Sherlock Bones

Overview Sherlock Bones slot

Sherlock Bones is from the developers at Electric Elephant, and they have created a slot that puts the infamous detective through a wringer with the result being a doggie detective with a magnifying glass and fixation with bones! Powered by Relax Gaming Sherlock is joined by his trusted companion Watson who incidentally is also a dog as they chase their archvillain Moriarty who is a cat through the streets of London. Chasing is rather a strange choice of word as the key Rolling Re-spins feature involves walking the Sherlock Bones wild symbols which can expand as can the reels, ways and potential wins when activated.

Theme and Symbols

Players are greeted with some temperamental skies prior to Sherlock Bones making an appearance. There is a 5-reel, 3-row grid that is suspended in the sky above the tiled rooves and chimneys of early Edwardian/late Victorian London. It is a harsh scene, and it is easy to imagine all manner of villains roaming the dimly lit streets clearly getting up to no good. The soundtrack provides some light relief and is a Holmes inspired covert jingle that is most befitting to the dog/cat capers that are playing out over the reels.

There are seven regular pay symbols which are represented by Kings, Aces, pipes, magnifying glasses, paw prints, Watson the dog in a bowler and Moriarty the cat complete with monocle. Watson and Moriarty are the premiums and landing five of a kind will pay you 6x to 10x your stake. The symbols can land stacked so it is possible to land a full screen of wins with the possibilities of these increasing in value during the value when the additional rows can be added.

Game Play

Sherlock Bones can be played on all devices and you can choose a bet starting from just 20p per spin up to £100 per spin. On the technical side the volatility has a rating from the developers of 3 out of 5 which means it sits in the medium category whilst the return to players is a solid 96.21% and Sherlock Bones can be separated into two clear modes which are the base game and re-spins. The base game saunters along even though it benefits from stacked symbols and 243 ways to win, whilst the re-spins are where the whole slot has the chance to lift off. The re-spins do not trigger that often but when they do, each one is guaranteed to pay out some prize amounts.

Wins are created on the 1st reel and pay from left to right when you land three or more of the same symbols and when you trigger the Rolling Re-spins feature there is a downpour which is ironic as it encapsulates the true English weather!

Features

When it comes to the features the real head turner is the trademarked Rolling Re-spins feature. When you land the Sherlock Bones wild it unlocks a special row that is located beneath your main reels. This bonus reel spins horizontally and will only display the empty spaces or bones. If you land a bone underneath a wild symbol, and this then turns the wild sticky, and this expands downwards and the Rolling Re-spins become active and the wilds will replace any other symbols that appear on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th, reels only.

In the feature you will be rewarded with re-spins until you land a win. After every win all sticky wild symbol move one reel to the left and a new row is then added to the top of the grid. There can be as many as four rows added and this provides you with 16,807 ways to win. The wilds also grow by one position as they walk. If you land any new wilds the bonus reel is unlocked and turn sticky provided a bone has landed beneath them. The feature comes to an end when all the walking wilds have fallen off the reels.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that dog and cat lovers will be kept amused by Sherlock Bones and they will find themselves laughing out loud whilst playing. When it comes to the features the Rolling Re-spins are great fun however I did feel that several other parts of the slot feel rather underdone. The problem for me was that with just one feature to play for there was a little lack of inspiration and not a lot going on. The animals are well executed and endearing however on the other hand the horrid weather, plain reels and pedestrian game play this slot can suffer at times from some unexciting gaming.

The Rolling Re-spins take a while to activate and this makes perfect sense as not only is this the only feature, but these are the win spins, complete with expanding reels, ways, and stacked symbols and because the feature is packed with all these elements the feature can see you walking away with some excellent wins.

Due to Electric Elephant deciding to trademark the Rolling Re-spins they are obviously planning on using the feature in future games. This would not be a bad thing as the feature does feel a little unfulfilled in Sherlock Bones on its own. I cannot put my finger on it, but I could not help but feel that there was something missing in this slot. It could be that the slot would have benefitted from another feature or two or perhaps a lesser modifier to help with the lack of variety that is on offer. I did find that I did need to sit through several spins that amassed to nothing whilst hoping that the Rolling Re-spins decided to drop.
To begin with the way the theme has been executed was slightly confusing, I did like that the developers at Electric Elephant choose animals rather than humans as this made a nice change even though at times they seemed wildly out of place. The music and background combined invoked what I would call a Steampunk styled mood, but this did not really sit well with the three cheerful animals.

I will not say that I did not enjoy this slot as it is very light-hearted and will entertain a good deal of players. The slot is charming, and I would rate it as 7/10.