Theme & Design

4ThePlayer’s Popular Fishing Series Gets The Dream Drop Treatment

It seems like everybody loves a fishing game – that’s why we’ve got more than a dozen Big Bass Bonanza slots and now five different 4 Fantastic Fish slots. 4ThePlayer has provided clear and crisp artwork, though there’s not a whole lot that’s changed from the non-Dream Drop version. In fact, the only visible difference is the removal of the four jackpot fish values and the inclusion of a wheel of jackpots in its place. 

If you enjoy fishing-themed slots then you’ll have no complaints with this one. However, it would’ve been nice to see 4ThePlayer get a little more creative, rather than just giving a quick makeover to one of their old favourites.

RTP and Variance

4 Fantastic Fish Gold Dream Drop has an RTP of 94% which is right in line with almost all of the other slots on the Dream Drop progressive jackpot network. While this might seem a little stingy, it’s important to bear in mind that 12% of every spin goes directly to the jackpot pool. So, it’s actually not half bad. 

This slot has high volatility meaning you’ll experience greater swings between big wins and losing streaks. If you’ve got the bankroll to back you up, then it won’t inhibit your enjoyment one bit.

Maximum Win

This category was a tricky one to score. You can’t ignore that the big jackpot fish from the non-Dream Drop version have been removed from the game entirely. This has taken the non-progressive max win from 15,000x in the original, down to just 2,298x. That’s a big cut, especially when you consider Dueling Jokers Dream Drop and Space Miners Dream Drop have a 50,000x non-progressive max win on the same network.

However, most people who opt for 4 Fantastic Fish Gold Dream Drop, over the original are doing so because of that progressive jackpot. The Mega jackpot seeds at €500,000 and can’t be won until it reaches at least €1,000,000.  So while the non-progressive max win is a little disappointing, the progressive jackpot certainly can’t be sniffed at.

Explore Games With Similar RTP, Variance and Maximum Win

Like the numbers? Here are some more games you might want to try.

Symbols and Paytable

This is a win ways game. It is played on a 6×4 grid so that gives you 4,096 paylines to make your wins on (4x4x4x4x4x4). You just need to land at least 2 premium symbols, or at least 3 low value symbols, on adjacent reels from left to right, starting at the left-most reel.

There are 10 pay symbols, as well as a scatter, a fish, and a wild, which we’ll talk about in the features section. The low paying symbols are the card suits, which pay out from 0.2x your bet for 3 symbols, up to 2.5x your bet for 6 symbols. The premium symbols are the tackle box, fishing reel, seagull, crab, and highest of all the fisherman. These pay out from 0.2x your bet for 2 symbols, up to 10x your bet for 6 symbols.

Features and Gameplay

This slot really stands out for its features, there are loads of them! Let’s have a look at each one and how it works.

Money Ways

There are a selection of fish symbols that can land on any reel at any time. Each of the fish has a cash prize attached to it which can reach as high as 50x the bet if it’s on reel 6 (or 1.8x the bet on reel 1). If you land a fish and it becomes part of a winning way then you’re paid out for the value of the fish as well as the win.

Re-spin Bonus

If you land at least 3 scatters (BONUS symbols) then you’ll trigger the re-spin bonus, which is basically a Hold and Win round.

Only reels on which the triggering scatters landed are active at the start of the round.  If you happen to land a fish symbol on the spin that triggers the respin bonus then that fish will be locked in place for the round.

Now, all active reels spin to reveal ONLY fish or blanks. Any new fish that land will be locked in place. You start with 3 re-spins, and each time you land at least one fish, the counter re-sets to 3. If no fish land, the counter goes down by 1. When it hits zero or you fill the active reels, then the round is over and the total value of all visible fish is paid out.

NOTE: The inactive reels, which have chains across them, can be activated if another scatter lands on them during a re-spin.

Shark Feature

If at any point you manage to completely fill a reel with fish symbols in the base game, then a shark appears. It swims up to the reel and collects all of the cash prizes from those fish symbols. Better still the cash prizes are all added together and then multiplied by 2.

Giant Squid Bonus

At any point, a Giant Squid can appear and reshuffle any stuck fish symbols. In the base game it moves fish to improve the win you get from them, while in the respin round it moves fish from closed reels to open reels to lock it into a new spot. 

Dream Drop Bonus

Before any normal spin you can trigger the Dream Drop Bonus round. If you do, the fortune wheel at the top of the grid will spin until it lands on one of the five jackpots (shown below). Whichever jackpot the wheel lands on is the one that you win.

• Rapid (seeded at €1)
• Midi (seeded at €5)
• Maxi (seeded at €100)
• Major (seeded at €25,000)
• Mega (seeded at €500,000 with a minimum payout of €1,000,000)

The Final Verdict

4 Fantastic Fish Gold Dream Drop is a welcome addition to the Dream Drops network, which until now didn’t have a single fishing themed game! Though the non-progressive max win of 2,298x your bet is a little low, that progressive jackpot is something to get excited about. 

The artwork team kept almost all of what made the original 4 Fantastic Fish Gold slot so brilliant, while adding a small twist with the Dream Drops wheel. The numerous features keep this game feeling fresh and exciting, though watch out for the high variance if you’re on a tight budget.