Princess Of The Sea Slots
With the likes of Long John Silver, Captain John Sparrow, Captain Hook, One-Eyed Willie and er, Captain Pugwash, there are plenty of fictional male pirates, of varying levels of seriousness. So how does a female pirate work? Will this game be arrrrrgiht or should it walk the plank?
Far From All at Sea
Fittingly for the pirate theme, there is plenty of brown color (for wood) and yellow (for coins). The title is in yellow letters in a scroll at the top, above two crossing cutlasses. But what dominates the screen is the voluptuous female pirate on the left hand side, complete with stylish pirate hat, long flowing hair and a low cut top. Behind her, and in the background, is the silhouette of a pirate ship, calm seas and a golden sky. At the very bottom of the page is a treasure chest full of gold and silver coins.
As well as the sexy lady, you won’t fail to notice the 5 reels, particularly as the icons are so memorable. There are the kind of things you associate with the lifestyle of the criminals of the sea, including skull and crossbow flags, sharks, ships and a hook hand. On either side of these reels are the 21 pay lines that remain on the screen even when you are on the Pay tables and Pay lines pages. On the outer sides of the screen, numbers between 1 and 5 indicate at which bet level you are playing, and are also on every screen. There is also a calm sound of waves crashing as a background noise which is actually quite relaxing.
Pirate Play
You can play for any lines between 1 and 21 and up to 5 bets in this 5-reel game. If you put the Bet Max button it goes straight to a bet worth 105.0. The sounds are good, in particular the whistle tune for the flag and the sinister shark tones. There is an Auto Spin button that has options of 5, 10, 15, 20 or 25 spins. It is worth noting though that if you do use them, the bonus games are done automatically for you too.
The wooden background on the pay table means you have to pay close attention when looking at what icons are worth. Despite the princess giving her name to the game, hers is only the second most useful symbol. Top of the pile is the treasure chest. And by some distance. Obtaining 5 treasure chests is worth up to 3,000 spins with the princess only giving a maximum of 800. Neither of those symbols, or the other 4 regular ones, pay for 2 of a kind. Getting 3 on any of the 6 is only worth a single figure number.
Bonuses on the High Seas
The design for each bonus is well chosen. The Wildcard are golden coins, and replace everything except the Bonus and Scatter. Rather strangely, none of the three bonus cards has text going from left to right, and 2 of them have unfinished sentences. It is all rather cramped. Below the 3 are also the diagrams for all 21 winning lines. However, the odd number means that while there are 3 lines of 5, there is one of 6. It all looks too squashed.
The Bonus is a scroll with a treasure map on it. If you get 3 or more you get a special extra game that keeps in the spirit of the symbol. Entitled ‘Treasure Hunt’ you get different possible routes to 3 different treasure chests and you choose one for what you hope is the highest amount. The Scatter is a cannon that gives a themed game too if 3 or more come up. In ‘Sink the Ship’ you have to choose 3 cannons out of 6 which will then fire on the ship. Free spins are available on this. While both are a little simple, they are in the tone of the game.
Make a Splash
Our interests in pirates stretches back centuries, so it’s no surprise that there’s plenty of material for the game to work with. They do it choose well with the icons and bonuses. However, there isn’t much in the way of credit rewards, high bonuses and game play flexibility, meaning it will probably stay adrift from the popularity of other slot games.
