Nice Catch DoubleMax

Fish stocks may be being depleted at the moment, but if fishing in the real world was as prevalent as it is in the gambling world, shoot, we would have practically run out of fish a long time ago. Then what? No more fish 'n chip shops, sushi would be far less interesting without all of those salmon options, and divers would have less to look at when they're bobbing around in the water. No, it would be a sadder world without our brothers and sisters of the sea populating it. Anyway, where were we? Oh yeah, fishing slots, and here's another one to add to the already considerable collection of them from casino game maker Yggdrasil Gaming. It's called Nice Catch DoubleMax (nice name, btw) and smashes together traditional money symbol fisherman collects with a version of the studio's proprietary DoubleMax multiplier system.

If part of the joy of fishing comes from enjoying a natural setting, then Nice Catch DoubleMax taps into that by laying out a peasant outdoor scene for players to try their luck. For Nice Catch DoubleMax, we're casting off at a beach where the sea is light blue, the sand inviting, and you just know the temperature is probably warm. We're guessing a bit above the low to mid-20-degree setting found in shopping malls. So tempting is the scene it's hard to decide whether to bait up and cast off or strip down to a bathing suit and head into the water for a paddle. Either way, Yggdrasil Gaming has painted a pretty, if slightly bland, picture for an afternoon of armchair angling.

To bait up in Nice Catch DoubleMax means choosing a stake of 20 p/c to $/€20 per spin, deciding whether or not to activate the optional Golden Bet, or even leap straight in the deep end with the bonus buy. In all, the default RTP is apparently the same, at 96.1%, while the overall volatility has been marked as high. In addition, any device can be used to play Nice Catch DoubleMax.

Possessing a transparent nature, all the better for enjoying the view, Nice Catch DoubleMax's game grid has 5 reels, 3 rows and is bordered up above with a line of ascending multiplier values. Normal wins take place when three or more matching symbols hit on consecutive reels from the left, feeding into a 243-ways to-win pay system. Hit five of the regular low-pay card suit symbols, and the reward is 0.5-0.6x the bet, increasing to 1-8x the bet for hitting five swordfish, shoes, soda bottles and old-school flip phones.

Nice Catch DoubleMax: Slot Features

It couldn't be a fishing slot without a few fish somewhere. When fish do land in the game, they possess monetary values. If fish land at the same time as a fisherman symbol on reel five, their values are collected and awarded.

DoubleMax

When fish prizes are awarded from left to right, they activate the DoubleMax multiplier. The multiplier increases from x2 through x4, x8, x16, x32, x64, x128, to x256. The multiplier applies to all wins on the spin.

Free Spins

Getting 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols in the base game awards 8, 11, or 14 free spins, respectively. A pre-feature gamble option may be provided to potentially increase the number of initially awarded free spins. What's good about free spins is the DoubleMax multiplier does not reset until the round ends. Scatter symbols are removed from the reels during the round, but landing a fisherman symbol awards an additional free spin and immediately doubles the multiplier prizes for the remainder of the feature.

Bonus Buy

For players preferring to buy their way into free spins, two options are provided. Paying 100x the bet will randomly land 3 to 5 scatter symbols, while 500x the bet guarantees 5 scatter symbols will hit.

Nice Catch DoubleMax: Slot Verdict

Despite being able to provide a virtual sunny outing by the water, Nice Catch DoubleMax wasn't one that had us frothing to get back to it like a landlocked angler stuck in the office on a nice day. Fishing slots are super popular, however, so there are likely to be keyboard anglers out there who are gearing up to have a go at Nice Catch DoubleMax's singular blend. While the fish symbol collection part adds a dimension that previous DoubleMax slots did not have, the game did feel more limited than some which have preceded it, rather than the wave-bursting marlin it might have been.

The DoubleMax is certainly one key draw, but the thing is, it's been put to just as good, if not better, use elsewhere. Raptor DoubleMax remains the gold star, being the first and arguably the finest entry in the lineup so far. Florageddon! is an interesting alternative, too, that twists the rising multiplier in a different way, while Bang Bang Games' Pharaoh's Gaze DoubleMax lets the mechanic do its thing in a conventionally themed slot setting. Then again, it doesn't get much more conventional than a fishing slot either, so Nice Catch DoubleMax might have a greater appeal to slot classicists than the more experimental DoubleMax releases. Here, the capped multiplier appears to have had a detrimental effect on winning potential, though, where max win weighs in at 23,972x the bet, less than half of what's possible in some of its siblings

For players partial to fishing slots where a trusty fisherman collects money symbols on their behalf, Nice Catch DoubleMax should do enough to warrant further investigation. The addition of the doubling multiplier should see to that. The reverse applies too, so if these catch-of-the-day slots are getting a bit stale, there's unlikely to be much here to convince you otherwise.