Boom Pirates

Foxium is a very small games studio, but partnering up with Microgaming has given it the force of a much larger player. And the small studio’s skill really shines through in the animations, graphics and storylines supporting the slot — even if the slot in question was a year late in hitting our screens. In fact, watching the promo video made me wish it was a movie I could snag a couple tickets to go see. But I’ll have to be satisfied with it as a slot instead.

If you want to be hyper critical then you could say that the theme itself isn’t particularly original, made up of the rum-swigging, land-pillaging pirates that have been portrayed for centuries. There’s also the cliched attractive female pirate thrown in (that would be Captain Mary) who manages to look alluring despite the grime that swamps her male counterpart (First Mate Ben). The backdrop is an island, most likely the victim of their next round of pillaging, which even changes from daytime to nightfall keeping things extra engaging for the player. Across the reels are a series of symbols to complement the theme. As you spin you’ll be greeted by gun powder barrels, cannons, parrots, and both Ben and Mary. The low symbols are represented by A, K, Q, J and 10, which is a little disappointing, but we’ll forgive them the lack of all original symbols in the face of the overall excellent design.

The Boom Pirates launch date was delayed about a year, but it seems it was a year well spent as the slot comes with 5 different special features, each designed to get you to those big payouts. Of course, it also means that confusion may abound, so here’s a summary of what’s what to help you hit the high seas with more clarity.

Unsurprisingly, the slot’s lowest wins come from combinations made with the A,K, Q, J, and 10 symbols, awarding just 1 x your bet up to a maximum of 5 x for 5 of a kind. But fear not, there are plenty of other opportunities to scoop up some big payouts. The remaining symbols represented by gun powder barrels, cannons, parrots, the First Mate Ben and Captain Mary hold bigger values ranging from 1.2 x to 5 x and 7.5 x to 25 x.

Oddly enough, the game doesn’t use any Wilds, but this doesn’t seem to reduce the amount of winning combinations possible, largely due to the Scatters and randomly triggered features. Players have the opportunity to trigger the game’s maximum win of 3,800 x the stake at every turn, both inside and outside the special features.