Alley Cats is an interesting game, not as much because of its payouts or features, but because of the theme, which takes the typical alley cat and puts it on a bowling alley. The combination of cat and bowling can be fun to play, as you will discover yourself while spinning the reels of Alley Cats. The game was created by the Microgaming developers.
5 reels are present in Alley Cats, with 9 lines available on them. A scatter symbol is the only feature present on the reels, but it can trigger both bonus games and free spins with multipliers. The jackpot is a rewarding $50,000.
Features of Alley Cats
The game lacks the wild symbol that you might be used to, but it does have a scatter symbol which will trigger free spins with multipliers or a bonus game.
The scatter symbol I’ve just mentioned is represented in the game by the image of a Strike, with the bowling ball hitting the pins. As a scatter symbol, it should have free reign in the game, appearing wherever it wants, but in this case it’s somewhat more limited than that. You can only get these scatter symbols on adjacent reels and starting from reel 1, but at least they can be anywhere on those reels and they still don’t have to be on certain paylines.
Whenever you have 3 or more scattered Strike symbols present, you get one of two features from the slot. The first one would be the round of free spins, while the second possibility is a bonus game. The same 3+ scattered symbols also give away payouts directly, varying between 2x and 100x the bet.
Free Games Feature
The round of free spins will give you 20 rounds for free, plus the 2x multiplier that so many of these games offer, which will double all the prizes obtained along the way. You can’t re-trigger these free spins unfortunately.
Mystery Prize Bonus Game
The other potential feature that can get triggered by the scatter symbol is the Mystery Prize bonus game. If this is the one that you get, you are asked to pick objects, in order to get random prizes out of them. You get three objects in front of you, and you pick three of them. Next, the orange cat tries to bowl them over and your payouts are shown. The maximum value you can take home this way is 10,800 coins.
Betting options and jackpots
The game uses almost as many coins as there are cents in the coins. You can wager 1 to 20 coins per line, each one with a denomination that goes up to $0.25. That means a $5 line bet, or $45 maximum bet.
Up to 200,000 coins can be won, by players that get the 10,000x top jackpot. The cash value is only $50,000 though, since the coin’s denomination is rather low.
Design and symbols
The cats mentioned by the game are definitely cute, I’ll give them that. Some back alley, with trash cans and brick walls on both sides, is visible behind the reels, while on them you get all kinds of bowling, alley or cat related pictures. Chances are that you will enjoy playing the game as much as I did, and it will be the design that will be the most attractive quality about it.
Symbols: Strike (scatter, 100x bet), Alley Cats Logo (10,000x), Bowling Cat (5,000x), Trophy (2,000x), White cat (1,000x), Gray cat (750x), Brown Cat (500x), Black Cat (200x), Dog (175x), Cat Nip (150x), Trash (125x) and Barbeque (100x).
Is It Worth Playing?
The best part about it would be the combination of features that aren’t standard or overused and the top jackpot which is quite generous. The theme choice isn’t bad either, and overall I feel comfortable recommending this slot machine.
You will find Alley Cats at any online casino which chooses to use software from Microgaming, playable either for free or for real money.
