Cowabunga Dream Drop

Theme and Design

Fun, Novelty Surfing Design With Super-Sized Wave

It looks fun for sure, but Cowabunga is a little too simplistic for my tastes and certainly a far cry from evocative slots like Dead Man’s Trail or lavish designs like The Great Pigsby. Instead, this is a basic surf slot set on a beach with palm trees framing a view of the ocean where one giant wave is barrelling towards shore, housing a 5x3 reel set under its crest, populated by classic surf dudes and girls. To be fair, the expanding reels feature is nicely integrated into the design, so the wave grows impressively to towering size when 7 rows are in play, and the surf sounds get louder which is quite atmospheric. But the twangy guitar soundtrack is instantly forgettable and the ‘wow’ and ‘awesomes’ from the surfers can be grating after a while. On the other hand, if you’ve been looking for a surf slot all your life, then welcome ...!

RTP and Variance

Cowabunaga comes in with a 96.01% RTP if you are playing the version without the addition of the Dream Drop progressive jackpot, and at 93.99% if you are playing the big money version. This is to account for the 3% slice taken from each bet to be put towards the jackpot pool. Both rates are standard for an online slot, so I have no complaints there. And unlike some competitor studios, Relax Gaming do not provide their games with multiple RTP options so you know you will always be playing at 96.01% or 93.99%.

The volatility rating of Cowabunga is a medium-high making it a little less volatile than other games in the Dream Drop series, something which is reflected in the main game prize configuration. It make this game an easier entry point into the series for those who might be put off by the sky high variance of slots like Neko Nights Dream Drop or TNT Tumble Dream Drop.

Maximum Win

Outside of those stunning progressives, the max win here is just 6,000x. That puts Cowabunga close to the bottom of the table for Dream Drops. Only Snake Arena Dream Drop with its 2,758x non-progressive max win is lower. You will get much better potential in Templar Tumble 2 Dream Drop (20,000x) and Neko Nights Dream Drop (20,000x) for example. But perhaps this is the trade-off for that slightly more forgiving volatility which gives more risk averse slots players a crack at the big one.

Symbols and Paytable

The reel configuration in Cowabunga Dream Drop is a little unusual. It starts as a 5 reel, 3 row slot, floating in front of the giant wave about cascade onto the beach, but the middle 3 reels can expand upwards to the crest of the wave to make them 7 rows high. More on that in our features section.

This is a win ways game. To trigger a win you need to land 3 or more identical symbols across the reels from left to right, starting at the left most reel, regardless of the row they are on. That gives you 243 win ways when there are 3 rows per reel (3x3x3x3x3). And 3,087 win ways when there middle 3 reels expand to 7 high (3x7x7x7x3).

The paytable itself looks underwhelming with low values throughout. The low value symbols are four colored fish in green, blue, orange and red. These are valued at just 0.2x for 5 on a line. The premiums are the 4 surfers – 2 guys and 2 girls. These are valued at up to a maximum of 2x (yes, just 2x!) for 5 on a line.

At least you have a wild, represented by the life ring, to help complete win ways. These substitute for any other pay symbol and pay out 2x for 5 in a win way.

Features and Gameplay

If you’re not in it for the Dream Drops then Cowabunga feels a bit underwhelming with just a few small features to liven up the gameplay.

Synching and Expanding Reels

The expanding middle reels is a random event that can happen after any spin. Two, or sometimes three of reels 2, 3 and 4, will expand upwards to 7 rows high, displaying matching (synching) symbols on the 4 new rows.

Remember, this is not a paylines slot. It’s a win ways game, so the expanded reels give you a greater chance of completing those win ways. 

Random Nudges

As well as expanding reels, there is a random nudge event. In this case, on occasion the reels will nudge downwards after they come to rest to set up a win way.

Free Spins

One good thing about Cowabunga Dream Drop is that you need only TWO scatters to land to trigger the free spins round instead of the usual three. That gets you 5 spins where the middle 3 reels are always synched.

You will also be awarded an extra free spin for every scatter that lands on reel 5 during the free spins.

The Dream Drop Jackpot Game

Dream Drop games use a variety of mechanisms to trigger the main event. In this case it’s simple.

There are two steps.

Firstly, you at any time you may be awarded a Jackpot Spin when you hit the spin button. The Jackpot Spin features special DD symbols on the reels. You need one to land on EACH reel to trigger the actual Dream Drop game.

Now the action moves to the Dream Drop grid with 5 reels and 5 rows where only DDs and blanks can land. The DDs from the triggering spin are brought over to this game. Each reel represents one of the jackpots, from Mini on the left to Mega on the right. The reels keep spinning and you keep collecting DDs until one of the reels is filled and the respective JP is triggered.

The 5 jackpot seeds are as follows:

• Rapid - £1
• Mini - £5
• Maxi – £100
• Major – £25,000
• Mega - £500,000

The Mega is now capped at £3,000,000. In October 2023 the 11^th Mega Dream Drop was won on Volatile Vikings Dream Drop. The lucky player scooped €2,976,908.13 from a 2 euro bet.