Fishin Frenzy Even Bigger Catch Slot (Blueprint) Slot Demo & Review

If my memory is correct, Blueprint’s Fishin’ Frenzy was the first fishing-themed franchise to make a big splash, a little while before Pragmatic Play released the first game in their similar Big Bass Bonanza series. Since the release of the two original games, the creators of these slots have been prolific in creating sequels and spinoffs; every time one of them puts out a new game, the other will follow suit with an update to their own series a short time later. Even Bigger Catch seems to have been published in response to the recent Hold & Spinner game by Pragmatic Play, and both appear to be quickly compiled updates as neither game uses any new assets whatsoever.

As you might expect, the Fisherman is the most valuable symbol in Fishin’ Frenzy: Even Bigger Catch and will pay you 200x the total bet for a full payline of five of a kind. The Toucan is also worth 200x the bet for all five symbols, after which we have the Fishing Rod at 100x and the Life Ring and Tackle Box, which are both worth 50x for a complete payline. The blue ‘Fish Money’ symbols will pay you 20x the total bet when five appear on a line, irrespective of the values that are actually printed on them. As for the low pays, the Ace and King will each award you 10x for a five of a kind combination, whilst the Queens, Jacks, and Tens are less valuable at 5x each.

The minimum/maximum wagering limits have been set at €0.10 and €10.00, respectively, and there is a good number of intermediate bets between these two extremes as well.

The basic gameplay of Even Bigger Catch hasn’t changed much since the last Fishin’ Frenzy game. The machine still utilises a traditional 5×3 video slot layout, along with ten fixed paylines, and Blueprint has not added anything into this part of the game to warrant the ‘even bigger catch’ subtitle.

It’s a little bit disappointing, if I’m honest. A couple of modifiers would really have helped here to differentiate this game from previous titles in the series. As it stands, the only thing you have to look forward to apart from the free spins are the wild symbols, which don’t warrant much further discussion!

Bonus scatter symbols appear on all five reels, but just three of them are enough to trigger a set of free spins. Three will award the minimum of ten free games, whilst four or five increase this to 15 or 20 free spins, respectively.

Free Spins

During this part of the game, the fisherman symbol becomes ‘active’, meaning he will collect the blue fish symbols whenever they appear on the reels. I guess he must have been on his day off during the base game. You’ll need to land at least one fish symbol at the same time as the fisherman for this aspect of the bonus round to be of any benefit.

It turns out that the ‘Even Bigger Catch’ suffix that Blueprint has added to the title refers to the addition of the new golden fisherman symbol. Every time he appears, you will be presented with three fish to choose from as part of a ‘pick me’ bonus. Each fish awards a random multiplier, and if you are lucky, your pick will produce the maximum of 10x, which will then be applied to the value of all visible fish money symbols.

Collecting four fishermen whilst the feature is in play will increase the value of all subsequent fish money symbols that land during the bonus and add an extra five free spins to your remaining counter.

The bonus buy facility in this game is a little pricey at 180x the normal cost of a spin. Still, there’s a good reason for this – you aren’t just buying a normal set of free spins, but an enhanced one where all fisherman symbols on the reels have been upgraded to the golden variety.

The only issue here is that even if you land a bunch of these special symbols, you can still pick just a 2x multiplier all the way through the bonus round. With this in mind, it’s tough to decide if the feature is worth the cost – it’s definitely nice to have the option available though.