Bear Tracks Slot Review

Tracking bears in their natural habitat and getting to experience the wonder of their lives must be a truly wonderful thing. And not just any bear, but a vast selection of them. How about viewing the koala bears of Australia in their eucalyptus trees? Or how about the panda bears of China, sitting around munching on their bamboo shoots? Maybe you’d prefer to travel to the coldest parts of the Earth and sit in watch for the beautiful polar bear traversing the ice? Whatever your preference on this animal, you can’t deny that they’re an incredible species on the whole. And that’s exactly why this game from Novomatic will have you entertained throughout. The product itself is set against a backdrop of open plains and mountains, providing the perfect environment for you to spin the reels in. While some more appropriate noises and tones would be preferred to the standard video slot tunes, it’s not all doom and gloom in that area.

Hear the Calling of the Wild

The theme of this game is based on wildlife, or more specifically, bears. That much is obvious, of course. With that being the case, the reels are filled with a selection of different bears. As well as the ones mentioned previously – the panda, koala and polar bears – there’s also a black bear and a grizzly bear incorporated onto the reels. Each bear is designed and drawn to the best quality, while being animated in a nice way every time they’re included in a win. The remainder of the icons are made up of the regular A, J, K, Q and 10 symbols, while additional imagery fills the reels for the special features.

Speaking of the reels, there are five of these, and four rows have been integrated into the game alongside. A total of forty separate pay lines have also been added to the game, and these are fixed in place. The coin value is changeable though, offering players the ability to change their wager from the minimum of one coin per line upwards to five. This allows all players a maximum wager level of $200 per spin. An ‘Autoplay’ button has also been added to the game in order to allow you to set the reels spinning at the same wager level for a specific amount of times.

Follow the Bears to See the Beauty

The game has its own logo as the wild icon, and this will substitute for all other icons on the reels in order to create a winning combination. The only exception to this rule is the bonus icon. Spinning five wilds on a winning pay line will reward you with 500 coins.

In addition to that, there’s a bonus icon, represented by a bear’s paw print. If this shows up in all positions of the very first reel, they all remain fixed in place and the automatic spins begin. As long as more bonus symbols appear on every re-spin, they will also remain fixed in place. Should all the positions on the reels become filled with this icon, you’ll begin the freespins round, being awarded 15 of these. On your 15th freespin, you have the chance to win a further 15 of these, and overall, you’re able to win a total of 150 freespins.

As with many Novomatic games, there is a gamble feature included in Bear Tracks. This is triggered after every win you achieve in the main game and offers you a ‘Double or Nothing’ type of game. You can proceed without gambling if you like, but if you do choose to go ahead with it, you need to guess the colour of the next turned over playing card, red or black. A correct guess will double your winnings, while an incorrect guess will see you lose everything.

What Does the Paw Print Say?

This game is great, in general, thanks to its nicely designed graphics and interesting game play. However, the ability to trigger freespins only by filling the entirety of the main game with bonus icons is a little disheartening. The inclusion of a wild is fairly standard in video slots now, so this comes as a bit of an issue when it’s supposedly a special feature. However, the theme of the game on the whole is appealing and players should be thoroughly entertained by it.