Dolphin Tale seems to be mostly a tale about creatures of the ocean, in a slot machine created by Microgaming. The various sea creatures that make appearances in its symbols are using various sunken ships and objects, turning them into buildings in a sort of underwater town. The style of the design is cartoonish, funny and highly enjoyable. It’s far from an original theme, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not great fun.
You get the 5 reels that you would expect in a slot with 40 lines, along with lots of cool features, like free spins, scatter symbols, wilds and huge multipliers of up to 20x. Regular prizes reach a top value of $3,750.
Features of Dolphin Tale
Three separate symbols have special roles in Dolphin Tale. The Spy Clam scatter is one of them, The Rookie Dolphin is the wild, and then we have the extra wild symbol taking the form of a Clam Badge. There are free spins as well, of course, along with high multipliers of up to 20x.
First of all, we have The Rookie. It’s the name that is given by the paytable to the dolphin cop that serves as the wild feature. This wild symbol is capable of substituting for other symbols, just like you would expect from this popular feature. The goal here is for the wild to help you get a new combination and a prize, by taking the place of a symbol that is missing. The same wild is going to be able to create its own combinations, as long as three to five of them align themselves on the same line and going from the left to the right. Up to 3,000x is won in the game with its help.
The second feature symbol is called a Spy Clam. It’s a scatter symbol, which will reward you with prizes and free spins. The prizes require that 2+ symbols are in random places on the reels, with payouts being worth 2x to 50x the bet.
Free Games Feature
Three, four or five Spy Clams will also trigger a free spins feature, where you pick the number of rounds you want to get, keeping in mind that the more spins there are, the smaller the multiplier. The opposite is true as well, with lower number of free spins bringing high multipliers along.
The multipliers are random, chosen between three options for each number of spins. The highest number of spins offered is 25, with random multipliers of 5x, 3x or 2x. The smallest number of spins is 5, with 20x, 15x or 10x multipliers. There are three other options between these two extremes. You can’t retrigger the free spins as you play them.
While the free spins are running, you get an Extra Wild symbol, with a police badge on it which says Carpe Carp at the top, with three 7s at the bottom. It can appear at random on reels 2, 3 or 4, taking the place of one symbol on that reel.
Betting options and jackpots
Despite using 40 lines, the game only requires bets of up to $50, no more. Each line is activated with 1 to 5 coins, and since their denominations go up to $0.25, the value reaches $1.25.
You will get a 3,000x top payout from it, translating in this case into 15,000 coins, or $3,750. It can get a lot better during the free spins, which can offer up to 20x multipliers.
Design and symbols
It’s a highly enjoyable game, even though it doesn’t have a modern or great looking design. They went more for the cartoon look, so it’s like an animation series that does its best to make you laugh. It has police dolphins, spy clams, sea dogs that are police chiefs, an octopus that’s manning the phones and so on. We even have a snitch, which takes the form of a shrimp.
Symbols: Spy Clam (scatter, 50x bet), Rookie Dolphin (3,000x, wild), Chief (1,000x), Merl (500x), Karl (300x), Lucile (200x), Louie (150x), Casino (100x), Bank (80x), Police HQ (70x), Motel (60x), Salon (50x) and Deep Sea Diner (40x).
Is It Worth Playing?
You really feel like Dolphin Tale is telling you a story, about a civilization of sea creatures living in underwater cities, the focus being on the police force that’s making sure that law and order are respected. I’ve enjoyed it, and I believe you will too.
You will find Dolphin Tale at any online casino which chooses to use software from Microgaming, playable either for free or for real money.
