Fortune Cats Golden Stacks slot review

Fortune Cats Golden Stacks!! draws its inspiration from the Japanese fortune cats that can be found in many local shops and stores. Combining this with different features like free spins, stacked symbols and expanding reels offers players a special experience.

The game was developed by Thunderkick and released in 2021, bringing players a nice and tidy game. The graphics are sharp and clear, with not a lot of distractions in the background. Through the use of soft pastel colours, the slot gives off a very casual atmosphere that fits well with the theme. By using only a limited amount of animations, it never gets too busy on the screen either.

Players will be spending most of their time on a 5-reel, 4-row playing field with 40 win lines. This can possibly expand to 120 paylines thanks to the expanding reels mechanic. The reels are filled with various symbols. Some of them draw inspiration from the Asian setting, others look like classic card suits.

The music accompanying the slot has definite J-Pop vibes without actually going all the way. We hear an electric-pop style song playing. The Bonus symbol triggers a soft meow, while the other sound effects are sufficiently toned down so they don’t break the very casual atmosphere the game has built.

Symbols

Fortune Cats Golden Stacks!! uses a rather limited number of different symbols to fill the reels. These are all kept visually distinct through the use of special shapes and colours. The low-paying symbols are simple card suits, slightly redesigned to fit the setting. Meanwhile, the high-paying symbols are based on items that we might find in a Japanese shop.

When it comes to the technical details of the game, it has Medium Volatility and an RTP of 96.14%. This means players have a slightly above average shot at getting a win, while the game won’t space out wins too much. The volatility isn’t set in stone and doesn’t predict exact outcomes but rather gives an indication.

As usual, players get to pick a bet between £0.10 and £100 per spin. This means that those of us with a limited budget can go for the smaller bets and spread out our funds. Meanwhile, high rollers can play it big and see if they can maximise their efforts. The game also offers a maximum win of 2,500x your bet. It’s not huge but exactly on average for a slot with this volatility.

The game uses the following symbols:

• Bonus: Players can activate the free spins mode with 3 or more Bonus symbols on the screen.
• Mystery: Mystery Symbols turn one symbol into the highest paying symbol.
• Wild: Wilds substitute all regular symbols in the game.
• Fortune Cat: Max. 7.5x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Lantern: Max. 2x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Bottle: Max. 2x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Fish: Max. 2x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Heart: Max. 1x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Spade: Max. 1x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Diamond: Max. 1x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.
• Club: Max. 1x your bet with five-of-a-kind on a winning bet line.

Features

Fortune Cats Golden Stacks!! holds onto the rather simple setup of the game and doesn’t introduce too many features. Nonetheless, the ones that are included keep the gameplay interesting.

The features that can be found in the game include:

• Wilds: Wilds will substitute all regular symbols in the game to help facilitate wins.
• Mystery Symbol: The mystery symbol turns all tiles with a random symbol on the screen into the highest paying symbol.
• Golden Stacks: Fortune Cats can appear stacked, filling an entire reel. During the free spins mode, if additional playing fields are unlocked the stacked reel will be copied to the same location on each area.
• Free Spins: When there are 3 Scatter symbols on the screen at the same time, the bonus game is activated.
• Expanding Reels: During the free spins mode, if players collect 3 or 5 scatters they will unlock an additional playing field and gain extra free spins. There can be a total of 3 game areas unlocked at the same time.

Most of the game will take place in the base game, giving players the opportunity to enjoy the Wilds and the Golden Stacks feature. The Mystery Symbol is also a pretty frequent occurrence but doesn’t actually help with getting wins that often.

The slot’s real strength is the free spins mode. Although it’s not necessarily difficult to get it to activate it also won’t pop up constantly. The game has found a good balance between too often and not often enough in my opinion. Once activated, players receive 10 free spins. They can collect scatter symbols that grant an extra free spin.

At first, players need to collect 3 scatter symbols to unlock an additional gaming area. This new area functions exactly the same as the original one. Collect another 5 scatters and you will activate the third playing field. The Mystery Bonus and the Golden Stacks feature both become more powerful since they are applied equally to all playing fields.

In Conclusion

Fortune Cats Golden Stacks!! is a simple-looking slot that nonetheless does a good job at capturing the right vibe and atmosphere. It draws inspiration from a rather cute and innocent part of Japanese culture, based around the fortune cat idea. Using simple but good looking symbols it sets the tone well.

The medium volatility means wins are frequent enough to keep things interesting and big enough to keep the player’s funds relatively stable. Payouts for single wins are pretty low but I frequently managed to hit several paylines at a time. As a result, I only noticed a very slow decline of my coins over time.

I think the game will mostly attract players looking for a normal slot without too many distracting features or graphics. The setting is cute and simple. High rollers might not be as interested considering the average size of the jackpot. The free spins mode does increase the possibility of getting a bigger win though.