Wild Water slot review

Whoa, dude! Look at those awesome waves in Wild Water, I’m so stoked to get my board and…. Wait, are those sharks?

This groovy slot was released by NetEnt in 2014, and it was one of the first online slots I ever played. Back in those days, I generally favoured NetEnt because their games were high-quality and easy to play, which pretty much is the reason I still like them years later. Many of NetEnt’s older slots have also aged well, and you’d never guess you’re playing a slot from so many years ago.

To me, Wild Water still looks really good. The main theme in the game is surfing, so the symbols, as well as the entire game, is set on a beach in the ’60s or ’70s. Five friends have finally arrived there after a long, sweaty ride in their VW van, and it’s time to catch some rays and surf the waves!

Graphics & sound

The graphics of Wild Water remind me of Creature From the Black Lagoon, which is also a slot by NetEnt and released just one year before Wild Water. Of course, in Wild Water, the graphics are way brighter and more colourful. I really like how everything has a certain painted look, and it feels fresh.

The background music is your typical beach rock, and sometimes I could hear seagulls and people in the distance. Every time there’s a small to medium win, a surfer guy exclaims “Awesome”, “Mondo”, “Cowabunga” or something similar. The game audio has only one thing I don’t really like, and that’s the loud button sounds which you can’t disable without muting the entire game.

Symbols & wins

Wild Water is an easy slot game with five reels, three rows and 20 paylines going from left to right across the reels. On top of the base game, the slot has a free spins mode, which can be triggered by landing three or more Scatters.

All the symbols, excluding golden surfer, Scatter and Wild, are always stacked as three rows tall. Symbols:

• 5 x golden surfer pay 2,000 coins / 100x your bet
• 5 x red surfer pay 500 coins / 25x your bet
• 5 x orange surfer pay 250 coins / 12,5x your bet
• 5 x yellow surfer pay 100 coins / 5x your bet
• 5 x green surfer pay 75 coins / 3,75x your bet
• 5 x silver surfer pay 75 coins / 3,75x your bet

Special symbols:

• Scatter: Three Scatters activate 15 free spins. With four Scatters you get 30 spins, and landing 5 Scatters means 60 free spins.
• Wild: Substitutes all the other symbols except Scatter. It’s a basic 1x1 symbol in the base game, but it can grow to cover an entire reel during free spins.

Features

• Surf’s Up: Get 5 of any stacked surfers fully visible on the reels and get 20x your bet.
• Surf Team: Get all five different surfers fully visible on the reels and get 200x your bet.
• Free spins: 3-5 Scatters activate 15-60 free spins.

The mechanics in the free spins work just the same as in the base game, but the Wilds can stretch to cover the reel they landed on.

Sadly, it’s not possible to win more free spins during the free spins round.

My experiences

I’m fully aware that I’m seeing Wild Water through rose-tinted glasses, but nowadays I have more experience and I can compare the game to newer slots. After a hundred or so spins today, I still think that Wild Water is a good slot. It is a highly volatile game, but it also has the RTP of 96,4%, meaning it has good potential to pay well, but the really big wins are scarce.

Of course, Wild Water hasn’t entirely been safe from the passing time. Even if it still looks really good, it does lack versatility in comparison to modern games. Then again, for some players, less is more, and quality goes above quantity.

For me, Wild Water is one of the slots I like to play every now and then. And every time I enjoy seeing those familiar hunks, hippies and skirts basking in the sun.