Bob Marlin Goes Deep

Bob Marlin Goes Deep: Slot Overview

It's time, once again, players, to sit back in your seat, pretend to feel salt air blowing against your face, and imagine reeling in fish while having a gamble. The studio chartering this trip is Yggdrasil Gaming, not a name hugely synonymous with fishing slots, but one which has plastered our fishy friends across gaming grids in the past. You won't just find fish here, either. In Bob Marlin Goes Deep, a cheerful angler joins gamblers as they attempt to expand the active play area, hit super high-paying symbols, and that's about it since this is not a fishing slot which uses a collector to hook money symbols.

Bob Marlin is a prominent figure in the game, joining players by the grid as they attempt to haul in fish and wins. An attractive home screen sets the scene nicely, depicting Bob at the front of a boat ploughing through fish-filled water on a glorious blue sky day. Enter the game, though, and the graphics aren't as enchanting, but a friendly atmosphere permeates the place, providing a measure of impetus to power on and see what else might happen.

Hit the play button, and Bob pulls a crank to get the 5x4 reelset a-spinning. By default, there are 1,024 ways to win, but this number can grow to 16,807 when the reels have expanded to reach their 7-row high maximum. Players can stake 10 c to $/€125 per spin and, when doing so, get a favourable 96.8% RTP (though there is a 90.5% version available as well). If the math model is any guide, Jaws, this ain't, being a low volatile slot.

At any time, low-paying J-A royals and high-paying cans, hooks, reels, and tackle boxes may land. However, only when Collection Free Spins are active can the blue, green, purple, or red super high-paying symbols appear. Landing 5 matching lows pays 0.6x, 5 matching highs are worth 0.8x-1.4x, while 5 super highs are worth 2.8x-4x the bet. Mr Marlin makes do without wild symbols on the reels.

Bob Marlin Goes Deep: Slot Features

Bob Marlin's mission is to land scatters, expand reels, collect fish, and either trigger regular free spins or, if the fish are biting, Collection Free Spins where the super high pay symbols may appear.

Expanding Reels

Scatters may land on the leftmost, middle and rightmost reel, and each time a scatter lands, it adds an extra row to the bottom of the grid. The reels can be expanded by up to 3 rows at the most. Reel height resets between base game spins.

Free Spins

Hitting 3 scatters triggers 10 free spins, which take place on a fully expanded 5x7 matrix. Free spins do not land scatters or Collectable symbols.

Collectible Symbols

Collectable fish symbols only appear on the 3 expanded rows in the base game, and players are given 3 Orange fish when they play for the first time. Collecting 5 identical fish awards 5 Collection Free Spins. If more than one collection is complete at the same time, the corresponding free spins are awarded in the order of blue, green, purple, and orange. If Collection Free Spins and regular free spins trigger simultaneously, regular free spins are played first.

Collection Free Spins take place on a 5x7 fully expanded grid that features super high-paying symbols matching the colour of the collected fish. They are played with the average bet value of all bets used when completing the collection. Collection Free Spins do not have scatter symbols or Collectable fish.

Bob Marlin Goes Deep: Slot Verdict

Bob Marlin Goes Deep was not a game that made a striking first impression, and sadly, after browsing the rules and seeing it spin through a few times, what little interest it did generate quickly melted away. It's an odd game, far and away from being Yggdrasil Gaming's finest. The studio has experience in watery parts via slots like those in the Golden Fish Tank range or through partner studio 4ThePlayer's 4 Fantastic Fish series, for example. It was hard to know what to make of Bob Marlin Goes Deep, actually. For very light gaming involving the sea and a solid default RTP (if you can find it), then maybe it might be a match.

Despite not going down the popular collector symbol hooking money symbol approach, the game got repetitive fast. The base game trundled along at a slow pace, occasionally adding rows as scatters hit. Perhaps the inclusion of a cascading win feature would have gotten more out of the expanding reels feature, which, more often than not, expanded by one row, did little, then shrunk back for the next spin to continue Bob's journey across the seas. Fully expanding the reels by landing three scatters and triggering free spins isn't a hugely game-changing event because nothing special happens during them other than players get a full grid to work with for the duration. Neither Collectable fish nor scatters land in free spins either, so they're not overly exciting. Collection Free Spins are slightly better since the so-called super high pay symbols are able to land there, but still.

After hitching up the boat back at base, Bob Marlin Goes Deep was not one that made a deep impression, and considering how many fishing slots gamblers have access to, a question mark arose over how many would choose this over the rest. Admittedly, the default RTP is attractive, and winning potential of 3,905x isn't the lowest ever seen, but by the end, the game's appeal was closer to a soggy fish finger than premium bluefin tuna.