Kate’s Waddle

There’s something inherently beautiful about cold, snowy places. They are far from the most welcoming environments, but they are often untouched and pristine as a result. Of course, there’s less and less of these places every year. As global warming takes its toll, large chunks of ice break off and float their way through the oceans. And if you’re in the market for such a breath-taking view, then we have a great slot for you.

This Arrow’s Edge release offers some simplistic, but interesting visuals. You see the beauty of the northern lights painting the dark night sky in various colors. Meanwhile, the sea slowly moves up and down, taking any large chunks of ice along with it. Great for cooling off in the summer, no doubt!

Symbol design is not the strong suit of this game. You see several penguins, polar bears, whales, sea lions, tourist boats, seagulls and igloos all filling the reels. However, none of them have a lot of detail added to them. We assume this is due to the sheer size of the board the slot is played on. It can net you some great wins, but it fails to woo us visually.

The layout is quite similar between the desktop and mobile versions of Kate Waddle. The massive 10×10 playing field stays in the center of the action at all times. Meanwhile, settings, paytables and other elements are usually hidden behind menus. This is something that’s because increasingly popular as developer try to combine mobile and desktop UIs.

Sadly, we were unable to find any official information on the volatility of this game. From the time we spent playing Arrow’s Edge release, we would place it somewhere between medium and high variance. It tries to stay balanced, but the presence of three progressive jackpots throws it off.

A Cool Trip

Kate’s Waddle is played on a massive 10×10 board with cluster wins instead of regular paylines. This means you cannot turn some or all paylines on or off in order to lower your minimum wager.

Unfortunately, we run into a huge red flag at this point. Namely, the fact the developers do not provide any RTP information about this slot. At this point, the only software providers who do not share this information are ones with something to hide. Until Arrow’s Edge releases the house edge information, then we cannot recommend their game.

You change your bet by tapping or clicking the arrows pointing up and down next to the total bet section. This allows you to set your wager between $0.30 up to $240 per spin. This is great value, especially for casual and mid-range players. Meanwhile, the high maximum bet will no doubt tempt many high rollers to try Kate’s Waddle out.

The Autoplay option is present, but it only allows you to set the number of spins to be played. You can only set it to play up to 50 spins in a single go. There are no win or loss limits, or a single win threshold. The first two have become quite mainstream, so their absence is quite annoying.

Collect six or more identical icons which are horizontally or vertically adjacent to land a win. This system is called Cluster Pays, and is quite popular with slots with large boards. It is a decent inclusion, but we personally prefer our Cluster Pays with a side-dish of cascading reels. Or maybe a particularly thrilling multiplier the more wins you earn!

The most valuable symbol is the penguin Wild, followed by the polar bear, then the sea lion. After him comes the orca, the red ship, and a seagull. Finally, the lowest paying icon in the whole game is the igloo. The Scatter symbol does not have a cash prize of its own.

Waddlin’ to Victory!

Collect five, six, seven, eight or nine Scatters to win the corresponding number of free spins! When the extra turns activate, two things happen. First, the playing field shrinks, and then, you get access to the Jumping Orca bonus.

This may be the first time we have seen a slot actively punish you for winning free spins. If you win six free spins, you play Kate’s Waddle on a 6×6 board. Win eight, and the board size will be 8×8. You get the picture. After free spins end, the reels return to their original 10×10 size.

The Jumping Orca special feature makes up for the other free spins mechanic. Namely, it only appears during extra turns, and adds three more free spins to the total each time it appears.

Finally, this Arrow’s Edge release has three progressive jackpot. They are called Mystery Jackpot, Cash Grab Jackpot and Super Slots Jackpot. All three are activated at random, so there is no special mechanic to winning them. Just cross your fingers and hope you get lucky! You cannot win any of the jackpots during free spins.