Bearly Fishing is both a slot machine about fishing and one about bears that are doing the fishing. The designer which created this slot is called Microgaming, and it has hundreds of high quality titles, just as good as this one. The design is one of the most impressive things about this slot machine, despite having its own annoying little mistakes. Bears are well known for their fishing ability, as they stay in mountain rivers and they wait patiently for fish to come, so that they can catch them. You get exactly that from Bearly Fishing, a slot that will make you want to go on a camping trip.
Bearly Fishing presents you with 25 win lines that you can place wagers on, the game having 5 reels total. Among the regular symbols you will find both the wilds and scatters that you can expect these days, along with their free spins, multipliers and bonus games, but they will also give you payouts of up to $12,000 as you play.
Features of Bearly Fishing
The wild symbol and the scatter are the slot’s two main features, along with the bonus game which determines the multiplier for the free spins.
Papa Bear is the star of the game, holding a big fish in his paws, proud of his accomplishment. As the wild symbol, it will appear on any reel or payline, and if you’re lucky it will be a location from which it can be of some help. Its help comes in the form of a substitution ability that allows it to take the role of another symbol, as long as that triggers a new combination and payout for you. The jackpot is also offered by the Papa Bear symbol, only this time it doesn’t help others as a wild, forming its own combination with up to five symbols on the same line.
The scatter symbol’s image is that of the Fishing Basket. You need this symbol to be in at least two spots at the same time, in order for you to get a prize. The biggest prize, of 100x the bet, is given for five Fishing Baskets. What I love about the scatter symbol is that it doesn’t appear on a certain line in order for you to get paid. It can be in any random position.
Bonus Game
Now, you already know that you’re getting a prize when multiple scattered Fishing Baskets are present, but there is something extra that happens when 3+ symbols of this type are on the reels. You get access to the bonus game, where you try to help Baby Bear to catch some fish. You pick one of the three spots where he should fish, and depending on how many salmon he gets, you get a multiplier to be used in the free spins that will follow next. The most you can get is a 6x multiplier out of it.
Free Games Feature
As for the round of free spins, they start as soon as the bonus game is done, and you have 15 free spins in it, plus the multiplier of up to 6x that you won in the bonus game. You can retrigger the free games, with another 15 rounds, when there are another 3+ Fishing Baskets scattered on the reels.
Betting options and jackpots
The betting range in Bearly Fishing varies between $0.01 and $50, which puts it in a category that a lot of people can play in, even at maximum wager. The game uses coins of very low value, between $0.01 and $0.10, but up to 20 of them can be selected for each active line.
The 6,000x top payout from the game translates into 120,000 coins, which might sound like a lot of money, but it means only up to $12,000.
Design and symbols
The game’s true message is a call to return to the nature, at least once in a while, so you can enjoy a nice fishing session, camp a bit and look at what it has to offer. The bear characters are fun enough on their own, but what I enjoyed most about the design was the mountain scenery, with fast rivers, forests and lots of fish that can be caught.
Symbols: Papa Bear (wild, 6,000x), Fishing Basket (100x bet, scatter), Baby Bear (3,000x), Waterfall (2,000x), Salmon (1,000x), Fishing Rod (500x), Ace (150x), King (150x), Queen (125x), Jack (125x), Ten (100x) and Nine (100x).
Is It Worth Playing?
Any player that enjoys being out in the middle of nature, fishing and enjoying the views, will probably enjoy this game as well. It’s not very expensive to play, but it doesn’t have huge payouts either. However, the multipliers of the free spins can go up to 6x, which is higher than the average of 2x-3x offered by other titles.
You will find Bearly Fishing at any online casino which chooses to use software from Microgaming, playable either for free or for real money.
