Mermaid’s Tale Slot Review

Mermaid’s Tale by Novomatic is a water themed slot from the Austrian company that is a world leader in providing online casino games. Founded in 1980, Novomatic has dominated the land based slot machine market and now their primary focus lies more with online slots and mobile. This slot is a 5 reel adventure that takes place under the sea at the bottom of the ocean.

Beautiful sea anemone line the ocean floor in a rainbow of colours and as the sunlight breaks through the water’s surface; it casts sparkling light that adds a touch of magic. The backtrack used is a musical score that is happy and light led by a piano and the majority of sound effects seem pretty much standard stuff although the xylophone used in the big wins has a fairy tale quality to it.

The Colour of the Ocean

The reels are quite understated in white with just the tiniest hint of blue being used for the lanes and a pale blue frame. The paylines down either side provide a touch of colour depending on which lines are in play. Taking a look at the pay table the illustrations are nice for the symbols which include playing card symbols at the bottom end of the pay scale. These are drawn in shades of different colours and given the sparkle and bubble treatment.

An ornate hand mirror can be seen resting against reeds, and a jewellery box filled with coloured treasures is nearby. A playful clown fish is swimming through the anemones and the beautiful mermaid herself can be seen. She has long flowing read red hair and wears a necklace of the finest pearls and is the high paying symbol with a value of 4000 credits for 5 in a row when playing low limit stakes. Switch to higher stakes and her payout is a whopping 1 000 000 when playing max bets. For those that fancy taking a dip into the waters and swimming with the fish a while, the betting range is quite diverse. As a 20-payline game, players are waging their stake on coins per line and the amount of lines put into play. At the lowest, it’s possible to stake a bet for 0.40. At its highest punters can place a bet of 400 for the full 20 lines.

The Mother of All Pearls

The wild symbol for this journey to the bottom of the sea is a giant clam shell which opens to reveal a magnificent pearl. Pearls are a wonder of nature and the most valuable are those found in the wild are thought of as being extremely rare as many are grown artificially. There’s nothing artificial about the pearl in Mermaid’s Tale. It’s rare but its job is clear. As a wild, it will do the usual substituting to complete winning combos.

If two or more land on the reels adjacently, they form into expanding wilds to form giant symbols that dramatically increase the players’ chances of gaining a big payout. With every treasure found on the reels ocean, a great gamble feature can help double the win. This relies on players being able to determine if the next card turned over being a black or red card. It keeps track of what the previous card was to help players make their minds up.

Treasure of the Seas

The ocean seems to be an underwater treasure trove. The free Ocean’s Secret video slot is a beautifully designed game with stunning animated 3D graphics. Fuga is the developer and they have employed the use of unique features to keep this slot exciting with expanding wilds and free spins scatters. The mermaid will help guide you to underwater wins as divers plunge the depths in the search of treasure.

It’s a 5-reel slot with a choice of 20 or 40 paylines to play. It has spinning reels that when a win is made they will act as tumbling reels and avalanche to fill in the gaps with a trial multiplier of between x1 and x5. The mermaid is wild with a special added touch that can come into play of an octopus that slinks its way back and forth along the top of the reels. If it stops on a reel where the wild symbol appears, it will squirt out its black ink and turn it into an expanding wild to fill the reel lane. It’s an excellent slot where gamblers can hope to cash out rather nicely.

The Tale Is Told

We liked the overall look of Mermaid’s Tale but the slot wasn’t without its niggles. It was quite sparse looking with the reels being somewhat plain in comparison to some of the other underwater adventures in casino land. Some of the sound effects used on wins could have been better and the ticking clock of the gamble feature to urge players to make a quick decision as ‘the clock is ticking’ are typical of many slots and brings nothing new to the feature that cries out for something unique or different to experience.

Overall, it feels like the developer missed the opportunity to bring a wow factor to whole of the game and instead opted to just play it safe. It does have some redeeming features like the expanding wilds and some cute animations, but this is a high stakes game. Even for basic play with the lowest line bet possible, to take advantage of the full 20 lines, still demands a stake of 0.40 credits. There are good cash out opportunities for high rollers but for us it remains a bit of a damp squib.