Purr Power

Purr Power: Slot Overview

In these hectic lives we seem to get caught up in, have you ever wished you could push all the stressors away to feel the same level of contentment cats display when they are in full purr mode? Say, stretched out on a rug being patted by an adoring owner next to a roaring fire in the depths of a cold winter. Even a fraction of that mindless bliss would be appreciated every now and then. Evolution Gaming partner Max Win Gaming explores the power of the purr in its anime-themed release Purr Power, a slot which keeps its base game in low gear a lot of the time before flipping to a character-rich hold 'n win bonus round.

It's a pretty good bet that Max Win Gaming took inspiration either consciously or unconsciously from Play'n GO's anime hit Moon Princess when it set out to design Purr Power. The game title logo font looks similar, the dreamy, cloudy background looks similar, as do the symbols dropping in on the gaming grid. However, Purr Power's game world is not as developed as Moon Princess. There are no princesses or any other characters accompanying players on screen in the base game, which gets lonely, and a feeling of adequate yet underdone permeates much of the experience.

Purr Power's gaming grid is a 5-reel, 6-row space that uses a scatter-pays mechanism to create wins. Landing 8 or more identical pay symbols in any position on the matrix creates a winning combination. The winning symbols get removed, allowing symbols to cascade downwards, thereby providing another chance to win. Consecutive wins like this occur until no new combination is formed after a drop. A highly volatile math model is on offer, producing a default RTP of 95.68% while laying out stake options of 20 c to $/€20 per spin.

Nine pay symbols (though no wilds) land on the reels in the base game. They consist of 5 circular objects holding a yellow, blue, green, purple, or pink gem, as well as green, purple, pink, and red heart symbols. For landing 8-9 of a kind, the payout is 0.3 to 10 times the bet, whereas a 12+ hit awards 3 to 50 times the bet.

Purr Power: Slot Features

Apart from cascading wins, nothing extra has been included in the base game. Triggering the Collector Bonus, however, is where Purr Power flips to hold 'n win mode, where multiplier symbols (which stick), activator symbols, and special cards may appear.

Collector Bonus

Landing 4 scatter symbols in the base game triggers the Collector Bonus. It starts with 3 spins, where each symbol that hits resets the spin count to 3. Multiplier symbols and activator symbols may land and interact with feature symbols, which appear as cards above the grid. Multiplier symbols land with values of 1x to 5x the bet.

Activator Symbols & Special Cards

Red, green or purple activator symbols may land, triggering the ability of matching coloured cards located above the grid. There are 7 different special cards, each with its own feature:

• The Payer - takes one of the multipliers from the reels and adds it to all multiplier symbols.
• The Booster - increases the value of one of the multiplier symbols.
• The Collector - collects all multiplier values from the reels and adds them to its activator.
• The Doubler - doubles all multiplier values on the reels.
• The Gunner - doubles the value of up to 4 symbols, 1 to 3 times each.
• The Mentalist - multiplies the lowest and the highest multiplier values together.
• The X-er - reveals a multiplier of x2 to x10 and multiplies up to 3 symbols with it.

If a multiplier symbol is placed in every position on the reels, the feature ends and awards an additional 1,000x the bet. Otherwise, the round ends after 3 dead spins or the win cap is reached. Purr Power may provide a feature buy option in which the bonus round can be bought for a set cost.

Pure Power: Slot Verdict

Purr Power is a game where not a lot happens in the base game since Max Win Gaming has decided to leave any sort of modifier or bonus feature out, aside from cascades. Therefore, the bulk of Purr Power is spent watching faux Moon Princess symbols fall into a faux Moon Princess world (minus princesses), occasionally creating wins and triggering tumbles. The scatter system, while perfectly adequate, is a bit of a bandwagon mechanic at the time of writing, lacking the individual finesse of Moon Princess, where wins cross horizontally and vertically into each other like a slot symbol crossword puzzle, dropping in order to hopefully clear the screen, helped by regular blasts of various princess linked feature powers. In Purr Power, it is a case of scatter, tumble, scatter, tumble, and so on.

A definite, clear cut exists between base and bonus round then, and when free spins finally come around, Purr Power gets the chance to display some personality of its own. This comes in the form of character-laced cards that sit above the reels, waiting to pop their power on the board when matching coloured activator symbols land. It works pretty well. There's nothing unmissable from a hold 'n win perspective, but a win cap of 5,000x means impressive results might theoretically be possible. Multiplier symbols don't have the greatest starting values, though, so they'll likely need significant boosting from special cards to really throw up something shocking.

Nowadays, players have access to a fair few anime slots. Play'n GO is going about filling any gaps with Moon Princess variants, as is Pragmatic Play with its range of Princess games. For something more fighty, Octoplay's Eternal Clash might be an option as well. Purr Power sits at best on the same level as those games, though arguably at a lower rung on the ladder. An anime-styled hold 'n win might be of interest, but a drab base game holds Purr Power back.