Crazy Cows slot review

Crazy Cows brings us to the countryside where we’re introduced to a collection of crazy farm animals staying at a farm and spending their time flexing, swimming and winning!

Developed by Play ‘n GO and released in 2014, Crazy Cows is getting up there in years but continues to look good. The graphics are sharp, the drawings are fun and there are enough animations to keep everything interesting. The setting is a rustic farm out in the middle of nowhere, with the 5-reel, 3-row playing field half-transparent so we can see the entire thing. It’s a small detail but I like it a lot. In other slots, the beautiful background is often obscured by the playing field and we lose out on the setting. Not so here, luckily!

With 20 betlines, Crazy Cows doesn’t go too far out of its way to change the core experience of the game. The standard features are available here, including Autoplay and Gamble, which are mutually exclusive. When there’s a win it’s clearly indicated on the screen and any special features also include a special animation before it transfers over.

Finally, the music takes a lot of inspiration from the classic American country life, with a banjo playing in the background as the reels spin. When there’s a win, you’ll hear a farm animal sound as well as the jingling of coins. Activate the free spins mode and you’ll be treated to a faster, more upbeat country song. I liked the variation but it started to sound a bit repetitive after a while.

Symbols

All the symbols in Crazy Cows are unique, which always scores extra points for me. The high-paying symbols are different animals you’d find at a farm while the low-paying symbols are the letters CRAZY. I thought this was an easy and quick way to fill the slot with simple but original symbols and a step away from the boring card symbols.

From highest to lowest, the symbols are:

• Bonus: With 3 Bonus symbols on the screen the Free Spins mode activates.
• Wild: Wilds substitute all other symbols in the game, except the Bonus and Scatter symbols. Max. 2,500 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Scatter: With 2 or more Scatter Symbols an instant coin win is awarded. During the Free Spins mode, 2 or more Scatter Symbols increase the multiplier by 1. Max. 50 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Female Cow: Max. 750 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Big Cow: Max. 500 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Shy Cow: Max. 250 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Corn Cob: Max. 150 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• C: Max. 150 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• R: Max. 125 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• A: Max. 125 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Z: Max. 100 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.
• Y: Max. 100 coins with five-of-a-kind on a winning payline.

I thought all the symbols looked good. Each of the animals has their own personality and are easily distinguishable. The Wild can extend to become a Stacked Wild which has its own art and animation. There is a lot of colour in this slot which is always a nice sight.

Features

Crazy Cows is quite generous with the different features it includes. Not only are there a few, but they also popped up rather frequently while I played. This possibly enabled it to have Medium Volatility. The features are:

• Wilds: Wilds substitute all other symbols in the game except the special symbols.
• Stacked Wilds: Whenever a Wild appears on reel 3, the Wild is transformed into a Stacked Wild, filling the entire reel.
• Sticky Re-Spins: When there is a Stacked Wild on the screen and 2 heart medallion symbols, the Sticky Re-Spins are triggered. The Stacked Wild becomes sticky and 5 re-spins are activated. This can be re-triggered which will grant an extra 2 re-spins.
• Scatters: With 2 or more Scatters on the screen an instant coin win is awarded to the player.
• Free Spins: With 3 Bonus symbols on the screen at the same time the Free Spins mode is activated. During this mode, Free Spins can be re-triggered up to a maximum of 50 free spins.
• Multiplier: During the Free Spins mode, all spins have a 2x multiplier. With 2 or more Scatter Symbols during this mode, the multiplier is increased by 1 to a maximum of 5x.

I found all features to be included prominently in the game, each of them showing up multiple times during my time playing. The most frequent were the Wilds of course, and a Wild on reel 3 would automatically become a Stacked Wild. This could be very beneficial, especially in combination with other Wilds.

The Sticky Re-Spins were a lot rarer because of the two-tier process: first, a Wild had to be transformed to a Stacked Wild. Secondly, there had to be 2 heart medallion symbols on the screen as well. That did happen sometimes though, and this would make the Stacked Wild sticky and trigger 5 re-spins.

The Scatter Symbols were something of an oddity. There could be between 1 and 5 appearing on screen at a time, and with 2 or more they would grant a coin win based on the bet value of that spin. They didn’t have any other special function during the base game, but during the Free Spins mode, they would increase the multiplier by 1 up to a maximum of 5x. Unfortunately, I didn’t see this happen a lot.

This brings me to the last feature, the Free Spins mode. With 3 Bonus Symbols on the screen at the same time, the Free Spins would activate. At the start, the player is presented with the choice between 3 cows. After picking one, we are treated to an animation of the cow diving off the barn roof into a small tub of water! Depending on their jump this grants us a certain coin win and a random number of free spins.

After this, the Free Spins mode proper starts. During the Free Spins mode, additional Bonus symbols can re-trigger additional free spins and the Scatter Symbol can increase the multiplier which always starts at 2x.

It’s quite a lot of features for a simple slot but I think they work well and are very clearly presented. I didn’t have to dive into the paytable to figure out what each feature did and the results are always shown on the screen. All in all, I considered them to be a valuable addition to the game!

In Conclusion

Play ‘n GO has shown itself to be a pretty good developer who has competed with the larger game designers for a while now. With this slot from 2014, they perfectly demonstrate this ability as it combines great graphics, fun gameplay and a load of features into an entertaining slot.

The features included in the game are a good addition to the base gameplay but it won’t be what more traditional players are looking for. They do distract from the base gameplay and often interrupt it with animations or choices that have to be made.

If you like a medium volatility slot with a cartoony setting and a number of interesting features, I would heartily recommend you Crazy Cows. The game lets the player pick a bet between £0.01 and £75 per spin which is a rather impressive range, which helped me find a bet amount that I was comfortable with.