Cats Slot

Casino slot gaming giant IGT has released Cats, one of the most popular online casino slots. This game isn’t a game full of cute, cuddly kitties but vicious, roaring lions, cheetahs, and tigers, bringing a taste of the African savannah to your home.

I can see why this game has become so popular with the potential to become one of the best online slot games, as I was immediately impressed by the range of bonus symbols available and the 10,000x stake jackpot. Here’s my full review of Cats by IGT.

Slot Game Format

Cats come in two formats: free-to-play demo and money-staking, providing players access to potentially excellent returns.

Cats Demo Format

The Cats demo version is free-to-play, costing nothing to simulate the gaming experience without real-world money being staked or won. Gamers can learn to play the game and understand winning combinations, bonuses, and split symbols. 

The demo game is ideal for new gamers to learn the ropes of free online slots.

Cats Real-Money Format

Cats’ real-money version has become one of the world’s leading online casino slot games, which is no surprise. The game is a five-reel, three-row, 243-way slot machine that combines excellent gameplay with a vast array of bonuses to keep players engaged.

Stakes are available from £0.30 to a maximum of £30 and provide a maximum 10,000x coin jackpot for five CATS symbols on a pay line. Line wins pay from left to right with wins multiplied by the line bet. 

The CATS symbol is wild, substituting any symbol except the paw print, which is the game’s scatter symbol. The Jack, Queen, King, and Ace cards are the lowest-value symbols, with the feisty felines resulting in bigger payouts.

Technical Analysis

Cats’ gameplay experience is well known, and I found it quite compelling. However, the graphics on the mobile version could be improved. Here’s my overview of the game’s RTP, special features, and bonuses.

Cats RTP

The Return-to-Player (RTP) rate for Cats is 94.93%, which is a bit below the average, but this is mitigated by the rich array of available bonuses that can quickly turbocharge winnings. The game has low to medium volatility.

Cats Features

Cats are enhanced enormously by the several features and bonuses on offer, including:

Wild Symbol

The CATS logo is the wild symbol in this game. It replaces all symbols on the reel except the scatter symbol (paw print) and is always evaluated as a split symbol on any paying line. This automatically opens the door to larger, more lucrative wins.

Split Symbols

Arguably, Cats' most exciting and innovative feature is Split Symbols, which other games have widely copied. 

The feature offers a single and double version of each big cat on every reel, meaning that winning combinations are measured concerning the number of matching cats on a pay line, not just the number of matching symbols.

Free Spins

Free spins aren’t the easiest to achieve on Cats since you need to collect 5 or 6 paw symbols, which act as the scatter symbol in the game. 

The easiest way to earn free spins is with the split paw print symbol, which allows you to gain five free spins for five symbols and 10 for six. These provide bigger payout rates than the main game.

Cats Online Slot Layout

The game's graphics could benefit from being updated, particularly on smartphones and tablets, where the big cats lack grizzly gravitas and come across as tame imitations of glorious big cats. 

Things are better on the online slot, where the graphics and cards have space to growl and glow, providing a more real feel of an African big cat safari. 

Thankfully, the audio of cats growling with increasing volume as the wins pile up, traditional IGT slot machine noises, and flawless gameplay experience makes up for the poor graphics on mobile devices.

My Experience With Cats

In light of the issue with the graphics, I enjoyed the online version of Cats more than the mobile version. The gameplay of this classic title is as good as expected and ideal for anyone seeking a mid-volatility slot with big-win potential. 

Overall, the game is probably aimed at the more experienced online slot gamer, but newbies can have plenty of fun with lower stakes while they learn to navigate the game.