'Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? SpongeBob SquarePants.' Oh, wait, sorry, players, wrong Bob. Instead of SpongeBob SquarePants and his wacky undersea adventures, we've got Lobster Bob's Crazy Crab Shack from developers Pragmatic Play and Reel Kingdom. Different Bob, perhaps, but Lobster Bob's Crazy Crab Shack features a happy smiley lobster character, and players are invited to join him in his underwater domain. Down there, amongst the wackiness, you'll find a 9 Masks of Fire-esque world of instant cash prizes, free spins with a win multiplier, and other sundry extras to keep you company.
While Lobster Bob's Crazy Crab Shack isn't a SpongeBob SquarePants-affiliated game, the cartoon show is not a terrible comparison. Down here on the ocean floor, Lobster Bob's Crazy Crab Shack's got all sorts of oddly amusing items littered about its undersea environment. Or are we in the sea at all? Perhaps not, because the game also looks as though it's boxed in a fish tank, with a Moai statue peering in on one side. It's quite clever, as if Reel Kingdom/Pragmatic Play is toying with the idea of realities within realities, the bizarre existence of aquatic creatures contained within a fish bowl on dry land. It makes you wonder; do we live out our lives in some kind of holding tank, contained within a greater reality we have no idea of nor any way of comprehending? After all, the popular theoretical framework string theory functions under 10 dimensions, which is a tad tricky to wrap your head around. Moving on.
>A see-through 5x3 gaming grid is where the action happens, with 20 paylines built in. Regular line wins pay left to right, beginning from the leftmost reel. A highly volatile slot, RTP depends on how you play the game. Regular bets of 20 p/c to $/€240 per spin have a return value of 96.03%; then, when the Ant Bet is on, the return dips to 96.02%, and buying free spins has an increased value of 96.04%. Be aware that lower RTP math models are available.
A look over the paytable reveals 8 regular pay symbols, a wild, a free spins scatter, and an all-important Crab symbol. The regular pays consist of 5 lower value 10 to A card ranks, followed by a higher value anchor, chest, and a pearl in an oyster symbol. Hitting a winning combo of 5 low pays is worth 1 to 3.25 times the stake, and a 5-symbol high pay win awards 7.5 to 37.5 times the bet. Lobster wilds are able to connect winning lines by substituting for any regular pay symbol. Wilds land on any reel and pay 125 times the bet when hitting a winning line of 5 of them.
>Lobster Bob's Crazy Crab Shack might pour on the cartoon zaniness, but it doesn't pour on a ton of originality in the features department. Here we've got Crab symbol instant wins and free spins with a win multiplier.
Crab symbols land anywhere, and when at least 3 of them are in view, players win a prize as determined by the prize ladder next to the reels. In its base form, hitting 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 Crabs pays 1x, 5x, 15x, 40x, 100x, 500x, or 2,000x the bet.
In the base game, when 2 scatter symbols land without a third, if the scatter symbols can move down one position without falling out of view, a respin is triggered. For the respin, the reels with scatter symbols on them move down one position, and the reels without free spins symbols respin. All Crab symbols landing during these respins are collected and pay according to the prize ladder at the end of all respins.
Landing 3 scatter symbols on reels 2, 3, and 4 triggers the free spins bonus round. Before the round begins, a wheel spins to award 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, or 30 random free spins and a random multiplier of x2 or x3. The multiplier applies to all wins during the round, including any Crab symbol rewards. Landing 3 scatters during the feature retriggers it, and the retriggered round plays after the current one ends, with a new random set of free spins and win multiplier.
Players may activate the ante bet in the base game, which increases the stake by 50% to have more scatters on the reels. Alternatively, players can buy the free spins round for 100x the bet.
>It's interesting, so far, the Reel Kingdom and Pragmatic Play team-up's biggest successes have come from the Big Bass Range of slots, which are hardly built around the most original gaming idea. Plucking money symbols in the form of fish by a collector symbol in the form of a fisherman is a regular occurrence in the online gambling scene going way back into the murky past, likely started by the iconic Fishin' Frenzy. One wonders, therefore, if Lobster Bob's Crazy Crab Shack, very possibly inspired by Gameburger Studios' hit 9 Masks of Fire and the numerous similarly designed releases which have followed it, will also find success. Probably not to the extent that Big Bass Bonanza has, but you never know; the outcome could easily go either way.
So while it's not very original, aside from the 2 scatter respins feature perhaps, Lobster Bob's Crazy Crab Shack has several characteristics which might find favour amongst parts of the gambling community. Like Big Bass Bonanza, Lobster Bob's Crazy Crab Shack is a bright slot oozing charm and warm vibes. Bob, the main character, is a happy chap, and the music is a bouncy, feel-good number. Like Big Bass Bonanza, a cheerful, watery attitude rules the day. Factoring in a win cap of 6,000x the bet dangling on a lure means that for a jolly day beneath the sea or in a fish bowl, eh, Lobster Bob's Crazy Crab Shack could be a match.
It's not all sun and warm sea breezes, though. Two of Lobster Bob's Crazy Crab Shack's possible hurdles to success are the sheer number of these games floating around the market now and the fact it doesn't offer much that is revolutionarily new, technically speaking. Since the gameplay here is about as common as it gets, it also falls to Lobster Bob's Crazy Crab Shack crazy cartoon demeanour to win players over. If a bubbly-as-heck aquatic attitude is what you're after while spinning for instant scatter prize wins, then Lobster Bob's Crazy Crab Shack could be the catch of the day. Otherwise, it might well sink to the bottom of the sea and flounder with the billion other 9 Masks wannabes.
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