NetEnt has a very laid-back approach to their own releases these days, and everything changed after the former superstar slot developer was acquired by Evolution Gaming. Crab Trap is a perfect example in that regard, but it’s not a bad game per se. It could’ve been a lot better though, and not least with a more robust math model. It comes with a charming crab fishing theme, colorful visuals, and an upbeat soundtrack, and casual punters will probably enjoy what’s on offer here.
The game is well-balanced as well, since you get to accumulate crab traps also in the base game. These traps frame positions, and trap crab prizes and colossal crab prizes in the streak respins feature. You get more of the same in the bonus round, where the crab traps don’t even reset after being used, and catching a 3×3-sized colossal crab pays up to 1,000x your stake. The overall max win is not far above that, unfortunately, so Crab Trap hardly caters to serious gamblers.
You win by landing 5 to 9+ matching symbols anywhere in view, and the mid to high level symbols award 8 to 10 x your stake for a 9+ scatter win. The low value symbols pay for 7 to 10+ in view, and they all award 8x your stake for a 10+ scatter win. There areno Wild symbolsin Crab Trap, but you get plenty of excitement from the feature symbols we’ll take a look at next.
There are2 special Boat symbolsin Crab Trap slot, namely the Blue and Red boats. TheBlue boatcan appear on all reels in all stages of the game, and it turns its own position, as well as up to 5 other random positions, into Trap Frames. Trap Frames are sticky until the Red Boat appears, and new trap frames cannot be added to already framed positions.
TheRed Boatwill land on reel 4 in the base game, and reel 3 in the bonus round, but can only land when at least 5 trap frames have been accumulated in the base game. The Red Boat triggers a Respin, and regular scatter wins cannot occur on the respin. Crab symbols landing inside the trap frames become sticky, and you can land colossal crabs of size 2×2 (reels 1-2 and 4-5) and 3×3 (reels 1-3 and 4-6) as well.
The colossal crab symbols can land either partially or fully in view, and1x1 sized crab symbolscome with cash prize values of1x, 2x, 5x, or 10x your stake. The2x2-sized Crabsaward10x, 20x, 50x, or 100x your stake, while the3x3-sized Crabsare worth100x, 200x, 500x, or 1,000x your stake. You get a new respin for each crab that lands in a trap frame position, and colossal crabs become sticky even if they are only partially trapped by a frame.
TheRespins featureonly ends when you land a spin with no new trapped crabs, and all crabs will then pay their respective cash prizes as they are collected. Colossal Crabs that are not fully trapped break down to 1×1-sized crabs, paying up to 10x your stake each. Colossal Crabs that are only partially in view also break down to 1×1-sized crabs, and all trap frames that capture a crab are removed. The unused frames remain, however.
TheCrab Trap slot Bonus Roundtriggers from3, 4, 5, or 6 scattersanywhere in view, and this gives you5, 7, 10, or 15 free spins, respectively. Scatters are collected during the feature, and you win+1 extra spin per 3 scatters collected. Trap frames from the triggering spin are carried over into the bonus round, and Respins do not subtract from your free spins tally.
The Respins feature triggers whenever you land the Red Boat in the bonus round, and Trap Frames are not removed after being used to collect crab prizes. All trap frames that have accumulated in the bonus round are removed when you return to the base game, however, and they are replaced by 4 randomly placed trap frames.
Non-UK players canpurchase the bonus roundfor50x the stake, and you get 10 randomly added trap frames for the feature. The trap frames you have accumulated in the base game are saved, however, and they are restored when you return to the base game. The RTP does not change if you take advantage of the Bonus Buy feature.
You get to see the Respin and crab collection feature in the base game, before we purchase the bonus round at 1 minute into the 3:17-minute highlights video. The Respins and crab collection feature triggers plenty of times during the bonus round, and you can check it all out for yourself by hitting the play button below.
There’s no denying that Crab Trap is a charming slot that will lift your mood when you play, and it might also seem more complicated than it really is when you read about the features. It boils down to landing Blue boats to add as many crab trap frames as possible, before the Red boat triggers the streak Respins feature. What you want then is for as many crabs to be trapped as possible, and preferably the colossal kind. That’s not always easy, however, since you need to trap the whole colossal crab to benefit from the higher cash prizes.
This brings us to the biggest drawback of this game, at least in our opinion, and that is the measly1,191x potential. Sure, we get that this is a medium volatile installment aimed at casual punters, but still. A 5,000x potential, or so, would’ve made Crab Trap a far more attractive game overall, but players simply looking for a good time cannot really go wrong here. It’s fun when all the traps accumulate in the bonus round, and the red respin boat seems to appear more often as well. It’s games like this that make us wish that adjustable volatility/potential ranges was as commonplace as customizable RTP ranges.
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Crab Trap
