Little Fantail Slot
Anyone who has kept pet goldfish will be familiar with many of the symbols in GamingSoft’s Little Fantail video slot machine, where shells, plants, a windmill ornament and cute cartoon fish float into view, awarding prizes when any of them line up in the right places across the reels. It’s a 5-reel online casino game, where 40 lines of fish-themed fun can be found, and lucky spinners will be able to enjoy bonuses such as wild substitutions, a free spins round with the potential for extra prizes, plus a progressive jackpot side game.
Compared to many of their slot machines, GamingSoft have gone for a relatively simple design with this one, giving it a comic style and bright colours. They have still added in some nice details though, with each reel separated by animated bubbles rising up from the bottom of the tank, and little touches like the sails of the windmill spinning when it’s part of a winning line. Behind the reels is a simple picture of rocks and corals, although the mobile-optimised version of the game misses out these details to give players a clearer view on the smaller screens.
All 40 paylines are active and because the low limit is a comparatively high 0.40 per spin, punters may want to practice on the free Little Fantail video slots that are provided, but as this is a trusted and reliable game that has a good return to player ratio, they will on average get most of each bet back in winnings. The maximum stake is 250.00 per spin, and there’s options to use the Autoplay function if players don’t want to click with each spin, or use a Fast mode to get rapid results.
Playing with Little Fantail
Matching symbols will need to land on adjacent reels from the left side across a payline to get a win in the base game, and the usual high-card icons will line up for the lower value, but consequently more frequent prizes. The 9, 10, J and Q are all given the same values, returning 5x, 20 and 100x the equivalent of the bet per line when stopping on 3, 4, or 5 reels, with the K and A both worth 5x, 25x and 125x.
The plant and pink shell each pay out 10x, 50x and 250x, while the top prizes in the normal run of play are reserved for the blue oyster shell and windmill, each of which is worth 20x, 100x and 400x the line bet for appearing on 3, 4 and 5 reels.
The Little Fantail game logo serves as the wild symbol, while also dishing up the best wins in the main game when it runs across a payline. Prizes of 25x, 200x and 1,000x the line stake will be won by anyone who sees this symbol across the reels, but it will also replace any others, apart from the scatter and jackpot icons to complete winning lines. The wild symbol can be stacked several high, or even fill complete reels at a time.
Fishy Free Spins
Our plucky little goldfish will trigger a free spins bonus game when he lands in any 3 or more places at once, paying an instant prize of 2x the total stake. The night then descends on the scene to make it a little different from the standard games and 10 bonus spins play out.
To help punters collect extra winnings in this round, if a full reel of wild symbols appears at any point, it remains locked in place for any remaining free games, which can become highly rewarding if more than a reel or two gets filled with the wild.
The bonus spins can’t be retrigged though, so once done, daytime returns to the reels and players are back in the main game.
Dive into a Jackpot Round
The goldfish bowl is the key to unlocking a progressive jackpot bonus game when it appears in any 3 places on reels 2, 3 and 4 at once. Claiming the jackpot, or at least a percentage of one, is just a matter of clicking on any of the 5 fish swimming around on a second screen and there’s either the Mini, Minor, Major or Grand prize to claim.
But there’s a sting in the (fan)tail, as only gamblers at the maximum stakes will win 100% of any jackpot, with those on lower wagers scooping less and less, until the minimum stakes only win 10% of each prize.
Is Little Fantail Worth Fishing For?
While there’s not much particularly unique about the Little Fantail video slot, it’s a nice enough game that has just enough going on to make it of interest to fish-keepers and indeed anyone who just likes frequent winning spins.
Wild substitutions are a common occurrence and it seems fairly easy to trigger the free spins games, but we still think it’s a pity that GamingSoft structure their progressive jackpots this way, saving the biggest prizes for players who are at the maximum stakes. Still, any jackpot is better than none, and the rest of this game makes up for any shortfalls in the amount you can cash out in the progressive round.
