Alaskan Fishing Slot – Free Demo

Where the Alaskan Fishing logo stacks

Once again players are steeped in a wide outdoors theme while they spin reels for riches, and Alaskan Fishing, looks utterly conventional, with a physical slot feel, large vivid symbols, and one highly recognisable looking figure. Fine, let's get this out in the open. The session I ran on it peaked at 2,000.72 on spin 10 and never went higher. The whiskered fisherman perched on reels 1 and 5 could have strayed in from any stream in the north, so let's start up the slot and see what it can do.

Games Global has seized the essence of the distant north in Alaskan Fishing. The backdrop is crisp, atmospheric, and the slot has an outdoor setting instead of being placed in a grimy lodge or hut, and the symbols also explode with colour. The Alaskan Fishing symbol is the slot's wild. It also forms winning combinations of its own rather than only completing someone else's. It turns up stacked in both the base game and the free spins, and it stands in for everything except the scatter and the bonus trigger. In the captured frame it has come in two high across reels 2 and 3, with a bear, an eagle, a seaplane, a trophy, a reel, a boat and two leaping salmon around it, for a 4.83 win on a 2.10 bet and a balance of 1,956.90. The tacklebox is the scatter and the most lucrative single symbol on the reels; as noted, the fisherman has several traits as you will see.

What the 30 multiplier does to a spin

Reels turn in the games 5x3 layout. Every spin costs a bet multiplier of 30, and lining the reels are the 243 ways to win. The multiplier sits on top of the coin value — the rules' own worked example is 0.10 coming out as 3.00 a spin — and regular wins are calculated on the bet per spin while scatter wins are calculated on the total bet. They are always live and pay left to right from reel 1. Where one way holds combinations of two different symbols, both are paid; where it holds two lots of the same symbol, only the higher one counts. So far it seems like any other contemporary fishing slot, however, Games Global has included a couple of features that inject a healthy dose of freshness. Scatter and bonus wins are added to the regular wins from the same spin rather than replacing them.

The tacklebox opens fifteen, the fisherman opens five

The tacklebox scatter can show up on any reel. It does not need adjacent reels, the wild cannot stand in for it, and only one scatter combination is paid per spin, at the value of the highest win it makes. Land 3, 4 or 5 of them to launch 15 free spins; during this round, all wins are doubled, and the round is re-triggerable, with the fresh spins added to whatever is left of the previous ones. The round runs at the bet of the spin that triggered it, and the wins are collected automatically as they land.

The other addition is the Fly Fishing Bonus. It requires the fisherman on reels 1 and 5, and when it lands, you receive 5 picks, each valued between 2x and 15x the total bet. The figures shown on the picks are already multiplied by the total bet, and the bonus win amount is the only number displayed. It can fire inside the free spins too, though its wins are not doubled by them. The bonus win is collected automatically once the picks are done. If it lands alongside a free spins trigger it plays out first.

Minty’s Closing Thought: The fisherman never landed on both outside reels across my 230 spins, so the five picks stayed on the rules screen and the two tacklebox rounds carried the whole session.

230 spins, two tackleboxes

Any 5-reel outdoors themed slot runs the risk of sinking in a sea of comparable slots, and Games Global has contrived to dodge mediocrity by adjusting the additions to deliver a fresh slot experience. The two free spins rounds accounted for 47.46 of the 220.29 I got back, or 22% of everything won. The adjustments that Games Global has brought in are understated. Both rounds ran their 15 spins out and neither retriggered. But they rescue Alaskan Fishing from being an all-out copy. The doubling in the free spins is the game's only multiplier, and it does not reach the Fly Fishing picks. That's not to say that Alaskan Fishing has transformed the genre in any way. The better of my two rounds paid 19 times the stake, the other 3.6. But devotees of the theme will broadly be fascinated by the gameplay on offer.

What might irritate folk though is the slot's volatility and symbol values, and with its medium setting, you do receive a constant trickle of wins. But they tend to be on the small side. Over 230 spins at 2.10 a go, 64 of them paid, and 39 of those handed back less than the stake. Symbols provide decent value - but only if five of a kind land, anything less and the values fall off sharply, and after a solid test session, five of a kind was a scarce event indeed. The trophy heads the regular symbols, with the leaping salmon and the three fish behind it, and the bear and the eagle paying the same as each other.

Alaskan Fishing is more likely to attract the casual crowd, and those seeking an intense slot will find it wanting. Stake changes come from the coin value, since the 30 multiplier is fixed. As it is, it's fairly enjoyable. Spin 82's 25.20, twelve times the stake, was the biggest win the base game produced on its own. What Games Global has done with the added features is intriguing, however, hardcore players will be put off by its slow win mechanic. The second round arrived on spin 205, 45 spins after the first. My session bore that out, with 483.00 wagered and 220.29 returned. The balance ran from 1,994.00 down to 1,731.29, which was where it finished and also its low point. The two free spins rounds paid 39.90 and 7.56 between a first trigger that took 160 spins to show up and a barren stretch of 18 spins with nothing at all.