Fortune Cats Golden Stacks

Theme and Design

An Overload Of Cute Cats and Lucky Charms!

In Fortune Cats Golden Stacks Thunderkick have turned the dial up on the cuteness factor way beyond 10! The theme is luck and with the Japanese writing on some of the symbols, the koi carp, and happy, waving cats the production comes with Asian styling. As you would expect from this studio, the artwork is top quality, though the cartoonish feel and over-the-top fluffiness might not appeal to everyone. Overall, the pastel colors, soft blues and bright pinks are fairly inoffensive, and the synth-y soundtrack is pleasant enough as you wait for those lucky spins to drop.

RTP and Variance

Fortune Cats Golden Stacks has 4 RTP settings – 96.14%, 94.14%, 92.14% or 90.14%. Which you play at will be as the discretion of your casino. I recommend checking the RTP once you have loaded up the game. You can do that by hitting the ‘I’ button in the top right of the screen. For this review I verified the RTP at a few sites we use for testing. MrQ was the only one to be running the game at the optimum level of 96.14%.

This is one of Thunderkick’s less volatile slots with a medium variance rating. So it should provide a more balanced payout distribution than games like Shifting Seas from the same provider for example.

Maximum Win

The top payout in this game is a little underwhelming at 2,500x. However, for a medium variance game it is not that unusual. If you want to play for higher jackpots I recommend reading our article on slots with the highest maximum wins.

Symbols and Paytable

Fortune Cats Golden Stacks has a simple 5 reel and 4 row set up with 40 paylines giving plenty of ways to win. Wins are triggered by landing 3 or more identical symbols from left to right across a payline, starting at the left most reel.

There are just 8 symbols in the paytable. Each of the four low value symbols – clubs, spades, hearts and diamonds – is valued at 0.3x, 0.5x and 1x for 3, 4 or 5 on a line. The premiums are the calabash – the plump vegetable wrapped in a gold ribbon - koi fish, Japanese lantern and golden cat. These are valued at from 0.5x for 3 fish up to 7.5x for 5 cats.

There is also a Wild that substitutes for all other pay symbols to complete paylines. It has no value of its own and appears on reels 2 to 5.

Features and Gameplay

This game is all about unlocking the free spins round where extra reel sets come into play which can be exciting and lead to bigger wins. This is how it works:

Mystery Symbols Transform Into a Randomly Chosen Symbol

Mystery symbols can appear on any spin in both the base game and free spins round and in any positions on the reels. These symbols are represented by a fan image. When they land they ALL turn into the SAME pay symbol, chosen at random, and at best can transform into the high-paying golden cat. 

Free Spins With Up To THREE Reel Sets And Replicating Golden Stacks

So, to unlock the free spins round you will need to land 3 or more bonus symbols. You get the following configurations dependent on how many bonus symbols land:

• 3 Symbols – 10 spins on the standard reel set
• 4 Symbols – 10 spins and TWO reel sets
• 5 Symbols – 10 spins and THREE reel sets

Once you are into the free spins round you can collect bonus symbols to unlock further reel sets if they are available. So, if you collect 3 bonus symbols then the 2^nd reel set opens up. If you collect 5 then the 3^rd reel set opens up.

By collecting bonus symbols you will also add to your free spins total. Each 1 gets you 1 more spin, and each time a new reel set opens up, you get 2 more spins too!

This clever progressive gameplay feature means that with all 3 reel sets open, you get 120 paylines active in total, giving you better odds of winning on each spin.

Golden Stacks Activates When 2 Or More Reel Sets Are Active

Finally, to add further excitement, when more than 1 reel set is active, the Golden Stacks feature is activated. This means whenever ONE whole reel is filled with a stack of the golden cat symbol, then this is replicated across the other reel sets. This will also increase your odds of hitting high value wins with the top paying premium symbol.