The 3 Bears

The 3 Bears: Slot Overview

In one of the most commonly told versions of 'Goldilocks and the Three Bears', a little girl called Goldilocks enters a bear family's home, eats porridge, sits in chairs and smashes one of them, then falls asleep in just the right bed - before the bears return and wake her up. It's an odd tale of thievery, vandalism, and trespassing, told, presumably in part at least, to put children off engaging in these illegal activities. The story's retelling has made its way into books, film, even opera, as well as online gambling, with one example being The 3 Bears from software provider Four Leaf Gaming.

The bears' house, as depicted in The 3 Bears slot, is so charming anyone might be tempted to knock on the door and say hello. Not break in and ransack, of course, but just politely knock and be sociable. The house is nestled into a great tree in a wooded realm that looks ideal for a fairy tale. A gaming matrix built of lashed-together bits of wood holds symbols made of lashed-together bits of wood on its 5-reel, 3-row space, with 15 paylines as indicated by a dripping honeycomb. Very enchanting.

When venturing forth into the bears' domain, players are able to stake 10 c to $/€15 per base game spin, and numerous in-game betting opportunities, as well as an ante bet function and a feature buy, are available as well. Theoretically, this highly volatile slot produces an RTP value of 96%, though a lower 94% figure version has also been designed.

The bear family, aka Baby Bear, Mama Bear, and Papa Bear, take the place as the game's 3 high-paying symbols, joined by 10-A royals as the low pays. A line of 5 matching royals gets you 2 to 4.5 times the bet; a line of 5 premium symbols pays 10x to 50x. Wilds, when they're on board, substitute for any of the regular paying symbols.

The 3 Bears: Slot Features

Linked cascades in The 3 Bears sequentially transform bear symbols into ever more potent wild symbols. This feature is active in all phases of play - the base game and the bonus game. Other add-ons are the Bonus Booster, the Bonus Replay, and Fortune Features.

Wild Bears Feature

The 3 Bears runs on a cascading reels mechanic where winning symbols disappear from the reels, causing symbols to drop down and replace them. After 2 cascades, all existing and future Baby Bear symbols turn wild. After 4 cascades, all existing and future Mama Bear symbols turn wild with an x2 multiplier, then after 6 cascades, all existing and future Papa Bear symbols turn wild with an x2 multiplier, which roams left or right and moves one reel every spin. If a walking wild ends up on a reel with another wild, it adds that wild's multiplier to its own and becomes a full reel roaming wild. If 2 roaming wilds combine, the direction of the uppermost is the direction the walking wild will move. Transformation progress resets between base game spins.

Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols in the base game awards 10, 12, or 15 free spins, respectively. In free spins, cascades turn bears wild as described above, and progress is not reset between free spins.

Bonus Booster & Bonus Replay

The Bonus Booster lets players gamble all or some of their free spins for a chance to win 1, 2, or 3 extra free spins. The more free spins gambled, the higher the chance of winning. The gamble can be repeated, and up to 25 free spins can be won in this way. The Bonus Replay lets players gamble their entire free spins winnings for the chance to replay them on a wheel if the win amount is under a certain threshold. Winning spins replay the free spins feature, but the previous winnings are not carried over. Losing spin returns players to the base game.

Fortune Features

Clicking the green clover button in the bottom left corner is where players can activate Fast Fortunes, which increases the chance of triggering free spins by adding 50% to the stake, or buy 10 free spins for 62x the bet.

The 3 Bears: Slot Verdict

One of the first thoughts when assessing The 3 Bears was how closely it resembles Quickspin's classic slot Big Bad Wolf (with a hint of Quickspin's 2012 release Goldilocks as well). Both are steeped in fairytale lore for one thing, for better or for worse, and some of the main features felt like echoes of each other - mainly the pay symbol to wild effect. If you're familiar with Big Bad Wolf, then it will go without saying The 3 Bears system isn't exactly bang on the same, but there are enough connections to cause one to say hmm. As a recap, in Big Bad Wolf, every second consecutive cascading win turns a pig symbol wild until it is possible to have all 3 wild. The same goes for The 3 Bears, though bear symbols don't just turn wild; two have multipliers, and one can roam. Maybe Quickspin will be watching and taking notes for the next BBW instalment.

As it stands, powering through consecutive cascades in The 3 Bears can lead to some neat wee toys on the reels. Multipliers are always a welcome addition to any game, and the roaming effect adds a sprinkle of extra icing. The rest of the features are fairly standard add-ons for a Four Leaf Gaming slot, a studio that likes to furnish players with a bundle of extra betting options. The sort that is able to boost the chances of getting a decent bonus round (or repeating a lousy one) or rip undies when the gamble goes pear-shaped. Partaking is optional, of course.

The 3 Bears does what it does okay, and avoids doing anything off-putting like spit in your porridge or ruin your favourite armchair. However, it's hard to envisage The 3 Bears lighting up the gambling community's heart the way Big Bad Wolf did.