Otterly Amazing

Otterly Amazing: Slot Overview

If you've ever seen an otter floating on its back in the water, face up, paws in the air, you'll know just how cute these critters can be. Given the online gambling industry's fascination with all things adorable, it's amazing it's been fairly quiet on the otter front. Not any more. Thanks to software designer Blue Guru Games, we've got Otterly Amazing, an otter themed aquatic based online slot that's all about things like expanded reels, free spins, stacked wilds, stacked multiplier wilds, and stacked mystery symbols; basically, there's a whole lot of stacking going on.

There's also a whole lot of saving the kelp going on. See, according to Otterly Amazing's backstory, since 2014, kelp forests have been vanishing, leaving behind wastelands of urchins and rubbish in their place. The player's job, aside from trying to score some cash, is to help the otters by collecting urchins and trash, thereby helping restore the sea to a more pristine state. The gaming takes place down in the murky depths of the ocean, where towers of kelp sway in the currents and where the sea bed does look a little patchy. For some reason, Blue Guru Games has paired the visuals with a sort of 1980s kids' cartoon soundtrack, which is pretty exciting, but is it a little out of place? Players can be the judge on that one.

In the middle of the screen hovers Otterly Amazing's semi-transparent grid, which spends the base game in a 5-reel, 4-row size crossed by 40 fixed paylines. It is possible to extend the grid up to a maximum of 7 rows high, where 70 paylines become active. A highly volatile slot, Otterly Amazing comes in three RTP settings, and its highest is 96.09% when betting at 20 p/c to $/€40 per spin, or 96.03% when buying the bonus for 100 times the bet.

Otterly Amazing divides its 9 regular pay symbols into two groups – garbage and otters. Items of trash make up the 5 low pay symbols, worth 1 to 1.5 times the bet for 5-of-a-kind, while 4 bubbled otters are the premium symbols, paying 2 to 5 times the bet for a 5-symbol win. Wild symbols are present on all reels, too, substituting any regular pay symbol or making wild wins worth up to 10 times the bet.

Otterly Amazing: Slot Features

For features, Otterly Amazing has a few special symbols that appear in either or both game phases, while its main extra is free spins, where scatters are collected to unlock awards.

Stacked Symbols

• The Stacked Wild symbol - only appears in the base game. Stacked Wild symbols substitute for all symbols except scatters to help create winning combinations.
• Stacked Mystery Kelp – a mystery symbol that lands in the base or bonus game.
• Stacked Wild Multiplier Kelp – lands in the bonus round only. Substitutes for any pay symbols and can have up to 3 different multiplier values. Starting values are x2, x3, or x4.

Free Spins

Landing 3 or more scatter symbols triggers the bonus game. An otter smashes open 3 urchins to award up to 20 free spins. Scatters also pay 3, 10, or 100 times the bet when 3, 4, or 5 of them hit, respectively. Now, during free spins, collecting scatters unlocks extra awards. Collecting 3 Pink scatters awards - +1 free spin, a pay symbol is removed from the grid, +1 position is added to Stacked Mystery Kelp and Stacked Multiplier Wild Kelp, plus 1 row and 10 paylines are added. Once all paylines are unlocked (70) and symbols removed, only 1 extra free spin will be awarded from then on. Collecting 3 Blue scatters awards - 1 extra free spin, +1 to the value of all multiplier levels when Stacked Wild Multiplier Kelp reveals their random value when triggered as part of a winning combo.

Otterly Amazing: Slot Verdict

Otterly Amazing's storyline involving cleaning up the oceans, coupled with its retro soundtrack, may bring back memories of the animated tv show Captain Planet and the Planeteers, which originally aired from 1990-1996 and told the story of how Gaia, the Earth's spirit, was so concerned with 'terrible destruction plaguing our planet' that she sent 5 rings to 5 special youngsters, which, when combined, summoned Captain Planet, sporting blue skin and a green mullet, to help save the day. Hey, the 90s were wild times, man.

They were also optimistic times, too, in some ways, and some of that optimism has made its way into Otterly Amazing, an environmentally minded online slot where players help otters clean up the seas. Sort of, while sitting at home, not actually dredging real junk out of the ocean, but attempting to trigger free spins where the virtual symbol removal/clean-up can begin. Otterly Amazing has quite a lot to it and eyebrow arching potential of 17,752 times the bet, yet it didn't have the feel of a heavy-duty slot. Instead, it came across as a little off, at odds with its menu of features and highly volatile math model. The base game was so-so, although things did ramp up during free spins since there is so much more stuff going on. Stacked symbols on an expanded game board could be somewhat diluted when they miss out on being connected with other paylines, though, as mentioned, Otterly Amazing does offer sizable potential for when it all comes together.

Gotta hand it to Blue Guru Games, Otterly Amazing is original. It's hard to remember the last time players were given a chance to save the seas with a bunch of otters while gambling. Likely it has never happened before. So, a level of novelty value is here to be experienced in Otterly Amazing, but at the same time, there's something about Otterly Amazing that felt unfulfilled once the novelty had worn off.