Cats of the Caribbean: Slot Overview

If you split the world into dog people and cat people, Snowborn Games clearly sits in the second camp. The Swedish studio is back with another clowder of cats, giving the game a soft, fluffy, feline vibe. The last outing was Cat Clans, a slot about rival cat clans scrapping it out in the Scottish Highlands—over what exactly was never entirely clear, maybe the prime spot by the heater? This time, four kitties set sail on a pirate-themed journey in Cats of the Caribbean, featuring free spins with guaranteed wilds and a Cats Pots Bonus.

Cats may not be famous for loving water, but these seafaring furballs have embraced the bright Caribbean in pursuit of treasure. That’s why the action takes place aboard a wooden ship, complete with rope rigging, a cannon, and a crate of cannon balls in view. Cats have a long tradition at sea—partly to keep rats in check, and partly to lift the crew’s spirits. Take Peebles, the ship’s cat on the HMS Western Isles, a clever character known for shaking strangers’ hands as they entered the wardroom. Or consider Simon from HMS Amethyst, who earned the rank of ‘Able Seacat’ and was laid to rest with full Naval Honours. It’s easy to see why sailors grew so attached to them.

Snowborn has clearly leaned into the “cute” factor with Cats of the Caribbean, and it feels very close in style to Cat Clans. The developer’s visual team continues to impress, producing colourful, detailed games with strong production values that grab attention, and Cats of the Caribbean is no different. Matching the four feline leads, the slot offers four RTP settings ranging from 86.89% to 96%, depending on the market. Volatility is high, and the bet size runs from 20 p/c up to $/€25 per spin.

The reels and paylines expand during free spins, but in the base game there are 20 paylines running across a 5-reel, 3-row layout. The goal is to hit winning combinations of three to five matching symbols on a payline, starting from the first reel. Lower-paying symbols include barrels, hooks, bottles, pistols, octopi, and parrots, which return 2-3 times the stake for five of a kind. The higher pays are the cats—Big Tabby, Captain Claw, Captain Catnip, and Captain Red—each awarding 5 times the stake for five of a kind. Wilds are central to Cats of the Caribbean because they feature heavily across most bonuses. A five-wild line pays 10x the bet, and wilds can replace any regular paying symbol.

Cats of the Caribbean: Slot Features

As noted, wilds are everywhere in Cats of the Caribbean, showing up in the Wild Cannon extra and across the three free spins bonus rounds. They are not part of the Cats Pot Bonus, however, where four cash prizes are available.

Wild Cannon

The Wild Cannon may trigger randomly on any spin in the base game. When it fires, 2-15 wild symbols are launched onto the reels in any positions. If a wild lands on an existing wild, it turns into a wild multiplier, increasing by +1 for every extra wild stacked onto it.

Free Spins

Free spins begin when free spins scatter symbols land on reels 1, 3, and 5. There are three types of free spin rounds, and which one you get depends on the scatter that appears on reel 5. A red, green, or purple scatter on the fifth reel triggers Captain Red Free Spins, Captain Catnip Free Spins, or Captain Claw Free Spins, respectively. Here’s what each round includes:

• Captain Red Free Spins – 15 free spins with 90 guaranteed wilds.
• Captain Catnip Free Spins – 12 free spins with 40 guaranteed wilds.
• Captain Claw Free Spins – 10 free spins with 25 guaranteed wilds.

During free spins, the grid gains an extra row, and paylines increase to 30. Throughout the round, the cannon blasts wild symbols onto the reels in random positions. When wilds land on top of wilds, they gain multipliers just like in the Wild Cannon feature, up to a maximum of x5.

Cats Pot Bonus

Hitting 3 Cats Pots symbols on reels 2, 3 and 4 awards a single spin on a wheel of fortune. This spin pays one of four local jackpot prizes: Mini, Midi, Major, or Mega, valued at 20x, 50x, 500x or 10,000x the bet, respectively.

Buy Free Spins

For those who want to jump straight in, you can purchase either the Captain Catnip Free Spins for 55x the bet or Captain Red Free Spins for 200x the bet.

Cats of the Caribbean: Slot Verdict

Pirate themes are a staple in slots, and so are cute domesticated animals, so combining the two is an obvious idea—then it’s just a matter of seeing what mischief follows. Snowborn handled Cat Clans well, so expectations were fairly high for what Cats of the Caribbean would deliver. Overall, it was an enjoyable ride. It’s difficult not to warm to cats with names like Captain Catnip and Big Tabby, and they do their part in making the slot as charming as Cat Clans—though the gameplay side is more straightforward.

In fact, it’s very straightforward, since much of Cats of the Caribbean comes down to firing wilds onto the grid and seeing how the reels settle. That can happen in the base game when the Wild Cannon kicks in, and it becomes even more frequent during free spins. The expanded reels are a bit of a mixed blessing: you do get more ways to win, but you also have a bigger area for the wilds to land across. If the reels had remained at 3 rows, would more wilds have stacked, creating more multiplier wilds? It’s hard to say, though there were moments when wilds did cluster, and single-spin wins during testing topped out at roughly 90-100x the bet. Symbol payouts aren’t huge for this reel/payline format, so it feels like making serious progress could be difficult without landing the top Cats Pot 10k prize—which also happens to be the game’s max win.

Overall, Cats of the Caribbean is a fun, cute slot to spend time with. It has a couple of neat ideas around wilds and wild multipliers, even if it doesn’t push the envelope as much as Snowborn’s earlier cat-themed release. Still, if pirate-dressed moggies are your thing, you’ll likely enjoy the chance to chase some potential plunder alongside them.