t guarantee a winning spin either. On the plus side, if you do hit a win, you’ll be awarded a free re-spin for the chance to obtain additional winning symbols, and this will repeat until no new symbols land on the next re-spin.
Side Bet
The ‘prowling bet’ is labelled as a side bet on the paytable, but that’s a misnomer in my view. The ‘side bet’ offered here boosts your chances of winning the free spins by an unknown amount in return for 25% more per spin.
Cats Megaways Slot Bonus Features
The bonus scatter symbols included in Cats are represented by paws which can appear as single and double symbols. Nevertheless, you’ll still need at least six paws to trigger the bonus round with a minimum of six free spins. Hitting more paws will boost the number of spins awarded to 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, or even 20 for a 12-scatter combination.
Free Spins
In this mode, hitting a wild or double cat symbol on the top tracker will transform the high-paying cat symbols directly below into double symbols. During free spins, the scatter can only land on the horizontal reel. Every paw which lands will be added to the meter displayed on the left of the reels, and collecting three paws will upgrade one of the cat symbols into guaranteed doubles (and later, even triples!) for the duration of the bonus round.
Bonus Buy
If you’re not having much luck hitting the free spins naturally, you can skip the base game altogether by paying 75x the total bet. The number of scatters that land is determined randomly every time a bonus is purchased.
Pros
- The double symbol feature is interesting, although not as valuable as I had hoped.
- 10,000x stake jackpot cap feels reasonable for this type of game.
- Tripled symbols during the bonus round make it much easier to hit the larger numbers of symbols.
Cons
- Even a 14-of-a-kind payway doesn’t pay more than a 6-of a kind in other Megaways slots.
- The bonus round isn’t as generous as you might expect – the stated jackpot is probably only achievable in unfairly unlikely scenarios.
Final Thoughts
I’ve been impressed with other games released by iSoftBet this past year, but Cats looks like a rare miss for the developer. Megaways slots are supposed to be bursting with potential for a huge jackpot – something I just can’t say I felt whilst testing this machine.
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