Shifting Seas Slot Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Shifting Seas Review

We had to double check to be sure, but Shifting Seas is actually Thunderkick’s very first full-blown swashbuckling pirate slot. Most developers touch base with this popular genre sooner rather than later, so the crafty Swedes have taken their sweet time. That being said, Shifting Seas comes with a unique shifting reel set engine called Shift Win, and a maxed out 6x7 grid awards 117,649 win ways.

An idyllic treasure island can be seen in the background, and the sea is calm and clear. The sun is setting with a magnificent golden shimmer in the bonus round, as wrecked boats reveal their hidden treasures. The dynamic base game experience is enhanced by 3 feature wilds that can take turns playing out, and you get walking wild reels that progressively increase their multiplier in the bonus round.

Shifting Seas Slot - Reels Screen

Shifting Seas Slot Features

The premium symbols pay between 1 and 5 x your stake for 6 of a kind wins, and Wild symbols also pay 5x your stake for 6-oak. In addition, wilds step in for regular pay symbols to help complete wins. There is a regular wild that can land organically, as well as several feature wilds we’ll get to below.

The Shift Win mechanic moves all reels one step to the right per win, giving you a fresh new reel on the leftmost side.

Each new reel that comes in on the uttermost left is one position higher than the previous one. With enough Shift Win triggers you can expand the whole grid to 7 positions in height.

To make things even more dynamic, all winning symbols are removed by the Avalanche mechanic after each win. You will then see new and/or existing symbols drop down from above to fill the gaps, and the feature goes on as long as you keep winning.

In addition to the regular wild, you have 3 different special wild symbols. If special wilds are moved off the grid via the Shift Win mechanic, or if they’re used in a win, their special feature is loaded into the 3-position meter seen on the left. You can load all 3 wild features into the meter queue, and they play out on the following order:

• Boost Shift - awards a reel shift which adds a new reel on the leftmost side, and the symbols on the previous leftmost reel are cloned to the new reel.
• Symbol Rush - turns 4 to 8 random symbols into a randomly chosen matching symbol.
• Wild Surge - turns 1 to 3 symbols into wild symbols at random.

The pirate ship bonus symbol can appear on any reel, and you need to Shift Win it off the grid to the uttermost right to trigger the Bonus Round.

This gives you 8 free spins for starters, and you get +4 extra spins each time you retrigger the feature in the same way.

The bonus round starts you off with a Wild Reel to the uttermost left, and it starts with an x1 multiplier. The Wild Reel moves one step right per Shift Win, and it starts all over again on the leftmost side if/when it moves off the grid to the right.

This increases the wild multiplier by +1 each time, as well as giving you +1 extra spin. New Wild Reels can land on random reels during the feature as well, and they behave in the same manner.

The 200 Spins Shifting Seas Slot Experience

We had a pretty good time testing Shifting Seas from Thunderkick, and you can always rely on these guys to provide original and entertaining games. We have created a brief and edited highlights video for your viewing pleasure as usual, and you can see for yourself how we fared by hitting the play button below.

Shifting Seas Slot - Free Spins

Review Summary

The pace is excellent when you double-click in this game, but a regular turbo spin option is definitely something Thunderkick should consider. Also, the spin button click sound gets annoying real quick, not least when you’re tired of double-clicking. Other than that, Shifting Seas comes with an original take on the dynamic reels concept, but actually getting to the bonus round can be a somewhat frustrating sea voyage.

There are plenty of teasers for sure, but as is the case with many Thunderkick installments, the bonus round is hard to get. This may explain the lack of epic Thunderkick win stories out there. The 3 different wild features, as well as the expanded grid, can deliver solid base game payouts up to 15,000x though, at least in theory.

The wandering wild feature in the bonus round comes across as a bit of an anti-climax to be honest, and getting larger multipliers is far from easy.

Pros

• Avalanche & reel-expanding Shift Win mechanic
• 3 special wilds can unleash unique modifiers
• FS w/ moving wild reels w/ multiplier upgrade
• Win up to 15,000x your stake

Cons

• Hard to get to the bonus round
• Beware of adjustable RTP ranges

If you enjoy Shifting Seas Slot you should also try:

Pirate Kingdom Megaways - comes with the more traditional and licensed dynamic reels engine, and this swashbuckling Iron Dog release gives you multiplying multiplier wilds in all stages. Maxed out reels are locked in the bonus round, where the uncapped progressive win multiplier can lead to payouts up to 40,000x your stake.

Dead Man's Trail - is a highly engaging buccaneer installment from Relax Gaming, and you can win larger payouts from cash coins in the base game. The main attraction is the Trail Bonus Game though, which comes with 11 unique modifiers and a 50,000x potential.

1429 Uncharted Seas - is a classic seafaring slot from Thunderkick, known for its beautiful sea charts artwork. You get expanding wilds in all stages of the game, and up to 50 FS for starters in the bonus round. The 98.5 % RTP is impressive, but the 670x max win is from another Thunderkick and online slot era.

Related Slots