Extreme Paw Game

Extreme Paw Game: Slot Overview

Extreme sports spent years on the fringes before breaking into the mainstream, fuelled by youth culture, X Games, and big-name sponsorships. The internet blasted them to new heights, and with the support of the Olympics, extreme sports have firmly earned a place in mainstream culture. Software provider Skywind rides the waves of extremity in its online slot Extreme Paw Game, a slot that delivers various sporting disciplines performed by a furless feline, combining a wide array of gaming ideas from hold 'n' win to two free spins rounds, as well as a crash element, aimed at keeping players on the edge of their seats.

If you've never seen one of those hairless Sphynx-like cats performing extreme sports, just wait, because Extreme Paw Game throws its heroic feline into all sorts of daring situations. He has a name too, Mr Paw, and he has a fondness for climbing walls, gliding across snow, and spitting up dust while biking through the desert. It feels like Skywind poured a significant amount of time and effort into making Extreme Paw Game, as play travels between a selection of different settings, depending on the phase, triggering a number of different features, while blending online slot action with a hint of mobile gaming when the crash segments are in play.

A 5x5 grid is where the sporting takes place, and winning combinations are evaluated by 18 paylines, left to right, from the leftmost reel. Volatility is high, and the game is available in three RTP models, with 96.5% the most preferred. To start the rock climbing, snowboarding, or motocrossing, these actually occur, players can first choose a stake of $/€0.10 to $/€300.

The symbols making up the pay table are 9-A royals, climbing equipment, goggles, cameras, and helmets. When landing a combination of 5 matching low pays, the award is 1x-1.5x the stake, or when a 5 OAK premium symbol hits, the payout is 2.5x-10x the bet.

Extreme Paw Game: Slot Features

Extreme Paw Game packs in a lot of features, such as wilds, expanding wilds, Medal prizes, Cat symbols triggering extreme events, a Hold & Slide, Climb Free Spins, Wild Free Spins, Double Chance, and feature buys.

Wild Symbols

Wilds substitute for all paying symbols and are present on every reel. A line of 5 wilds pays 20x the stake. Wilds may also land with a multiplier of x2 to x500. If more than one wild multiplier is part of the same win, the values are added together before being used. Landed wilds can also randomly expand to cover the entire reel. During Wild Free Spins and Climb Free Spins, wilds and expanded wilds are sticky and move to a new position at the start of each new free spin.

Medal Symbols

There are three different Medal symbols - Bronze, Silver, and Gold, worth 1x-3x, 5x-15x, and 25x-5,000x, respectively. Medals appear in the base game, Hold & Slide, and Climb Free Spins.

Cat Symbol

The Cat symbol may appear on the middle reel in the base game, or any reel in the Hold & Slide, or Wild Free Spins. Landing a Cat symbol in the base game triggers the Extreme Climb feature, while landing one in the Hold & Slide triggers the Extreme Slide feature, or in Wild Free Spins it activates the Extreme Wild feature.

• Extreme Climb - The Cat scales a rock face randomly collecting multipliers, extra spins, Medal prizes, and wilds. Once the Cat passes the starting line, it may fall at any time, losing any gathered rewards. To receive the prizes (up to 15), players must click Collect before he falls. If collecting 15 prizes, the feature ends automatically. Climb Free Spins begin when the Extreme Climb ends.
• Extreme Slide - Same as the Extreme Climb, except the Cat slides down a mountain randomly collecting Medal prizes, multipliers, and extra respins. The Hold & Slide continues when the Extreme Slide has ended.
• Extreme Wild - Also the same, except Mr Paw rides a motorbike through the desert randomly collecting multipliers, extra free spins, and wilds. Up to 11 prizes can be collected, and Wild Free Spins continue after the Extreme Wild feature.

Hold & Slide

Landing 3 or more Medal symbols in the base game triggers the Hold & Slide feature. The triggered Medals lock into position and 3 respins are awarded. During respins, blanks, Medals, multipliers, and Cat symbols may land. Any new Medal that lands sticks to its position until the feature ends. Multiplier symbols can land with values of x2 to x500. At the end of each respin, the sum of all multipliers in view is added to the total multiplier field. Whenever one or more new Medal or Multiplier symbols hit, the number of respins is reset. Landing a Cat symbol triggers the Extreme Slide feature. When the round ends by filling the grid or running out of respins, the prizes on the reels are multiplied by the multiplier and paid.

Climb Free Spins

Climb Free Spins start with 5 free spins after the Extreme Climb ends, plus any free spins collected during the Extreme Climb sequence. Each wild and expanded wild is sticky and shifts to a new position on each free spin. Landed Medal symbols pay their value at the end of each spin. All multipliers collected during the Extreme Climb are applied to each win.

Wild Free Spins

Scatters hit on the leftmost, middle, and rightmost reels. Hitting 3 scatters in the base game triggers 8 Wild Free Spins. Wilds and expanded wilds are also sticky and move to new positions for each new spin in this feature. Landing a Cat symbol on the middle reel triggers the Extreme Wild feature.

Double Chance & Feature Buys

Activating the Double Chance increases the stake by 50% to double the chance of triggering the Extreme Climb, the Hold & Slide, and Wild Free Spins. Players are also able to buy Extreme Climb/Climb Free Spins for 50x, Hold & Slide for 70x, or Wild Free Spins for 80x their stake.

Extreme Paw Game: Slot Verdict

It was quickly apparent that Extreme Paw Game was not a slot Skywind knocked out on the quick but instead invested time and resources in creating something quite unique. The game combines a stack of different features which caused a text overload when browsing the paytable rules, though in practice, there's little to nothing here that Mr Paw or participating players should find complicated to grasp. In fact, on their own, a lot of the features are pretty standard extras - wild multipliers, expanded wilds, a rudimentary hold 'n' win, and straightforward free spins rounds. But, pull them all together, and add in the Extreme Climb, Slide, and Wild elements and you've got a busy game that's not without its adrenalised moments.

The Extreme features are the most controversial part of the game. Some may love the tension caused by holding off hitting the collect button to see how far Mr Paw can progress. Others may hate the fact that the cat can crash and wipe out any prizes he'd collected up to that point. The extras he collects are like sweeteners to the main bonus rounds, which still play out whether the collection was successful or not, and it fits the extreme, living-on-the-edge ethos, but still, it's a style not everyone is bound to enjoy. Then again, without them, the three main bonus rounds are a little vanilla. Capable of hitting wins up to 20,000x to be sure, and potentially entertaining with all the roaming wilds, multipliers, and Medal prizes, but somewhat un-extreme when viewed in isolation.

However, mix everything together, while factoring in the eccentric theme, and Extreme Paw Game is a rather unique release. The extreme sports angle feels fresh compared to the endless stream of mythology and ancient civilisation slots currently on the market, and there are gaming twists to experiment with. It might not appeal to everyone, but Extreme Paw Game is a distinctive title that manages to carve out its own identity in a crowded slot landscape.