Finn and the Swirly Spin

The wombat says: ‘Pack your bags Mrs Wombat’, I said, ‘And don’t forget your wet weather gear! As we’re off to the Emerald Isle for a weird and wonderful brand new release from those uber-imaginative slot wizards at NetEnt!’ This game was launched around the same time as the Cleo’s Wish slot, but that’s where the similarity ends as the Finn slot is like a Telsa to Cleo’s Ford Fiesta when you compare the technology behind the games.

Make no mistake Wombat fans, this no bog standard Irish pot of gold-themed game. OK, yes, Finn and the Swirly Spin slot takes us to the Irish countryside, and does feature a friendly ginger leprechaun holding a flute playing some traditional Irish melodies, but that’s where the resemblance ends.

And what’s all this Swirly Spin business about then? Well it’s only one of the most innovative NetEnt slots we have ever seen, with an exciting new spin mechanic, that’s what. In this game, the symbols don’t land in the standard way you expect from above, but instead they follow a spiral pattern starting at the outside left corner of the reels and ending up in the centre! OK, it sounds a bit weird, but once you see it, it will all make sense.

Look and Feel

Finn and the Swirly Spin takes you a mystical magical place where you’ll encounter all sorts of wonderful madness. The slot is set in the lush green land of the Emerald Isle with a soft rainbow as a backdrop, there’s also a handful of fat fluffy trees, and of course Finn the Leprechaun himself piping to his heart’s content to the left of your reels.

The graphics are better than top-notch, with crisp sharp 3D animations and excellent video content. NetEnt rarely release anything shoddy, but the design here is the best we’ve seen in a long time, and we particularly loved the Micheal Jackson meets Riverdance intro – so don’t skip it! Compare this game to a more traditional fruity like the Twin Spin Delux Slot and it won’t be just Finn’s Swirly Wotsit that is spinning!

Game Play

This cracking game is played out on a 5×5 grid set containing 25 spaces – with 25 symbols landing in those gaps. A win is made up of any horizontal or vertical line of 3x or more of the same symbol.

Aside from those swirly reels, this nutty little slot also features exploding symbols, so that whenever you get a winning combination, the contributing symbols are destroyed with the remaining symbols falling into the empty spots. This allows you to win again and again from each spin -hurrah!

Your symbols on the reels include; wooden spades and hearts, lucky 4-leaf clovers (to be sure, to be sure), some upside-down golden horseshoes, acorns  and some exquisite rubies. Naturally, the latter is the most lucrative icon in the slot, and will pay you out a cheeky 50x your bet for landing 5x on a payline. The golden star acts as the wild symbol and replaces all symbols bar the glowing Key scatter.

Free Spins and Bonuses

Madness, sheer madness. That’s what happens when you set off the Free Spins, as Finn disappears down a psychedelic green wormhole and emerges in ‘Magic Free Spins Land’.

But, triggering off the bonus round in Finn and the Swirly Spin slot is not as easy as it sounds…You’ll need to take the glowing Key scatter all the way to the keyhole in the middle of the screen from the outside left corner – and you can only make this happen by landing consecutive wins (each of which allows for the twinkly Scatter to advance).

If you do manage to unlock the bonus, then you’ll see that there are 4 bonus features that you’ll have to choose from:

-Star Bar: This needs 1 key to unlock it and it will award 7 Star Bar free spins with 2 to 5 wilds added on every free spin.

– Lava Lair: This needs 4 keys to unlock, and will give you 3x Lava Lair free spins.  A random number of symbols will also be destroyed on each spin and a sticky wild appears in place of the key symbol.

– Lucky Mug: This 9 keys to unlock it and gives you 4 free spins. Each spin will add a brand new horizontal or vertical line of 1 type of symbol.

– Golden Pot : This is the daddy of all the Free Spins, and requires a whopping 16 keys to unlock it. Awarding you 2 free spins, here all the spade and heart symbols will transform into higher value symbol on each and every free spin. Which, as you can imagine, can be very very lucrative indeed…

Base Game Extras

And as if that wasn’t enough, there are 4 quirky extras that can be randomly triggered during the base game, too!

– Starfall Wilds: This will add from 2 to 5 extra Golden Wild symbols on the reels for you

– Dragon Destroy: After a no win spin, a dragon will rock up onto the reels and will destroys a random number of symbols (with his fiery breath) which gives you more exploding wins

– Irish Luck: After a no win spin, a splat of Irish Stout will hot your reels and add an extra symbol to a horizontal or vertical line to give you a guaranteed win

– Magic Transform: This ingenious extra will transform all the spade and heart symbols on the reels into a higher paying symbol. Yeee-haa!

Conclusion

Finn and the Swirly Spin is simple once you get it going, and we love love love the innovative reel spin mechanic. Waiting for the Scatter key to hit the middle really adds to the suspenseful game play, and there are so many innovative features on offer here that this wombat couldn’t believe his eyes. Lucrative, fun and quite amazing to look at, this is the best NetEnt release we have seen in ages! This one’s not to be missed for any reason at all slot fans.

Wombat Score: 5/5

You are going to love this! Oh yes you are my little Wombat friends..