Let’s Go Fish’n Pokie
Before you go fishing, you best make sure you’ve packed your rod, your bait, maybe even a cool box of soft drinks or beer and a few vacuum-packed sandwiches. If by going fishing you mean playing the Aristocrat-powered video pokie Let’s Go Fish’n, though, you can leave the gear at home and come armed with a pocketful of coins instead.
Fishing-themed pokies are not a new innovation. Off the top of our head, we can name half a dozen, foremost among them Microgaming’s Alaskan Fishing, NetEnt’s Fishy Fortune and Azure Gaming’s Paradise Fishing. The association of hooking a fish, and landing a big win, is obvious.
Let’s Go Fish’n is a 5-reel pokie that integrates 25 fixed pay-lines, simple if amusing graphics, an enjoyable free spins bonus feature and a not-to-be-sniffed-at jackpot of $12,500. On the whole, it’s a game that you can enjoy whether you enjoy fishing or not.
Introducing the Cast
It’ll come as no surprise that the theme of this game is a fishing trip, and the cartoonised on-screen symbols reflect this. There’s a laughing blue-eyed fisherman, gleefully flashing twin rows of pearly whites and wearing an oversized fisherman’s cap; a corpulent seagull; a writhing green worm, gored by a fish-hook but nonetheless grinning from ear to ear; a fishing rod leaning against a red bucket. There are also playing card symbols: Jack, Queen, King and Ace.
Let's Go Fish'n
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Goin’ Fish’n
In this pokie, as in all of them, you’re fishing for one thing and one thing only: money. Let’s Go Fish’n isn’t the most innovative game in the world, but it can still be a hoot if you approach it with the right mindset; and, of course, if you get lucky on the reels. The game features wilds, a scatter symbol and a lucrative free spins bonus round.
The best-paying icon in this game is the scatter symbol, which is the Let’s Go Fish’n logo; land five and you’ll receive 1,250 coins. Five fisherman symbols, meanwhile, yields 1,000 coins. Bets start at $0.02 a coin up to $2, and the 25 pay-lines cannot be adjusted. The return-to-player average is a healthy one, sitting around 97%.
The base game is a simple affair owing to the fact that there is no wild in play: that comes later, if you’re lucky enough to trigger the bonus feature. To do so, you must hit at least three scatter symbols, anywhere on the reels. The absence of a wild in the base game is something that will displease a lot of pokie aficionados: it certainly makes winning that bit more difficult.
Fish’n Bonuses
Every time you trigger the bonus feature, you’ll be granted 3-10 free games. Each game will feature between one and three specially activated wild gold symbols. These are basically normal paying icons that have been coated with gold, so they’re easy to identify as wild during the bonus round.
Considering many pokies grant you 20, 40, sometimes 100 free spins, 3-10 seems pretty harsh, on the whole. Three free spins will be over in the blink of an eye. Still, you’ll want to know what happens during the bonus round, so here goes.
Hit three or more scatter symbols and you’ll be taken to a screen that shows people milling around on a wharf. At this point, you must choose a character who will reveal just how many free spins and wilds you’ve won. The cast that you must choose from includes sun babe Sally, sneaky Sam, fishwife Fran and lucky Lucy. The quartet will start fishing off the wharf and you’ll get to see whether you’ve chosen the right character. Incidentally, if you land three scatters during the feature, you’ll re-trigger further free spins and wilds. You’ll also get another opportunity to select a character.
What’s the Catch?
If you don’t go in expecting Let’s Go Fish’n to blow your mind, you might be pleasantly surprised. It’s a fun, medium-variance game that has the potential for solid wins during its free spins feature, not least because of the extra wilds that pop up. The base game, though, is as basic as they come. Expect clunking reels and a decidedly land-based casino vibe. Even if you do enjoy this game, you’re unlikely to spend too much time on it before reeling in your line, packing up your gear and venturing off in search of the next pokie.