Duck Hunt 500

Duck Hunt 500: Slot Overview

Huntin', huh? It's one of those things people are really into or they're really not. Once upon a time, hunting might have meant the difference between life and death, so banding a team together to successfully bring down a woolly mammoth might have helped the clan thrive rather than just survive. These days, visiting the nearest supermarket and buying a pack of meat is a lot quicker and easier than stalking game, but hunting remains a popular pastime, so to relive the experience on reels or to get a safe, blood-free taste of annihilating wildlife, come take a look at software provider AvatarUX's online slot Duck Hunt 500.

If Duck Hunt 500 is anything to go by, hanging out by a pond, waiting for ducks to fly over so you can kablooie them to bits is a pretty relaxing way to pass the time. A slidey guitar tune provides much of the low, in a good way, energy, as does the nicely done hazy background image as if Monet rendered a morning of slaughtering wildlife in oils and watercolours. The guide for this huntin' trip is a bushy-bearded gunslinger who splits his time between chugging on a pipe and swinging his rifle around, ending birds on the gaming grid.

A 5x4 reelset is where the ducks land and get blasted, and 20 paylines are provided for evaluating winning symbol combinations. Bets of 20 c to $/€300 may be staked on each spin, and when activated, the Ante Bet doubles the stake to increase the chance of getting the bonus by 3.5x. AvatarUX has designed three RTP configurations for Duck Hunt 500, and the highest is 96.03%, while the volatility is high.

Playing card ranks J, Q, K, and A are Duck Hunt 500's low pay symbols, awarding 1x to 4x the bet for a 5 OAK combination, while duck whistles, binoculars, backpacks, guns, and Ducks are the high pays, worth 6x to 10x the bet for 5 OAK. Gunfire must have scared them away because Duck Hunt 500 does not have wild symbols in it.

Duck Hunt 500: Slot Features

As in life, so it is in Duck Hunt 500 where shooting ducks leads to rewards in the base game and bonus round via the Hunter's Shot feature.

The Hunter's Shot

On any base game spin, the Hunter can randomly shoot his gun, highlighting positions on the reels. Any cash value Ducks caught within the highlighted area award their prize values. During the bonus round, the Shot size can be upgraded, and the Hunter is able to shoot more often.

Duck Symbols

The highest-paying Duck symbol can land in the base game as cash-value ducks. During the bonus game, multiplier Ducks may also appear, and they multiply the total cash value of all Ducks caught in the Shot.

Free Spins

Landing 3 or more scatters in the base game triggers the free spins bonus round. Landing a new scatter during the round increases the Shot's possible size and awards +1 free spin. At its greatest size, the Shot covers the entire grid.

Xpress

Opening the Xpress bonus buy menu is where players may activate the Guaranteed Shot, where each spin costs 5x the bet and has a 100% chance of triggering the Hunter's Shot. Seven free spins in the bonus round costs 75x the bet to buy, while 12 free spins costs 500x.

Duck Hunt 500: Slot Verdict

Duck hunting and fishing share a few commonalities, such as they both occur in the great outdoors, they provide a chance for people to take on the natural world, and they involve capturing animals, whether for food or some other obscure reason. In the online gambling realm, Duck Hunt 500 also shares one or two characteristics with fishing slots. However, instead of a collector symbol, Duck Hunt 500 has the Hunter Shot, which randomly shoots at the reels and awards any cash symbols that happen to be caught within its blast radius.

This is a bit different to the common collector symbol technique, but maybe not as unique as first suspected since many of Duck Hunt 500's mechanics have been brought over from the AvatarUX fishing slot Big Catch Craze. The respins feature has been omitted, and gunshots take the place of nets, but the action is very close to what it was before. The artwork reinforces the links between the two slots, and this is no bad thing since both are handsome games. As before, the Hunter's Shot effect can be a little frustrating since only cash prizes caught within the highlighted blast area are awarded, while the rest go to waste. This system does add suspense to the free spins round since the highlighted area can be increased by landing scatters until the entire grid comes within its scope.

Shoot the shizz out of Duck Hunt 500, and it is able to produce payouts up to a 10,000x the bet win cap. A sizable figure, and Duck Hunt 500 is an entertaining repeat of Big Catch Craze with guns instead of nets, but if the size of the potential trophy or ducks vs possibly massive multipliers is of interest, then Nolimit City's Duck Hunters might be worth a look as well.