Spirit Bear

Spirit animals is not a very common theme when it comes to slot games. GamingSoft has boldly ventured where none else have, and though the story isn’t much to go on at least the theme is a bit unique. The game itself is not that different from your standard slot game. The usual reel setup is combined with a couple of special features and jackpots.

Theme

The game is set in some sort of mountain valley, seemingly devoid of human corruption. Though this land seems to be the domains of the Spirit Bear it also seems that the area is large enough for him to mostly stay out of the reels. Though there are a few animations to celebrate winning prizes the game mostly trust in static graphics. These are nice to look at but quickly become just a wallpaper for the reels. The music and audio effects likewise only come to play when you manage to win, and even then they do not offer much entertainment.

Betting Options and Functions

There are a total of fifteen fixed paylines running from left to right. The reel setup is the standard five times three, with two to five symbols needed to form a winning combination. Betting is controlled via two simple buttons, either raising or lowering your stake. There are plenty of choices in this regard, and you can play with both low and high bets.

The playing card ranks form the cast of low-paying symbols. Getting five aces on a row will pay you back ten times your bet, but on the other hand, having three tens will only pay back a third of the bet. Plenty of variation. Luckily the themed symbols pay out a lot more. The salmon pays out the most, with 333 times the bet returned when five symbols match.

Features

Wild works to replace any other symbols, except the jackpot one, and also pays out up to 200 times your bet if five are on a line. Three or more scatters in turn awards free spins. These can be retriggered, with ten more added to the running total every time you get so lucky. The mystery scatter symbols is picked at random.

Like in most other GamingSoft jackpot games, here too the jackpot game is activated by three jackpot symbols. There are four different jackpots that this allows you to chase. In this case, you get to go fishing with the bear, and finding three similar fish will award you the corresponding jackpot. It is worth noting that the size of the jackpot depends on your bet; to claim the whole pot you need to be playing with the highest bet.

Our Take

The downside of the massive jackpots is, as mentioned above, the necessity to always play with the highest bet. Otherwise, you will only end up with a fraction of the pot, which still is quite a considerable win. The game offers a nice theme and a bit of action, but in the end, doesn’t really do anything to rise above the competition.