Dog Days

Dog Days: Slot Overview

Ever been sitting at home with a dog on your lap and kinda felt a bit jealous? Like, a well-cared-for poochie doesn't really have many cares in the world, does it? No job, no office, no responsibility, no need to go to the supermarket, no parking, no traffic, no major obligations, just live in the moment and enjoy life. For sure, not too many people would probably actually swap their humanity to become canines, but damn, loved dogs really have it made. Dogs also make excellent props in online slots, and here's another one for poochie lovers to sink their teeth into Dog Days from Games Global partner Nailed it! Games.

Like the gold standard in doggy slots, Pragmatic Play's hit The Dog House, Dog Days is an ultra charming slot. It's bright, sunny, and full to the brim with cute, cuddly four-legged characters. These are pampered poochies, too, living their best lives outside, by a pool, in a lovely rural setting. In the beginning, the five dog characters are slumbering, and each one is associated with its own reel – more on this later. Till then, if you're fond of this part of the animal kingdom, take a moment to let Dog Days' outrageous cuteness wash over you for a bit.

So, we've established Dog Days' adorability, yet beneath the fluff and fleas lies a medium volatile math model, available in four RTP configurations. The highest return value is 96%, and hit rate depends on which bet type has been selected. The options are Bronze, Silver, and Golden, which have hit rates of 34.32%, 39.92%, and 42.93%, respectively. While base bets vary from 20 p/ to $/€100 per spin, if Silver Bet is activated, the stake rises by 50%, while the Golden Bet rises it by 100%. Played on a 5-reel, 3-row gaming panel, Dog Days has 20 fixed paylines for landing winning combinations along.

It is possible to land winning lines of 3 to 5-of-a-kind, and the game has 9 regular paying symbols. These are 10 to A card royals on the lower side, then a collar, a dog bowl, a chef, and a lady with a cocktail as the premium symbols. Hitting a 5-of-a-kind winning line pays 3 to 4 times the bet for the royals and 8 to 20 times the bet for the premiums. Wilds land on all reels, too, to substitute for any regular pay symbol or make wins of their own of up to 20 times the bet.

Dog Days: Slot Features

With its ladder of prize values, you might be thinking Dog Days is another 9 Masks of Fire wannabe. However, whilst it is possible to win cash prizes by landing scatter symbols, the way Dog Days operates is actually quite unique. It revolves around Paw Collections, Tasty Treat Collections, free spins, and a bonus game.

Paw Collections

Each reel has a Paw Collection meter above it when the Tasty Treat Collection feature is not active. When the game begins, a booster is added to each meter for all bet sizes and types. Landed Paw symbols are collected by their respective meter. When a meter has been filled with 5 Paws, it triggers the Tasty Treat Collection feature on that meter. Paw collections are saved at each bet type and size.

Tasty Treat Collections

When the Tasty Treat Collection is active on a reel, landing a Tasty Treat symbol adds 1 point to the collection for that reel. When a Tasty Treat does not land on a spin, 1 chance is removed from the reel collection meter. When a Tasty Treat lands, it resets the meter. When the meter loses all its chances or 10 Tasty Treats have landed on the reel, a prize is awarded. Depending on the reel and the number of Tasty Treats which landed, prize values range from 1x to 2,500x the bet. Another point is if the Bronze Bet, Sliver Bet, or Gold Bet is active, the Tasty Treat Collection meter has 3, 4, or 5 chances, respectively.

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols awards a corresponding amount of 10, 14, or 20 free spins. Also, 3, 5, 7, or 10 free spins are retriggered when 2, 3, 4, or 5 scatters respectively land during the round. During free spins, line wins, and bonus game cash wins are tripled in value. For free spins, the Tasty Treat collection meters are active and start at 0 points. Chances are not used. Instead, Tasty Treats are collected throughout the round, and at the end, each reel awards a prize equal to the number of Tasty Treats collected.

Bonus Game

Landing 3-5 bonus symbols in the base game or 2-5 in free spins triggers the bonus game. Players click bonus symbols one at a time, and each awards either – 40x the bet (120x in free spins), 10x the bet (30x in free spins), 4x the bet (12x in free spins), 3x the bet (9x in free spins), 2x the bet (5x in free spins), Tasty Treat Collection symbol on active reels, or Paw Collection symbols if applicable.

Dog Days: Slot Verdict

After playing Gold Mine Stacks 2 and Rome Supermatch, we've come to expect a certain amount of innovation when diving into a Nailed it! Games product. At first, it felt like Dog Days might have slipped back into copying the 9 Masks of Fire format, but a few spins in, it quickly became obvious that Nailed it! Games had no interest in copying another studio's work, no matter how popular or tempting it might be. For sure, players get the chance to land, or in this case, collect, certain scatter symbols in order to win prizes from a list of values. However, it's hard to think of many, if any, that do it quite the same way Dog Days does.

For the most part, Dog Days' various collection methods were rather fun to play through. It's a busy game, with something interesting either happening or not far away from triggering and then happening. Kinda neat, too, that the collection and prize awarding occurs on a reel-by-reel basis instead of spreading it out over the entire grid. This way, you can have Paw Collections happening at the same time as Tasty Treat Collections. Keeps the pace up and the action flowing quite well. Flows well in free spins, too, as each reel builds its own Tasty Treat Collection, and at the end, those reels that collected Tasty Treat symbols award an individual prize.

A massive potential slot this is not, though, maxing out at 2,500 times the bet. Still, there is definite entertainment value to be had here for the right player even though some might find it messy and a bit bloated with confusing things to keep track of. Dog lovers may swoon, scatter prize aficionados may be interested, as will anyone looking for a super bubbly slot with a bunch of loveable canine characters kicking back to enjoy life with a unique blend of collect and possible reward.