Casino Bonuses
| Provider | Microgaming |
| Reels | 5 |
| Rows | 3 |
| Paylines | 243 |
| Bonus Rounds | 2 |
| Bet Range | 0.20 - 20 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 2,500x |
| Bonus Buy | Yes |
| RTP | 96.40% |
| Our Rating | 7.1 |
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Demo & Review
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Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
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Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Demo & Review
Game Overview
Ah, look! Ariel’s back! I’ll be honest, I don’t think I ever saw Disney’s The Little Mermaid as a child, but from memory, the character on the left of the Pearl Catcher slot sure does resemble what I remember of her from television adverts of the time. This may be a little bit cheeky on the part of All41Studios. Still, I can’t see them getting into any real trouble – after all, if Lindsey Lohan failed to sue Rockstar and Grand Theft Auto for blatantly using her likeness in their games, what chance does Disney have with their imaginary character? Elsewhere, the vital statistics look to be a 96.4% RTP, 243 pay ways, and a maximum win of “more than” 2,500x your bet.
All41Studios has included a couple of interesting base game features that utilise a set of four different pearl symbols and a collector symbol, allowing you to win prizes of up to 50x your bet per symbol. The main bonus round is a free spin-based feature that includes the same “pearl catcher” feature contained in the base game and a “clam multiplier” feature that can boost the value of all winning combinations. A bonus buy facility completes the feature set.
Are you ready to go back under the sea? We’re sure you are, my friend … so go ahead and fire up our free demo slot of Pearl Catcher, available to play below.
Pearl Catcher Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
Many of these online slots that are set under the sea are largely based on the Playtech game “Great Blue”, a game that must surely be a decade and a half old by this point. Since then, many other developers, including Microgaming (Mermaids Millions) and Play’N’Go (the name escapes me… sorry!), have made little attempt to diSGuise the fact that they are re-created a very similar set of assets in the hope of stealing away a little success from Playtech’s monstrously paying underwater game. This tactic was initially working very well until Playtech upgraded their game to the HTML5 standard, boosting the RTP by around 6% in the process. Today, I still play Great Blue regularly, yet I don’t even remember the full names of more than one or two of the aforementioned clones released afterwards.
I’ll try not to write about every aspect of Pearl Catcher that strongly resembles Great Blue, but it isn’t easy when the two games resemble each other so heavily. That said, there are just as many differences between these two slots as there are similarities, so please don’t feel that I am knocking All41Studios each time I compare similar aspects of the two machines.
The biggest and most obvious difference you are likely to notice is the huge gulf in the size of the base game wins offered by Playtech’s machine compared to those appearing on the paytable of the Pearl Catcher video slot. A happy-looking sea turtle takes pride of place at the top of the paytable, and he will pay you 5x your current stake each time you catch one of his symbols on all five reels simultaneously. Pay attention to the wording of that statement – this is a 243-way game, meaning there are no pay lines to worry about here. Three or more matching symbols anywhere on adjacent reels beginning from the left side will pay you a win, and you can even win multiple times if more than one set of matching symbols should appear on adjacent reels. A happy-looking and rather large green fish takes the second-placed spot alongside the red crab and the starfish; these three symbols will pay you 2.5x your bet for each full pay way of five-of-a-kind.
In the early days of 243-way online slots, it was typical to find a minimum bet of either €0.30 or €0.50 per spin, depending on the size of the playfield. Today, many developers will even allow you to bet as low as €0.10 per round if you wish, whilst this Pearl Catcher slot game has gone for a minimum of €0.20 and a maximum of €20.00 per spin.
Base Game & Modifiers
The basic gameplay of Pearl Catcher uses a 5×3 playfield which is the same size as most other online slot machines nowadays. At one point, it was not unusual to find games using 3×3 or 4×3 reel configurations. Still, it didn’t take long for developers to work out that the 5×3 arrangement offers more potential payout mechanics than most other sizes that were commonly used at the time. Whilst larger grids have started to become more popular during the last decade, the 5×3 style of reel set continues to hold its own as it is equally suited to a wide range of numbers of pay lines, as well as being the perfect size for a 243-way configuration.
Wild Symbols
Wild symbols appear on reels two, three, and four and can substitute for everything except for the special symbols and pearl catcher modifiers. Speaking of which.
Special Symbols & Pearl Catcher Modifier
Reels one and two contain pink and blue pearl symbols with payouts of between 0.5x and 4x your bet, while decorated pearls appear on the third and fourth reels and have enhanced payouts ranging from 5x up to 50x your bet. In order to collect these payouts, however, you will also need to land a pearl catcher symbol on the fifth reel. You can combine several of these special symbols for a boosted payout of up to 55x your stake.
The reason the maximum collection amount is 55x rather than 110x is that there are both pink and blue coloured clam symbols, each of which only collects the prizes shown on colour-matched special symbols.
Pearl Catcher Slot Free Spins Feature
Three or more scattered “free spins” symbols will trigger eight free spins and only appear during the base game. A clam multiplier meter also appears during this part of the game, starting out with no multiplier with the potential to boost all the way to 50x if you can collect enough clam symbols whilst the bonus round is in play.
Each time the clam symbol appears on the fifth reel during the free spins bonus round, the multiplier will increase in steps of 1x, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x, 8x, 10x, 15x, and 50x. Some of these increments are labelled with the text “+3”; hitting these steps will add three more spins to your remaining counter. Sadly, the multiplier boosts only apply to pearl catcher wins – regular line hits will only continue to pay the regular prize.
Bonus Buy
For a cost of 55x the regular stake, you can skip the base game and go straight to the free spins bonus round. This seems like a very cheap bonus buy, but there’s a reason for this – the bonus round doesn’t seem quite as profitable as most free spin rounds offered in other online slots. Despite this, I did have some great results whilst experimenting with this feature and would take advantage of it if I could in my jurisdiction.
Pearl Catcher Slot Review Final Thoughts
It’s no great blue, and the maximum jackpot of 2,500x your bet is undoubtedly on the low side in these days of high variance machines boasting maximum payouts in excess of 50,000 to 100,000x your stake. Nevertheless, Pearl Catcher balances the line between low and high variance slots wonderfully, making it an excellent choice for tackling wagering requirements. It’s also a great choice if you want to be sure of getting lots of playtime for your money.
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