Boat Bonanza Down Under

Theme and Design

A New Setting For Play n Go's Fishing Slot, This Time With Shark Bites!

The original Boat Bonanza looked like it was set in a British seaside resort, maybe Brighton. This follow-up, Colossal Catch, looked like a similar setting at night. So it’s nice that Play n Go have increased the budget and taken us on a trip down to Oz for this version, with a more interesting backdrop of a surf beach, mountains and foaming waves. Underneath the surface there are ominous signs of shark activity too in the form of a surfboard with teeth marks. Doesn’t seem to bother our fishman though, who sleeps under an Ozzy-style hat laying back in an inflatable. And just to make sure you know your in Oz, not the UK, a digeridoo appears in the soundtrack. All good then!

RTP and Variance

Boat Bonanza comes with the customary 5 RTP rates we are used to in Play n Go games. In this instance the numbers are 96.25%, 94.25%, 91.25%, 87.25% and 84.25%. You can find out which rate your casino has chosen by hitting the ‘?’ in the bottom left of the game screen and scrolling down the rules until you see ‘average RTP’. In my experience SOME UK slot sites will take liberties with Play n Go slots and run them at under 90% so check before you spend any money.

The best casino I have found for RTP – and the only one that consistently runs every slot at the maximum RTP rate available – is MrQ from Lindar Media.

Like previous Boat Bonanza slots, this version has a high variance rating so it will be a volatile one. That means what RTP there is will be weighted further towards the free spins round than the base game, and it’s advisable to set a low stake to absorb the losing streaks whilst trying to unlock that bonus feature.

Maximum Win

The top payout available in this game is 6,000x. That is better than the original Boat Bonanza (5,000x) and the follow-up, Boat Bonanza Colossal Catch (3,000x). But if none of these floats your boat then check out our list of Play n Go’s highest maximum win games instead.

Symbols and Paytable

The game configuration is straight-forward enough with 5 reels, 4 rows and 12 paylines to score wins on. You need 3 or more identical symbols to land across a line from left to right, starting at the left most reel, to trigger any win.

You have 9 pay symbols in the table. They are the cards, 10 to Ace, valued at from 1x for 3 10s up to 10x for 5 Aces. The premiums are the snorkel, flip flops, tin can and seagull, valued at from 3x for 3 snorkels up to 200x for 5 seagulls.

There are NO wilds in this game.

Features and Gameplay

There is no shortage of features in Boat Bonanza Down Under. As well as your standard cash collects are free spins with a pick bonus where one of 16 modifiers is awarded each time.

Here is how it works:

Catch Cash Collect 

The one constant in all fishing slots of course is the Cash Collect, initiated by the fisherman who hooks fish to collect the cash prizes.

So, amongst the pay symbols on the reels you will also see fish which display cash values of 2x, 4x, 10x, 20x, 60x or 100x. As well as having a cash value, landing 3, 4 or 5 of these on a payline will also get you a 4x, 10x or 80x payout.

At the same time, above the reels at any time you will see a fisherman dozing in an inflatable ring. With each spin he MAY move to right or left, but he remains above the reel set at all times. When he wakes up, he activates and catches the fish in the reel directly beneath, collecting their cash values as he does.

As well as the standard catch, there are 2 other ways in which the fisherman can collect prizes:

• Surf n Catch – if a wave appears behind the fisherman he is caught by it and moves across the top of the reels, collecting ALL visible cash values on fish as he does. And, a multiplier is activated with the same value as the number of reels where symbols are collected from. The multiplier is applied to the total win.
• Catch Symbols Down Under – sometimes when a Catch is triggered, an extra mystery prize is collected from under the reels too. This is either cash of up to 50x, a dud, or (in free spins only) an extra scatter to progress you further down the trail.

Free Spins With SIXTEEN Modifiers

The shark scatter symbols is need to unlock the bonus round. Three or more landing at once unlocks the bonus. But before the round begins you get to pick modifiers from a shoal of fish that will help you in the round. There are no less than SIXTEEN possible modifiers to collect:

• 5 more free spins
• More chances of landing catches
• More chances of the Surf n Catch triggering
• More Catch symbols in play
• Lowest value pay symbol is removed from play
• At least ONE Catch symbol will drop on each spin
• The Catch Multiplier increases to 2x
• 1 randomly chosen Catch symbol is sticky for 1 spin
• 10 more free spins
• More chances of Catch triggers at 2x
• More chances of Surf n Catch triggers at 2x
• More Catch symbols AND the 2 lowest value ones are removed from play
• 3 lowest value pay symbols are removed from play
• At least THREE Catch symbol will drop on each spin
• Catch Multiplier goes up to 5x
• Up to 2 randomly chosen Catch symbols are sticky for 1 spin

NOTE: Multipilers in this part of the game ONLY apply to the Catch wins, not standard payline wins.

And … Trail Progression

During the free spins round, you can earn the chance to pick more modifiers and extend the round with more free spins by landing more shark scatters. These are recorded in a trail above the reels.

Every 2 steps on the trail gets you either another 10 spins with a multiplier of up to 10x (positions 4, 8 and 12) or another pick from the shoal of fish (positions 2, 6 and 10).

Free spins max out at 50.