Pirate Armada Review
The pirate theme usually never fails to engage, be that in the movies or in video slots, but 1x2Gaming has somehow managed to make a less-than-entertaining game from what looked promising at first sight. Although somewhat dated, the overall visual presentation is still pretty solid in Pirate Armada, with a rough-looking crew lead by Captain Blackbeard found on the reels.
The base game gets tedious pretty quickly though, with only the occasional wild symbols to help you land mediocre payouts at best. The bonus round is pretty much determined up front, as you will need some very solid scatter coin values to stand a chance at cracking the 2,200x potential. The feature does very little to get the adrenaline flowing, and the dramatic soundtrack might actually do a better job in that department.
Pirate Armada Slot – Reels Screen
Pirate Armada Slot Features
The pirate skull wild steps in for all regular pay symbols to help you form winning combos, and it does not hold any value of its own. Outside of that, there is only one more bonus feature in this game, and that is the free spins bonus round.
You trigger said Bonus Round when you land 3, 4 or 5 treasure chest scatters anywhere in sight. This awards 6, 8 or 10 free spins, respectively, and the triggering scatters come with a random coin value that combines into one sum up front. This sum is then won every time you land a scatter during the bonus round. There is no way to retrigger the bonus round.
The 200 Spins Pirate Armada Slot Experience
You get to see some initial smaller payouts from the base game, if you wish, or you can skip directly to the bonus round that’s triggered at the 1-minute mark with 3 scatters. These awarded 140 coins up front, and you can see how we fared after that by hitting the play button below.
Review Summary
The animated background, with pirate ships anchored up and rocked by the waves, is nicely done, but the overall visual impression still comes across as a bit dated. The dramatic soundtrack kept up the tension for a while, but it’s not really enough to make us want to come back for more. The base game offers 200x single spin payouts at the most, with wilds to help you out, and that’s it.
The bonus round triggers once in a while to break up the grind, but the whole scatter win concept isn’t all that engaging. Especially not when you’ll usually get a rather low to mediocre scatter prize anyway, and the 94.62 % RTP is pretty much a deal-breaker all on its own. The volatility is a casual medium, but at the end of the day there are plenty of buccaneer-themed slots that are far superior to Pirate Armada in all conceivable ways.
Pros
- Wilds step in for regular pay symbols
- FS w/ coin prize per scatter that lands
- Win up to 2,200x your stake
Cons
- RTP of 94.62 % is well below par
- Not very engaging overall
If you appreciate Pirate Armada Slot you should also try:
Adventures Of Doubloon Island – is a popular pirate slot in Triple Edge’s HyperHold series, and only the higher value premium symbols will land in the bonus round. The HyperHold feature is all about sticky money symbol collection, and you can also win jackpots up to 2,000x your stake.
Pirates Plenty Megaways – is a Megaways installment in Red Tiger’s popular buccaneer saga, and you can play with up to 200,704 win ways. This requires unlocking a top reel which gives you expanding wilds with up to 8x multipliers to boot. The progressive multiplier bonus round can dish out 10,498x your stake at the most.
Booty Bay – is a recent Push Gaming pirate release, and it plays out on a 5×5 cluster pays grid. Land booty wilds in the 3×3 Hotzone in the middle, and get indefinite respins where the roaming wild multiplier increases per spin. This feature comes in many different forms in this release, and you can win up to 20,000x your stake.
