Reviewed on Sunday 30. November 2014
Someone in the creative team at Rival must be an amateur entomologist or must be in love with arthropods as this is not the first slot where the bugs are the stars. Remember the classic slot Flea Market or video slot named Pub Crawlers where the guests are all kind of insects. In Travel Bug slot the little animals travel all over the world and they are illustrated when listen music in London or spend their holiday in sunny vacation spots or just travel to their destinations. I don’t know whether it’s a good idea choosing them as lead characters but at least the bug symbols really look funny and cute (especially the little winning animations) and that’s why the entire interface seems to be a little childish to me and I say this despite the fact that the graphics are quite good and well-designed.
Moving on to the more serious things the game qualities are just decent and the game offers the features what we can expect from a modern slot but I warn everyone to not wait too much from this slot. The Wild symbol when doesn’t replace other symbols in a winning combinations (without multiplying the wins) may give the best prize what the game can provide namely 5000 times of line bet which is not so special. Maybe this symbol can be more special because this is just another bug character and I think it would be better if players promptly could identify that this is the substituting icon when it appears on the reels.
The Free Spin feature is more interesting and I really like it. It’s a unique ‘can’t lose’ side game meaning after getting 3 or more Scatter Bug figures anywhere on the reels 10 free spins are activated where each and every spin is played with the entire first reel transformed into Wilds and the winning combinations expand their functionality as it’s enough to get just two identical symbols to be count as a successful line combo. Naturally, it means that every spin brings not just one but much more guaranteed wins to the table which must be at least equal with the triggering bet according to the paytable but luckily in reality it rewards much better than this. In the worst case scenario playing with €1 bet the average profit here is at least x20-x30 of total bet but not that rare when the slot is in good mode and award around 100 times of bet or even more. I think this is a really good free spin section and I also could thank some nice profits at the end of the sessions.
Passport symbols in appropriate numbers on the reels trigger the Travel the World bonus round which is not a bad side game but if I was asked I would prefer the Free Spin feature to get. Here we have to travel around the world and collect the passport stamps and every one of them hide a cash prize. Every airport we have to choose one of 3 airlines but we have a limited budget to travel so when we run out of money the bonus side game is finished. The original idea and story of this side game isn’t bad but the realization is not so good, the secondary screens are graphically ugly and the players can be more involved so except the occasionally great prize we can win here there would be much for improvements.
All in all, it can be said this is a pleasant slot and even though the base game payout tendency is not too player friendly but the side games are really good in money wise standpoint so the game really can be profitable by them. I could recommend this slot those who love to play with cute symbols and basically with a decent overall game and don’t mind if the chance for win big is not really felt during playing the game. I think the game has its own limits which prevent me to consider Travel Bug a real good game and that’s why I would rate it just a mediocre overall product with fine secondary games.
Moving on to the more serious things the game qualities are just decent and the game offers the features what we can expect from a modern slot but I warn everyone to not wait too much from this slot. The Wild symbol when doesn’t replace other symbols in a winning combinations (without multiplying the wins) may give the best prize what the game can provide namely 5000 times of line bet which is not so special. Maybe this symbol can be more special because this is just another bug character and I think it would be better if players promptly could identify that this is the substituting icon when it appears on the reels.
The Free Spin feature is more interesting and I really like it. It’s a unique ‘can’t lose’ side game meaning after getting 3 or more Scatter Bug figures anywhere on the reels 10 free spins are activated where each and every spin is played with the entire first reel transformed into Wilds and the winning combinations expand their functionality as it’s enough to get just two identical symbols to be count as a successful line combo. Naturally, it means that every spin brings not just one but much more guaranteed wins to the table which must be at least equal with the triggering bet according to the paytable but luckily in reality it rewards much better than this. In the worst case scenario playing with €1 bet the average profit here is at least x20-x30 of total bet but not that rare when the slot is in good mode and award around 100 times of bet or even more. I think this is a really good free spin section and I also could thank some nice profits at the end of the sessions.
Passport symbols in appropriate numbers on the reels trigger the Travel the World bonus round which is not a bad side game but if I was asked I would prefer the Free Spin feature to get. Here we have to travel around the world and collect the passport stamps and every one of them hide a cash prize. Every airport we have to choose one of 3 airlines but we have a limited budget to travel so when we run out of money the bonus side game is finished. The original idea and story of this side game isn’t bad but the realization is not so good, the secondary screens are graphically ugly and the players can be more involved so except the occasionally great prize we can win here there would be much for improvements.
All in all, it can be said this is a pleasant slot and even though the base game payout tendency is not too player friendly but the side games are really good in money wise standpoint so the game really can be profitable by them. I could recommend this slot those who love to play with cute symbols and basically with a decent overall game and don’t mind if the chance for win big is not really felt during playing the game. I think the game has its own limits which prevent me to consider Travel Bug a real good game and that’s why I would rate it just a mediocre overall product with fine secondary games.
