Monster Catch

Monster Catch: Slot Overview

Some gamblers may recall the joy of being a youth and seeing their favourite arcade games made playable on consoles or personal computers. Examples abound from Street Fighter 2, Double Dragon, Bubble Bobble, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, to Rampage, and on and on. It's in this spirit of taking a joyful public experience into the privacy of the home that developer Light & Wonder has released the online slot, Monster Catch, which is probably bigger news for British betters, but let's cast off and see if we can catch a buzz.

Visually, Monster Catch gives off strong Fishin' Frenzy vibes, being all retro, somewhat aged-looking and all that. Like pretty much everything Monster Catch does, players will probably know ahead of time whether they're going to be thrilled by the artwork or not. We've got white coated reels in the middle, a fisherman chappie top left, and scenes of the sea floor making up much of the rest of the view. Whether Monster Catch is a looker or a beast, let's let players decide in order to avoid getting overly harsh.

For those keen to reel or try to reel in something, Monster Catch provides a bet range of 10 c to $/€10 a pop. The math model is low volatile, while the maximum RTP sits on 96.17%. Monster Catch's 5-reel grid usually holds 3 rows per reel, but in the free spins feature, it is possible to have up to 6 positions on each reel. When 3 positions are active, 10 paylines are provided. When 6 positions on each reel are available, the number of paylines doubles to 20.

The pay symbols are 10-A card rank lows, which are worth 10 times the bet for a five-of-a-kind winning combinations, no matter the type, then anchors, floats, worms, and seagulls are the highs, worth 50 to 200 times the bet for 5 OAK. The fish money symbols also pay when they make line wins, up to a value of 20x the bet.

Monster Catch: Slot Features

Monster Catch has 4 different fish symbols - small, medium, large, and XL. Fish symbols land on any reel and the different sizes can be involved in the same winning line. Each fish also has a cash value of 2x to 50x that is collected by the Fisherman or the Gold Fisherman symbols in free spins only.

Free Spins

Hitting 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols awards 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. Free spins come with Mighty Reels, meaning the reels are 6 rows high, though the upper 3 rows are inactive. The Fisherman and Gold Fisherman symbols are added to the free spins round, and both substitute for any regular paying symbol. The Fisherman's other job is to collect the Cash value of Fish money symbols.

When one or more Gold Fisherman symbols land, Mighty Reels are activated, and the upper 3 rows open, plus 2 free spins are awarded. Any visible Fisherman and/or Gold Fisherman symbols collect the cash values from any Fish symbols on the active reels. The upper reels become inactive on the next spin. When Mighty Reels are open, it is not possible to land 5 OAK Fish wins on the upper 3 rows.

Gamble Feature

When the Gamble button is active, and wins of 5x the stake or over occur, the Gamble feature triggers. If Premium Play is also active, the Gamble feature triggers at 2.5x the Premium Play stake. The Gamble feature has two options - Gamble Cash value and Gamble entry into free spins. Gambles take place on red and green segmented wheels.

Premium Play

When switched on, Premium Play adds 50% to the bet. Then, when there is a single base game win of 2x or more, when not triggering free spins, players get one spin on the Bonus Wheel with a Bonus Guarantee. The Bonus Wheel has multipliers of x1 to x5 and 8 to 20 free spins. If a multiplier is awarded, it is applied to the cash win. If free spins are awarded, players win the indicated amount. Premium Play has an RTP of 96.1%.

Monster Catch: Slot Verdict

If you weren't (or aren't) there to witness and enjoy Monster Catch in a physical setting, it'll probably be hard to get even remotely excited about it in its virtual, online form. Fish slots, shoot, where to begin? There are a lot of them, like golly gee, a lot. From the pillars of the genre, Fishin' Frenzy and Big Bass Bonanza, to the myriad of offshoots and contributions from countless other studios. Even casino game makers that have a tendency to turn their backs on fads in order to do their own thing, like Nolimit City, have dropped slots such as Ugliest Catch in order to elbow in on the fish phenomenon. Amongst the immense commercial trawling, sucking up every life form in the seas that is the online slot fish craze, Monster Catch is an absolute minnow.

Then again, there is something heartwarming about playing a game from the comfort of your own home that you've enjoyed out and about in public. So it is with video games, so it might well be with Monster Catch, too. Gamblers who like the idea of having access to Monster Catch 24/7 on their personal computer, tablet, laptop, or mobile phone get that with this release. There's no need to pop down to the bookies, arcade, or wherever to have a turn; now, it's possible to play anywhere, from the bus ride to work to sitting on the khazi. Better yet, the top win has increased over what the physical box could deliver to a new max of 736x.

Hate to state the obvious, but 736x is not a big amount in this day and age, yet that is hardly likely to be a deciding factor. Either the thought of playing Monster Catch at home gets your excitement levels bubbling, or it causes last night's lasagna to bile up in the back of your throat.