Mermaid Reef: Slot Overview

If Australia is known for a couple of standout things, it’s dramatic coastlines and a strong crop of slot developers. Off Queensland sits one of the planet’s great natural sights, the Great Barrier Reef—thousands of kilometres of coral and sea life, including sharks. It took millennia to form, yet we’re managing to damage it in just a few centuries. Anyway, in this review, Australian studio ReelPlay dives into the ocean’s mystique with their slot Mermaid Reef.

ReelPlay usually turns up with Infinity Reels, Megaways, or some hybrid of the two, so Mermaid Reef initially feels fairly conventional. That said, it does bring a “first” of its own. Mermaid Reef is said to be the first slot to include both a bonus buy option and a gamble feature. That combination may appeal to players who like to test their luck throughout a session.

Those slightly headline-grabbing mechanics sit inside a fairly familiar-looking package. Mermaid Reef uses a 5-reel, 10-payline layout set on the seabed, framed by sea creatures rendered in a classic, animated-cartoon style. The audio is pleasant but not exactly energising—more like a gentle Brian Eno-style track you’d put on at 6am to glide through the comedown after a big night.

Players can try the gamble feature and the bonus buy on any device, with stakes ranging from 10 p/c to $/€150 per spin. If you’re chasing huge figures, the remaining stats may disappoint—the top-end potential is pretty underwhelming. Elsewhere it’s more acceptable: RTP sits around average at 95.92%, increasing to 96.06% when purchasing the bonus. That may be worth considering since the feature is expected to trigger naturally once every 208 spins. Rounding out the model is medium-high volatility, which feels a touch punchy given everything else on offer.

Mermaid Reef is a long way from the sprawling reel sets or pay-way counts we’re used to from this developer. The paytable is also fairly predictable, with ten symbols in total. Five are 9-A royals, and the others are jellyfish, starfish, clownfish, and dolphins. Land five premium symbols on a line to collect 30 to 100 times your stake.

The final symbol before surfacing is the wild mermaid, which has a cute, Ariel-like vibe. It shows up in a 1×3 size, fully or partially visible on reels 2-4. The wild substitutes for all symbols except the Pearl or Clam.

Mermaid Reef: Slot Features

Down in the depths, players get two separate bonus rounds plus a couple of extra mechanics. Up first are free spins, activated by landing 3, 4, or 5 pearls to award 10, 15, or 20 free spins respectively. The key change from the base game is that all win values are doubled during free spins. Pearls stay on the reels, allowing retriggers. In theory, this bonus should arrive about once every 205 spins.

Then there’s the Pearl bonus, which starts when 3 clam symbols appear at the same time. You’ll see 15 closed clams and choose them one by one. In any given round there are 1-3 black pearls, 1 gold pearl, and the remainder are white. White pearls pay 1-10x the bet, black pearls pay 2-25x, and gold pearls award 50-1000x the bet. Selecting a black pearl ends the feature, but if you manage to pick all white + gold pearls, any remaining black pearls are also granted.

The slot also includes a feature buy tied to the Pearl Bonus. Rather than waiting for clam symbols to land, players in eligible regions can purchase the feature. The price is 55x the bet for 3 clams to land on the next spin.

Last is the gamble option. It’s the usual setup, available after a win where you can either collect or gamble. Guessing the correct colour of a face-down card doubles the win, while picking the right suit awards 4x the payout. You can gamble winnings up to five times, or until the on-screen wager limit is hit.

Mermaid Reef: Slot Verdict

Mermaid Reef may advertise itself as the first slot to combine a bonus buy with a gamble feature, but in practice it doesn’t come across as especially groundbreaking. Players who enjoy taking risks at every opportunity might be interested, though the rest of the game stops Mermaid Reef from feeling like a truly high-intensity gambling slot.

A few factors limit it. For one, the base game is simple and the overall potential is low—this isn’t Infinity Reels, and there’s not a great deal of excitement in the standard spins. With straightforward gameplay paired with an ambient soundtrack and modest payouts, it can end up feeling a bit soporific.

The reward levels don’t do it any favours: in the base game the most you can realistically look for is 342.5x, and in free spins 700x the bet. The Pearl Bonus is where things improve, with wins up to 1,295 times the stake on the table. Sure, you can pay to access the best part, but spending on this kind of pick & click bonus won’t suit everyone.

Overall, Mermaid Reef feels slightly off-brand for ReelPlay. They’ve been pushing boundaries lately, so a more subdued release is unexpected. If the idea of buying into a pick & click feature appeals, Mermaid Reef could be fine; otherwise, there isn’t much pulling you in.