Plunderin’ Pirates Slot Review 2024
Hold on tight to your valuables, iSoftBet has unleashed a crew of nefarious Pirates and it’s down to us to put a stop to them and take back what’s rightfully ours, in Plunderin’ Pirates!
Of course Plunderin’ Pirates wouldn’t be an iSoftBet title without the Hold & Win mechanic, and so it comes as no suprise that it does. Plunderin’ Pirates is yet another of iSoftBet’s slots to use the Hold & Win mechanic as a Respins round, some may prefer this to a Free Spins round, but for those who don’t, you may want to stay clear.
There’s no need to guess what the theme could be for Plunderin’ Pirates as the clue is already in the title. When we think about Pirate themes, we are instantly drawn to Relax Gaming’s fantastic slot, Dead Man’s Trail, but we’ve seen it go horribly wrong in others like Star Pirates Code from Pragmatic Play.
We are already off to a good start with the background in Plunderin’ Pirates, which shows a Pirate ship swaying in horrendous weather conditions (a lot like the British weather). What grabs your attention the most is the very tall, dark and somewhat handsome Pirate standing in the left corner of the screen. Keep a close eye on this menacing Pirate as he plays a vital part in the base game.
Brace yourselves, we are about to set sail with Plunderin’ Pirates!
Plunderin’ Pirates Betting and Symbols
Plunderin’ Pirates has a selection of betting options for players to choose from. For those who prefer to play on a lower stake, the minimum bet available is £/€0.20 per spin. For those who prefer to play on a higher stake, the maximum bet available is £/€200 per spin, with plenty of other options in between the two.
The highest paying regular symbol in Plunderin’ Pirates is the Male Pirate, followed by the Female Pirate, Monkey and Parrot. Lower paying symbols are standard Ace, King, Queen and Jack.
Wilds substitute for all symbols except Gold Coin symbols.
Plunderin’ Pirates Base Game and Features
Plunderin’ Pirates is a 5 reel slot with 20 fixed paylines. In order to form a win, you will need to connect 3 or more of the same symbols from left to right, starting from the left-most reel.
Plunderin’ Pirates has a thrilling Explosive Modifiers feature that brings some much needed excitement to an otherwise boring base game. More on this below.
Explosive Modifiers
During any random spin in the base game, the Pirate can throw Bombs onto the reels, delivering 1 of 3 Modifiers. These are as follows.
- Between 1 and 3 Wilds added to the reels in random positions.
- Upgrade symbols from a low-paying to a high-paying symbol with a guaranteed win.
- Adds between 1 and 3 Gold Coins to the reels in any position.
Plunderin’ Pirates: Plunderin’ Respins
Landing 5 or more Gold Coin symbols in any position on the reels, triggers the Plunderin’ Respins round, awarding 3 Respins.
Once active, all Gold Coins that land in view will become Sticky and will remain in their fixed positions for the duration of Respins, resetting the Respins counter back to 3.
Booty Boosters
During the Respins round, special coloured Coin symbols can land at any time.
Each Coin has it’s very own boosting effect, which will trigger once it lands in an empty position.
- Silver Coin – If a Silver Coin lands, it will Collect the value from any awarded Gold Coin symbol.
- Green Coin – If a Green Coin lands, it will increase the values of all awarded Gold Coins in a 9 symbol area around the Booster.
- Blue Coin – If a Blue Coin lands, it will unlock up to 3 extra rows.
- Purple Coin – If a Purple Coin lands, it will collect all the values from both the Gold and Silver Coins.
Plunderin’ Pirates: Our Verdict
You can always tell when a Provider has devoted a lot of time to a slot, and it really shows in the design of Plunderin’ Pirates. We’ve seen a fair few characters in other slots like Big Juan and Queenie that give the impression they have something to offer you, but the Pirate character shown in Plunderin’ Pirates is the main attraction and is the key to triggering the Explosive Modifiers feature.
Plunderin’ Pirates certainly looks the part, but unless you’re a huge fan of Pirates or the Hold & Win mechanic, there’s nothing else particularly thrilling worth staying for. Gameplay is pretty standard, along with the Explosive Modifiers feature, which we’ve seen bigger and better in previous titles.
The Respins round is definitely the best part of Plunderin’ Pirates, even though it’s a Hold & Win round. The Plunderin’ Respins round is nothing we haven’t seen before, not only in terms of looks but how it works too. The special coin symbols are a nice addition to the Respins round, but the Modifiers that these coins deliver is something we’ve seen time and time again. One thing that is really disappointing is the lack of Mutlipliers in the Respins round, which would have definitely made this round a lot more thrilling.
Speaking of disappointment, another blow to the stomach is the shockingly low maximum win capacity of 880x. We literally had to look twice to make sure our eyes weren’t playing tricks on us. If you’re not usually fussy when it comes to the maximum win capacity, we think even you will turn your nose up at this slot. Even with the bang on average 96.00% RTP, we are still left with a bad taste in our mouths from the maximum win capacity.
All in all, if you’re looking for a slot that is full to the brim with never seen before features and a ton of potential, you might want to look elsewhere.