Cats of Olympuss Slot Review

Cats of Olympuss is regarded as a follow-up to one of the most played games from the supplier; Dinopolis; a slot where anthropomorphised Dinosaurs explore Las Vegas. It seems that this ‘animals take on classic slot themes’ concept is something that Push Gaming wants to continue further, as Cat of Olympuss sees the traditional Ancient Greek Gods replaced by a Pantheon of purring pussycats.

Set in the Catcropolis high in the sky, the game is framed by graceful marble columns covered in gold ornamentation and complex cat sculptures. The heavens are a lovely blend of white and pink clouds against a blue and sunny background. During free spins the atmosphere moves from sunny sky to moonlit elegance to increase the excitement factor. The overall soundtrack is peaceful and suitably ‘godly’ but this can easily be muted if you prefer to add your own soundtrack.

Premium symbols highlight various cat characters in fun attire representing dieities like Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon, each with a matching backdrop; it would have been nice to see a couple of goddesses in there too, but maybe Push Gaming has a sequel in mind. Lower paying symbols include card suits with bite marks, displaying vivid gems at their centre. 

The full paytable of the Cats of Olympuss slot is as follows:

• Blue Diamond and Green Club: Award 0.05, 0.10, and 0.25x the total stake for 3, 4, or 5 symbols landed on an active payline, respectively.

• Purple Spade and Red Heart: Award 0.10, 0.25, and 50x the total stake for 3, 4, or 5 symbols landed on an active payline, respectively.

• Fish and Harp: Award 0.20, 0.50, and 1x the total stake for 3, 4, or 5 symbols landed on an active payline, respectively.

• Hades Cat: Looks like a cat olding a skull and has a green frame and awards 0.4, 0.8, and 2x the total stake for 3, 4, or 5 symbols landed on an active payline, respectively.

• Poseidon Cat: Looks like a cat in a red frame holding a spear and awards 0.5, 1, and 2.5x the total stake for 3, 4, or 5 symbols landed on an active payline, respectively.

• Zeus Cat: Looks like a cat in a gold frame with a magnificent beard. Unlike the other symbols the Zeus Cat can pay for just 2 on a payline, awarding 0.50x the stake for this, plus 1, 2.5, and 5x for 3, 4, or 5 on a payline respectively.

• Wild: Looks like a gold cuff with the letter ‘W’ on. This symbol can stand in for all other non-special symbols to form a winning combination.

• Scatter: Looks like a column with purple grapes and the word ‘bonus’ in purple. This symbol is used to trigger bonus features. This symbol can also appear as a double symbol counting as two scatters instead of one.
• Instant Prize Coin: When combined with a wild symbol this instant win symbol can award 2-1000x the total stake amount.

Outside of its original theme, one of the reasons why previous release Dinopolis became so popular was the plethora of exciting bonus features, and on a similar vein, the Cats of Olympus slot does not disappoint.

Wild and Stacked Wilds

The gold band that can appear on reels 2, 3, and 4 is the wild symbol. It substitutes all non-special symbols to form winning cobminatiosn.

Reels 2, 3, and 4 can show stacked wild symbols—full-reel wilds—that also substitute for all non-special symbols. These often appear with multipliers attached with potential multiplier values of x2, x3, x4, x5, x7, and 8x, meaning that when a wild reel appears, payouts may become pretty generous.

Instant Win Coins

Instant prize coin symbols can appear on the leftmost and rightmost reels (reels 1 and 5) and when landed on the reels in conjunction with wilds symbols cam award multipliers of 2x up to 1,000x your total stake.

Free Spins Bonus

Triggered by landign three or more scatter symbols in any reel position within a single spin, the Free Spins Bonus Round presents four reel sets, with 1-4 of them active at any time. The scatter symbols in this came can appear as double scatters counting as 2 scatters in one symbol.

When the free spins round is triggered, players will be presented with face down cards to pick between, as well as a set number of reel sets available. This is how it works:

• 3 scatters: Gives 2 card picks and 1 reel matrix.
• 4 scatters: Gives 3 card picks and 2 reel matrices.
• 5 scatters: Gives 4 card picks and  3 reel matrices.
• 6 scatters: Gives 5 card picks and all 4 reel matrices.

Now, what do the cards do? The first pick will reveal the number of free spins the players will have to play with, usually 6, 7, 8, 10, or potentially more. The following card picks will decide if any of the reels will become wild, or which low paying symbols will be removed from play during free spins.

Appearing during the free spins bonus only and only on reels 1 and 5, special instant reward coins can unlock extra reel sets. Throughout the feature, gather five unique instant reward symbols to open the next reel matrix, and retrigger a new set of card picks.

Push Bet (Non UK Only)

Instead of a straightforward bonus buy feature, the game uses an optional tool called the ‘Push Bet’ which  boosts your bet by 20% in return for a 60% better probability of starting the bonus round. Players in the UK and other disallowed regions will not be able to use this feature

It is always great when a developer decides to scrap the basic video slot format and experiments with something new, and the Cats of Olympuss is certainly exciting. Unique theme aside, while at first the traditional 5x3 reel set may not seem like anything special, this set is merely the foundations for plenty of entertaining features. While free spins are the norm, card picking features are common, and multiple reel sets have also been seen before, Cats of Olympuss purr-fectly combines these three elements into a free spins bonus round which feels like a breath of fresh air.  This uniqueness is backed up by a strong maths model with its generous RTP of 96.31x, plentiful 243 win ways, and massive top payout of 23,442x which leads me to view this slot as one pretty kitty, scoring it 9/10.

Rating: 9.0