Unusual Catch

Unusual Catch: Slot Overview

What do detectives do during their time off when they're not cracking cases to help put baddies behind bars? They probably do a whole range of activities, but some of them, somewhere, surely, go fishing. The lawman who led Northern Lights Gaming's slots Unusual Suspects and More Unusual Suspects is one who likes to take to the water to bait up. He's popped up again to front Unusual Catch, and this game shares more than just a titular link and leading man with the two 'Unusual' slots that preceded it.

Indeed, Unusual Catch is a reskin of Unusual Suspects, so just about everything is the same as before from a technical perspective. Naturally, the skin has been altered, so players now spend their time in a watery location rather than a downtown busting crime one. The view parallels Bigger Bass Bonanza, depicting a bubbling sea next to a palm-treed city skyline where the base game is played in the daytime, while the free spins occur at night.

The statistics haven't changed much, if at all; the same medium volatility rating has been slapped on the math model, which continues to churn out a default RTP of 96.04%. Players may wager 10 c to $/€20 per spin and are able to buy their way to the free spins round or attempt to gamble their way into it. A 5-reel, 4-row matrix is Unusual Catch's gaming area, which has 25 paylines crossing it for evaluating regular wins.

Scaly 10, J, Q, K, and A card ranks are Unusual Catch's low pays, awarding 1 times the bet for a line of 5 matching symbols. Hit 5 matching high-pay bottles, hooks, hats/glasses, or dinghies to collect 2 to 10 times your bet.

Unusual Catch: Slot Features

As before, wilds are linked to a lot of the action in Unusual Catch, and they may land on all reels. Landing a line of 5 wilds pays 10x the stake, and wilds can be used to substitute any other pay symbol. If a Purple Wild lands, it spawns more wilds or another Purple Wild symbol. When wild symbols hit, they leave an x1 sticky frame around the position they landed in. When wilds appear in a position that is already framed, they increase the multiplier by +1 up to a maximum of x5.

Angler Wild Bonus

When the Angler symbol lands, it populates all sticky framed positions with wilds. Multipliers on a payline are applied to any win they are part of. In the base game, after the Angler Wild bonus ends, all sticky frames are removed. During free spins, sticky frames remain in place until the round ends.

Free Spins Booster

Scatters can appear anywhere on the grid. When exactly 2 scatters are in view, they add 1 token to the Booster Meter, which requires 50 tokens to be filled. If the 2 scatters land on the top 3 rows, Nudging Respins are triggered. Any reel with a scatter is held and nudged down one row while the other reels get respun. Nudging Respins continue until a scatter reaches the bottom row or until 5 scatters land.

Bad Bass Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters triggers 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. During the round, when Angler symbols hit, they are collected on the Bonus Trail:

• Collecting 3 Anglers unlocks Bad Bass 1, awarding +5 free spins with an x2 multiplier.
• Collecting 6 Anglers unlocks Bad Bass 2, awarding +5 free spins with an x3 multiplier.
• Collecting 9 Anglers unlocks Bad Bass 3, awarding +5 free spins with an x5 multiplier.
• Collecting 12 Anglers unlocks Bad Bass 4, awarding +5 free spins with an x10 multiplier.

If free spins were triggered and the Booster Meter was full, Big Boss 1 is unlocked. The meter resets after the free spins bonus.

Bonus Buy

Players may trigger the free spins bonus for the precise cost of 38.6x the bet. Sticky frames and free spins Boost Meter progress are not used when buying free spins.

Gamble

Another way of possibly entering free spins is by using the gamble feature. Players pick their bet, which increases or decreases the green segment on a wheel. If the needle lands on green, free spins are won; if it is on red, they are not. Sticky frames and free spins Boost Meter progress are not used when gambling for free spins.

Unusual Catch: Slot Verdict

Unusual Suspects was a slot that was able to deliver entertaining moments, what with all the wilds jumping about the place and the increasing sticky frame multipliers. So is Unusual Catch, but it wasn't as satisfying as the first time around. Which is kind of funny since it's in possession of the exact same features, and its Angler symbol collection dynamic, reminiscent of Big Bass Bonanza's free spins collection feature, feels ideally geared for a fishing game. Why is that? Perhaps part of the reason is simple second-time round fatigue, a common condition evoked by playing cloned slots. Perhaps it's because fish slots are so utterly common compared to crime games, compared to a lot, if not most, game types, really. Unusual Catch's low-key energy levels and vibe didn't help much, either. No doubt it's a combination of all of these factors.

But you know, fish slots are popular, after all, so perhaps Northern Lights Gaming will achieve better success with Unusual Catch than it did from Unusual Suspects. You never know, but the original was more interesting to review on account of not being a fish slot for a change. The moustachioed detective, cracking crimes, taking on the big bosses of the underworld, it was like a little bit of crime solver cosplay. Unusual Catch, eh, it's fish. There's no collecting of fish money symbols for a change, fair dues. The 8,000x the bet winning potential is a sweetener, too, and players get the chance to dunk the game grid in quite a lot of multiplier mayhem should Unusual Catch run hot.

One final gripe about Unusual Catch is that where Unusual Suspects carried with it a grain of originality, novelty is completely absent for the reskin. As mentioned, fish slots have a ready-made audience for them to devour, acknowledged, but they also get lost in the deluge, so a more creative theme for the reskin might have been a stronger impression.