Boat Bonanza Colossal Catch

Boat Bonanza Colossal Catch: Slot Overview

Oh boy, if you really really haven't had enough fishing slots in your life already, here's another one from software provider Play'n GO to consider. It's titled Boat Bonanza Colossal Catch and is a follow-up to the 2022 release Boat Bonanza. And so, if the thought of watching fishing boats bob back and forth, tossing nets into the sea to drag in cash symbols with the chance of hauling a progressive multiplier up to x25 in free spins sounds dandy, why not grab a trawler and come take a look.

Visually, there's not much separating the two games. Boat Bonanza Colossal Catch takes place offshore, its symbols spinning on a transparent gaming grid with views of the deep blue sea behind it – bubbles, weeds, fish, that sort of thing. A Ferris wheeled seaside town occupies a thin ribbon of space near the top of the screen, while below it on the sparkling water are the two crucial fishing boats. A cheerfully salty seaside tune bounces along in the background, and atmospherically, Boat Bonanza Colossal Catch is about on par with its predecessor.

Mathematically, there have been some adjustments. One is volatility, which has been eased back to medium, now possessing a 5 out of 10 rating. The RTP comes in five forms, depending on the market, defaulting at 96.2% but dropping as low as 84.2% in some cases, so it is something to be aware of. When picking a bet, the options range from 10 p/c to $/€50 per spin, and the action is hosted on a 5-reel, 4-row grid, crossed with 12 paylines.

In the symbol section of the paytable, Boat Bonanza Colossal Catch has 9 regular pays and an assortment of extras. The lower value batch of pay symbols are 9-A card ranks, which are joined by an anchor, a spear gun, a can of worms, and a seagull as the high pays. When landing a winning line of 5 matching low pay symbols, the game will award 10 times the bet, or 50 to 200 times the bet for landing 5 matching premium symbols. No wild symbol is present on Boat Bonanza Colossal Catch's reels, but there are a couple more special symbols to cover next.

Boat Bonanza Colossal Catch: Slot Features

Being a fishing slot, much of Boat Bonanza Colossal Catch's features revolve around catching fish money symbols. This can occur in the base game and in free spins and is joined by a Colossal Catch feature.

Catch Feature

Catch symbols land with values of 1x to 50x the bet. These fish symbols can actually form line wins, too, worth up to 40x the bet for a 5 OAK line. Above the reels, 2 fishing boats dart back and forth. When a fishing boat is brightly lit, it is active; when a boat is greyed out, it is inactive. Active boats collect the value of all Catch symbols that land below them.

Colossal Catch

When both boats stop above the same reel, they trigger the Colossal Catch. This feature collects all Catch symbols on all reels.

Free Spins

The trawler-looking boat symbol is Boat Bonanza Colossal Catch's scatter. Landing at least 3 scatters awards 10 free spins. Also, if 4 scatters land, players win 20x the bet as well, or if 5 scatters hit, the extra prize is 100x the bet. In free spins, both boats are active on each spin. A new symbol is also introduced during the free spins round. This is the Swordfish symbol. If a boat collects a Swordfish symbol, then progress on the Colossal Catch Multiplier bar increases by +1 step:

• Collecting 3 Swordfish symbols awards an x2 multiplier and +8 free spins.
• Collecting 3 more Swordfish awards an x5 multiplier and +6 free spins.
• Another 3 collected Swordfish awards an x10 multiplier and +4 free spins.
• Finally, collecting another 3 final Swordfish awards the maximum x25 multiplier plus 2 extra free spins.

It is possible to win up to 30 free spins.? Just to be clear, the Colossal Catch Multiplier only applies to any Catch symbols collected during a Colossal Catch trigger.

Boat Bonanza Colossal Catch: Slot Verdict

Yeah, it was hard to be overly impressed with Boat Bonanza Colossal Catch. The previous slot, Boat Bonanza, was okay. Mechanically, it is close to Big Time Gaming's Golden Catch slot while sharing a retro simplistic spirit along the lines of Big Bass Bonanza and Fishin' Frenzy. It's not a slot that felt ripe for a sequel, but this is fishing, so we shouldn't have been surprised to see Play'n GO following up with another one. The weird thing is Boat Bonanza Colossal Catch is weaker in many ways than the original. And we're not just talking about the lighter volatile, though this might be a factor for some grizzly armchair anglers. The max win is down from 5,000x to 3,000x, the respins feature has gone, the max Catch symbol value has been severely reduced, and the whole thing felt like a pointless rejig of what came before.

After that little rant, let's look at the positives, and maybe players who aren't numbed by the inundation of fishing slots who would like something on the lighter side might find satisfaction in Boat Bonanza Colossal Catch. It's got a nice, bright, cheerful atmosphere often associated with a fishing slot. Boat's catching fish not only makes sense but can be entertaining, more so when both boats land on the same reel to trigger the Colossal Catch. Though the last game already did this. What the previous game didn't have was the Big Bass Bonanza-esque collection bar feature, where it is possible to score a Colossal Catch Multiplier of up to x25. It's alright, and it technically means decent wins are possible when working with the Colossal Catch feature.

And that's about it, really. Between this one and Boat Bonanza, some things have changed, some things have stayed the same, but overall, Boat Bonanza Colossal Catch didn't do enough to prevent it from coming across as a bit pointless. Play'n GO knows the online gambling business, no doubt, but Boat Bonanza Colossal Catch feels like further evidence of the studio's slide into mediocrity.