Big Catch Craze

Big Catch Craze: Slot Overview

It's almost scandalous in this day and age, but software provider AvatarUX has not, until now, released a full-blown fishing slot. There was ReefPop in 2023, but that was more about life on the reef rather than reeling fish out of the sea. Shippy D Pop (2024) and Depths of Fortune (2024) don't really count as full-on fishing slots, either. Suppose the studio has been busy churning out Pop slots at a wild rate of knots, but still, no fishing slot. It feels weird just to say that. Oh well, the angling cherry has now been popped, and the slot in question is Big Catch Craze, and yes, it does involve catching fish money symbols from the reels, as these sorts of games generally tend to do.

If nothing else, Big Catch Craze is a rich celebration of the great outdoors. AvatarUX has gone for realism instead of cartoony to present its fish slot, which takes place on a lake or river somewhere like Canada, where autumnally orange-tinged trees line a waterway before jagged snowy mountains. If Big Catch Craze is anything to go by, then fishing is as much an excuse for getting away from it all to relax in nature, zen-like, to let the body, mind, and soul recharge after being ground down in the urban rat race. The soulful chap in the boat by the grid certainly looks like he's living his best life out there.

Big Catch Craze is played on a transparent 5x4 reelset, putting 20 paylines to use for evaluating winning combinations. A very precise 95.991% is the game's theoretical return value, produced from a highly volatile math model. A wide 10 c to $/€300 is the base betting range, plus it's possible to activate the ante bet at 1.5x the stake to triple the chance of entering free spins.

Jack to Ace card ranks with a soulful monochrome background are the low pays, while the highs are items of fishing such as a rod, a lure, a box, a basket of fishing stuff, and a fish. The highest-value fish symbol also doubles as the money symbol for the collection feature. Hitting a line of 5 royals pays 1 to 4 times the bet; a line of 5 high pays awards 6 to 10 times the bet.

Big Catch Craze: Slot Features

Get ready to land virtual fish with a Fisherman's Net feature, sticky fish respins, free spins, and bonus buys.

The Fisherman's Net

In the base game, the Fisherman can randomly throw his net out on any spin to attempt to catch fish money symbols. During the bonus game, the net may be upgraded, and the Fisherman can throw it more frequently. During the base game, cash-value fish symbols may appear and be caught by the Fisherman's Net. In the bonus game, multiplier fish can also appear, and they multiply the total cash value of fish caught in the net.

Sticky Fish Respins

If there are 5 or more fish symbols on the reels, the sticky fish respins feature is triggered. Each spin pays out any line wins, and any newly landed fish triggers a new respin. It is possible to trigger the Fisherman's Net while this is happening. In this mode, all landed fish are sticky, though they are removed if caught in a net.

Free Spins

Landing 3+ scatter symbols starts the free spins bonus round. Any newly landed scatter symbol during the round increases the net's size and awards +1 free spin. An indicator at the top left keeps track of the possible net size stages. At the final stage, the net will cover the entire grid.

Xpress

The Xpress area is where players can activate various bonus modes. At 10x the bet, players can guarantee a net throw on each spin, while sticky respins cost 25x to activate. A 7 spin free spins round costs 75x, rising to 500x for a 12 free spins round.

Big Catch Craze: Slot Verdict

Saying there are a lot of fish slots now is kind of like saying the sky is blue. It just is. A sizable chunk of them revolve around some sort of faux fishing mechanism to collect fish symbols off the reels. In Big Catch Craze, that mechanism is the Fisherman's Net, which is pretty much the same as a Fisherman symbol on the grid collecting money symbols in some ways, but with an important difference. The net comes in various sizes, so there is no guarantee all of the in-view fish symbols are collected. There's not really a guarantee any of them are collected. Puts a new spin on things, but it's debatable as to whether this method is an improvement on the standard Fisherman symbol catching all fish on the reels action.

On the other hand, the Fisherman's Net is available in the base game, as are sticky fish respins, so players aren't forced to wait until free spins are activated to get their fingers on some money symbols. There are also multiplier fish darting in and out amongst the regular cash money fish. It adds up to enough variety on the plate to convince fish slot fans to put down the Big Basses or the Fishin' Frenzies of the gambling world and have a test run. A 10,000x win cap is another potentially compelling argument.

Does Big Catch Craze do enough to knock the two titans of fishing down the hierarchy a notch or two? Probably not, to be honest. This is not because Big Catch Craze is a bad game, but while the view is like 'chicken soup for the soul,' gameplay and mechanics lacking a familiar zip might be an issue.