Ihtiada Slot Machine
If the word ‘Ihtiada’ means nothing to you, then you’re not alone. It seems to be a made-up word that slots developer DLV have used to describe the underwater world of their latest game. Maybe we’re being a bit shallow but having a title that’s difficult to pronounce is a bit off-putting, however, dive into this game and you’ll see that it’s well worth exploring. Wave hello then, to the Ihtiada video slot, an ocean themed game that comes with lots of exotic marine wildlife on the five reels and 20-paylines.
It looks great and there’s certainly some depth to the gameplay, with wild substitutions, scatter symbols and free games with extra wilds in play. You can also choose to enter a double or nothing gamble round, which means you sink or swim when guessing the color of a playing card. Slots based in an underwater environment are nothing new, so game developers need to give each one a splash of something special to make them stand out. Ihtiada has an attractive backdrop that showcases the dappled blue hues of the ocean, while symbols are covered with bubbles to add to the effect.
Ihtiada is from the Latvian DLV company, who have a background in the design, development and manufacture of gaming cabinets for land-based casinos. But with a growing presence in the online and mobile casinos markets, many more players are going to be able to enjoy their collection of reliable, rewarding and fun slot games. You can dip your toes in via the free Ihtiada video slots on these pages or play for real wins at any of the real money online casinos which carry the DLV range.
Fishy Features
Symbols are divided into two types, with the playing card icons 10 through to A paying out the smaller prizes and the pictures of aquatic creatures returning the higher ones. Any three playing card symbols of a kind from the left side across a payline will award you with a prize, but you’ll just need two of the animal symbols to collect a win.
The crab pays between five and 500x your stake per line, depending on how many reels it lands across, while the octopus is worth from five times to 750x. An animated shark is the highest-paying sea creature, returning prizes of up to 2,000x your line bet. Moving out of the water, we have a woman listening to a seashell who pays a huge 5,000x when she stops right across a line.
She’s also the wild symbol of this game, who can act as any card or creature if needed to complete a combination. She won’t be able to act as the oyster however, as this is a special scatter symbol that triggers the main bonus round.
The World is Your Oyster
Although it’s not worth anything on its own, the oyster with a pink pearl in it will award you with ten free spins whenever it lands in three or more spots in a single spin. During these games, any wins will be doubled in value, while an oyster with a black pearl is a second wild symbol.
If you are lucky enough to see three of these black pearl oysters at once, the free games restart, but in the next ten spins, wins will be tripled. Retrigger the free spins once more, and any wins are multiplied four times over, and so on. It’s a feature that’s got the potential to pay out some great prizes, although not everyone is going to be fortunate enough to retrigger the free spins over and over.
Guess the Color
Something else that involves as fair degree of good fortune is the gamble round. It’s an optional feature that you can take after any winning spin and which takes place on a second screen. You will see a face-down playing card that alternates between red and black, alongside which, there’s buttons to match the colors.
Click the right button at the right time and you double the initial win. This gives you further options to collect the prize or keep on playing the gamble round, with the potential to multiply a prize by 32x. Getting any of the picks wrong however, loses the triggering prize along with anything gained so far in the gamble feature.
Watery Wagers
Gamblers can pick from real cash wagers as low as 0.20 per spin or raise their stakes to the high limit of 40.00. It makes this game perfect for anyone who likes penny slot machines, although may put off high rollers. Ihtiada is fully compatible with popular mobile platforms, such as Apple, Android and Windows, or you can play it via a browser on desktop PC’s and laptops.
An autoplay option lets you spin the reels without needing to click each time, although the spins stop when your chosen win or loss levels are reached. Another feature that you can control is the soundtrack, which is a simple fruit machine type series of noises. It’s a matter of personal preference, but we muted it quickly.
Fishing for Similar Games?
There’s a whole section devoted to slots based underwater, where you’ll find popular games such as Aquarium, by Playson and Catch and Release, from Nucleus Gaming.
Aquarium has a clever way of presenting the symbols, with each fish shaped and colored to resemble a traditional fruit icon. The cherries are three red fish shoaling together, and a round purple fish looks like a plum. You get the idea. Another happy goldfish is the wild symbol, while a starfish stars as the scatter. Gameplay is much as you would expect from a fruit machine, with no side games but potentially lots or winning spins.
Catch and Release has some stunning 3D graphics on the reels. A fisherman is trying to reel in sharks, puffer fish, turtles and more unfortunate wildlife, and some particularly unlucky fish in a bucket will bring you good fortune by acting as the wild symbol. Free spins with extra payouts from each fish that gets caught will net you some of the top prizes.
Some-fin Special?
We liked slots themed around wildlife and despite the unpronounceable name, Ihtiada is a great example of the type. Beautiful graphics and some decent features will appeal to many players, but it’s the free spins round that impressed us. The chance to multiply wins several times over when the free games are retriggered can lead to some seriously valuable prizes heading your way, but even in the base games, a doubling of any win is a nice extra treat.
Spin these watery reels at some of the top online casinos that carry the DLV range of slots and you won’t even need to splash out many coins before claiming prizes.
