Polar Paws

About Slot

The end of the year always sees a barrage of seasonal slots hit the online casinos. Most people love to be surrounded by signs of the festive season. And it seems that this also includes players who like to while away a few hours playing slots.

Polar Paws is one such Christmassy slot from Quickspin, and this provider has chosen polar bears as its central theme. In keeping with the lightness of the slot storyline, the game comes with medium volatility and a maximum win of just over 800 times your bet. It’s not a prize that will blow you away, but it could mean a nice little win for your holiday shopping. Read on to find out how likely are you are to cash in this Christmas.

Polar Paws – Theme and Background

Polar bears rule with this slot, and they appear across the reels wearing a series of different Christmas themed accessories. From woolly scarves, to festive wreaths and tartan bows, these cartoon bears look more like children’s entertainment than the key to any sort of real money windfall. A gift bearing elf joins the white fluffy bears, together with a two different Wilds, represented by a Christmas wreath and a bowl of candy. The remaining symbols are covered by A, K, Q, J, and 10 symbols, which are the lowest paying from the bunch. They’ve been designed in a slightly curlicue fashion, painted onto wooden slats. It creates an appealing effect and they blend in well with the theme.

The grid is set on the snowy North Pole landscape, but this changes to the cosy interior of an igloo during the free spins game. The soundtrack enforces the feeling of stepping into a kids’ cartoon, with cutesy sound effects and cheerful, tinkling music.

Polar Paws – Gameplay

If you were hoping for lots of special features in your Christmas stocking, then prepare to be disappointed. Polar Paws only has one true feature, with a couple surrounding accessories to make things more interesting. But is it enough to keep players spinning? Here’s what you can expect.

Wreath Wild

The Wreath Wild acts as a regular wild, helping players to form winning combinations that run up to 40 x the bet. This sort of win value isn’t common, and mostly it’s there to help you rake in those smaller wins that just about cover your bet spend.

Candy Bowl Wild

The second Wild is the Candy Bowl, and this substitutes for all symbols except the regular Wild and the Scatter. In many ways it’s better than the regular Wild, primarily because it comes with multipliers of up to 4 x. On the downside, it only lands on the middle 3 reels, so wins will only come from combinations of the Candy Wild itself. You’ll need 1, 2 or 3 wilds in a winning combination. These will award multipliers of 2 x, 3 x or 4 x respectively.

Free Spins

If you’re waiting to trigger those desirable free spins, then keep your eyes peeled for Elf Scatters. These can only land on the middle reels, and 3 of these will reward you with 10 free spins. During the feature, any new Elf Scatters that land are collected, and when these add up to three or five, any one bear symbol will be converted to a regular Wild and 2 extra spins are added to the total. This can change up depending on your total number of Scatters:

• 3 Progress Scatters will cause a polar bear symbol to turn wild, plus you also collect 2 extra free spins.
• 5 Progress Scatters mean another polar bear symbol becomes wild, plus another 2 free spins.
• Making a second set of 5 Progress Scatters causes a third polar bear to turn Wild, and you’ll get a further 2 free spins.

Polar Paws – Payouts and Wagering Limits

Aside from the smaller base game wins, payouts with Polar Paws come in four levels:

• Big wins paying 15 x your bet at the odds of 1 in 81
• Super wins paying 40 x your bet at the odds of 1 in 209
• Mega wins paying 70 x your bet at the odds of 1 in 711
• Epic wins paying 100 x your bet at the odds of 1 in 1487

The slot allows players to choose between a range of bet levels, from C$0.25 to C$100. This means you can play with a maximum of C$4 wagers for each of the 25 fixed lines in play.

Polar Paws is working with a rather disappointing maximum payout of just over 800 x your bet. This can be unlocked if you land a full screen of Wilds, which is no mean feat. That being said, the slot offers the possibility of accessing the same prize through winning combinations of regular symbols, but only if you manage this in tandem with the top 4 x multiplier. Making up for the rather pitiful win potential is the decent RTP, calculated at 96.84%. This is just about as high as things get. It works even better in this slot because the medium volatility level means you’re likely to stretch out your stake for a fairly long time. And time is what you’ll need if you want to be in with a chance for some Christmas profit.

Polar Paws – Final Verdict

The general vibe of Polar Paws definitely feels more like kids’ entertainment rather than adult-only gambling. This is certain to make some players uncomfortable. Quickspin has definitely devised the game with recreational players in mind, offering relatively gentle volatility and a maximum prize unlikely to tempt high rollers. The gameplay, while fine in most aspects, isn’t particularly exciting and many players might find themselves bored. Perhaps Polar Paws would have generated more excitement for me with the addition of increased animation and a couple extra special features. As it stands, it’s probably a good place to kill a few hours for players hoping for some pocket money.