Finn and the Swirly Spin Free Play in Demo Mode by NetEnt

Finn and the Swirly Spin review

Theme and Storyline

Finn and the Swirly Spin has an Irish theme, using clover and leprechauns to suggest the Irish countryside.

In the opening cinematic Finn dances on screen and scatters some magic around setting you up to enjoy this magical slot world.

The theme is rather cliched at this point, but rarely is a cliche executed with quite as much flare as in Finn and the Swirly Spin.

Graphics, Sounds and Animations

The graphics on this slot are gorgeous, but that's not a surprise when this game comes from NetEnt. The animations are in high-definition and three dimensions and unlike most slots, this really makes use of the extra-D it has.

The music is a slightly annoying recorder track, but can be muted and on the whole adds to the atmosphere without getting too much in the way.

Gameplay

Finn and the Swirly Spin plays on a five by five grid. Wins are awarded for lines of three to five symbols along horizontal and vertical lines. Instead of spinning a reel, during each game round the symbols appear at random on the grid (except for the Key symbol which appears in the bottom left).

Then the interesting part begins. Winning symbols are exploded and a cascade mechanic kicks in. Unlike other cascade mechanics where the symbols usually fall from the top, in this game the symbols are loaded in from the bottom left and move around in a spiral towards the centre of the grid.

If the Key symbol makes it round from the bottom left to the centre, then one of four bonus games can be triggered (see below for details).

Wilds, Bonuses and Free Spins

There are a number of random bonus ‘Features’ that are rewarded at random after a spin. There are four of these:

• Starfall Wilds, in which two or more Wilds are added to the grid, if there is no win more wilds are added until there is;
• Dragon Destroy, in which a random number of symbols are destroyed, this will always happen in such a way that a win will then occur;
• Irish Luck in which a horizontal or vertical line of one symbol is added to create a win for the player; and
• Magic Transform in which all the Spade and Heart symbols are transformed into a random higher-paying symbol.

Dragon Destroy and Irish Luck only occur when there are no wins on a spin.

Wild symbols are a little more complex than usual in this game. While they substitute for any symbol as usual, they appear only when a win occurs without a Wild symbol. In this case, when the winning symbols explode, one will be replaced by a Wild symbol.

When a win involves a Wild symbol, in addition to destroying the symbols that are part of the winning combo, the Wild symbol also destroys any other symbols horizontally or vertically adjacent to it. No new Wild is generated by this kind of win.

During Lava Lair free spins there is a sticky Wild symbol which remains in place as the other symbols spiral towards the middle.

If enough symbols are destroyed to move the key symbol round to the middle of the dial, you unlock a bonus round.

At first you can only unlock the basic free spin game, but each time you trigger the bonus you gain a key eventually unlocking all four. These four free spin games provide you with a number of free spins and an additional feature. The feature and number of spins is different for each of the bonus games.

Bet Sizes, RTP and Variance

Finn and the Swirly Spin has a slightly above average return to player of 96.62% and low to medium volatility. While the RTP is acceptable, we usually prefer high volatility slots as they work better with our strategies.

The maximum bet per swirl was £/$/€0.10 on the site we tested and the maximum was £/$/€200.

Conclusion

This is a lovely slot absolutely jam packed with cool features and design. The random bonuses are a fun little spice and the longer term process of unlocking the free spin bonuses is rewarding and give the game a continuity between spins.

Its only major detraction is the low variance which we would prefer to be much higher.

Overall a strong slot that is a lot of fun to play.