Sherlock Bones: Slot Overview

Sherlock Bones by developer Electric Elephant gives the legendary sleuth a therianthropic makeover, recasting him as a dog with a magnifying glass and an obsession with bones. Joining the detective-dog in this Relax Gaming powered caper is his loyal sidekick Watson (also canine), as they pursue arch-enemy Moriarty (a cat) across London. “Chasing” is the perfect description too, because the core Rolling Respins mechanic revolves around walking Sherlock Bones wild symbols that expand, along with reels, ways, and potential payouts once activated.

Brooding skies set the tone as Sherlock Bones loads up. A 5-reel, 3-row grid floats above the tiled rooftops and chimneys of late Victorian/early Edwardian London. The setting is bleak, and it’s easy to picture wrongdoers prowling the dim streets below. When the Rolling Respins feature kicks in, the rain starts pouring, so you could say Sherlock Bones captures the English weather rather well. The soundtrack lightens things slightly, delivering a mysterious Holmes-inspired tune that fits the dog-and-cat antics playing out on the reels.

Available on any device, Sherlock Bones offers stakes from 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin. From a stats perspective, volatility is rated by the London based studio at 3 out of 5, placing it in medium range, while RTP sits at a respectable 96.21%. Sherlock Bones is essentially split into two modes – base game and respins. The base game can feel like it drifts along, even with stacked symbols and 243 ways to win, whereas respins are where everything has a chance to take off, excitement included. Respins aren’t especially frequent, though, as each trigger is guaranteed to return a payout.

Winning combinations start on the first reel and pay left to right for three or more matching symbols. There are seven standard pay symbols available: Kings, Aces, pipes, magnifying glasses, paw prints, Watson as a dog in a bowler hat, and Moriarty – a cat with a monocle. The last two are the premium symbols, paying 6 -10 times your stake for five of a kind. Symbols may appear stacked, making full-screen hits possible, and their value can build during the feature when extra rows can be added.

Sherlock Bones: Slot Features

The standout in Sherlock Bones is its trademarked Rolling Respins feature. In practice, when the Sherlock Bones wild symbol lands, it opens a special row beneath the main reels. This bonus reel spins horizontally and shows only blank spaces or bones. If a bone lands under a wild symbol, that wild becomes sticky, expands downwards, and Rolling Respins begin. Wilds substitute for any other symbol and can appear only on reels 2, 3, 4, or 5.

While the feature is active, players keep receiving respins until a win lands. After each win, every sticky wild walks one reel to the left and a new row is added to the top of the grid. A maximum of 4 rows can be added, boosting ways to win up to 16,807. Wilds also increase by one position each time they walk. If additional wilds land, they unlock the bonus reel and become sticky when a bone symbol drops beneath them. Rolling Respins finish once all walking wilds have shuffled off the reels.

Sherlock Bones: Slot Verdict

Sherlock Bones feels like a decent pick for dog or cat fans who want a few laughs while they spin. Rolling Respins can be genuinely entertaining, but a number of other parts of the game come across as a bit thin. The biggest issue is that with only one feature to anticipate, there’s often very little going on between triggers. The animals are cute, but the mix of gloomy weather, plain-looking reels, and straightforward gameplay means Sherlock Bones can fall into long stretches that aren’t especially engaging.

One reason for that is how long Rolling Respins can take to show up. That’s understandable since they’re effectively guaranteed-win spins, and with expanding reels, more ways, and stacked symbols, they can deliver solid returns. Given that Electric Elephant has taken the step of trademarking Rolling Respins, it’s likely players will encounter them again in future releases. That wouldn’t be a negative, because in Sherlock Bones the feature comes off slightly incomplete. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly why, but it feels like something isn’t quite there. Maybe Sherlock Bones needed another feature, or a smaller modifier to add variety. As it stands, much of the time you’re working through a run of standard, uneventful spins, waiting for Rolling Respins to arrive and hopefully help you win your money back.

The theme execution can also feel a little uncertain. It’s refreshing that Electric Elephant chose animals instead of humans, but at times they seem oddly mismatched with the setting. The moody backdrop, music, and clanking machinery create an almost Steampunk-like atmosphere, yet it clashes with the three upbeat animal characters. Another drawback is that the cast doesn’t quite have enough personality to make Sherlock Bones truly off-the-wall in the way Piggy Riches or The Dog House managed. Finally, dogs and cats are ground animals, while the background visuals suggest something airborne like pigeons. Sure, that’s a minor gripe, but the contrast creates a disconnect that a street-level, dog’s-eye view of London might have avoided.

Overall, the anthropomorphic cast does give Sherlock Bones a playful tone that will appeal to certain players. It may also suffer by comparison, as we’ve recently seen strong Holmes-themed slots ranging from the highly atmospheric Moriarty Megaways to the huge jackpots in Sherlock & Moriarty Wowpot. Sherlock Bones doesn’t have the same punch as those two. Still, it has its own charm, and the Rolling Respins feature could prove more impactful if Electric Elephant builds on it in future games.