Dead Canary

Dead Canary is our slot of the month for February. Sequel to Misery Mining, this 3x3x2x2x1x1 slot game was released in December and continues to pull in the players big-time.

As well as the unusual reel set-up which includes sliding reels, this quirky little game includes special multipliers, a free spins round with seven multipliers and an above-par potential pay-out of up to 65,000x your stake.

Theme and Visuals

No Limit City’s grizzled dwarf once again takes centre stage. This time out he’s on a quest to find true love or something.

Like its predecessor, the game setting is suitable dark and dank. But the visuals have most certainly been given an upgrade

. The reels feature more elaborate wood-effect overlays which slide away to reveal wire mesh backgrounds. Upon these sits a collection of well-drawn and nicely animated characters, creatures and mining paraphernalia.

The cave setting is also highly detailed and more polished than Misery Mining. The same oboe-driven soundtrack accompanies play which seems fitting for the game’s subject-matter.

How to Play Dead Canary

Well, you spin the reels and hope for the best. Actually there’s a bit more to it than that. The unusual reel configuration is actually a six reel lay-out that can expand to nine.

To win some money, you’ll need to land 3, 4, 5 or 6 matching symbols on adjacent reels starting from the left.

Low-value reel symbols include playing card icons (worth up to 1.5x your bet), while premium symbols comprise a grappling hook, hip flask, compass, rat and dwarf. Of these the dwarf is the most valuable. He’ll pay out as much as 7.5x your bet if you land him six times across a pay-line.

Collapse Feature

Every win is followed by a collapse. Here, all winning symbols explode off the reels to reveal vacated spaces in which new symbols slide into. This can lead to new winning combinations although don’t expect the process to repeat too many times.

Wild Mining Feature

The process is also active during the Wild Mining feature. This activates 3, 4 or 5 matching symbols diagonally but without a winning pay-line. Once again, the activating symbols are removed, this time to create an Xbomb wild.

xBomb Wild Multiplier Feature

xBomb wilds replace all other symbols save for the scatters. When one appears, it activates the xBomb Wild Multiplier feature which blows up symbols (apart from Scatters and other xBomb wilds) in a cross pattern and boosts your win multiplier by one on the subsequent collapse.

Canary Free Spins Feature

Silver and Gold Cage Canary scatters are active during the base game and trigger the free spins feature provided you land at least three of either. They can appear in any position.

Once you’ve activated the free spins, the reel matrix changes to a 4x3x4x3x4x3x4 set-up and four corner vaults are unlocked by explosions. These collect multipliers and coins that land in adjacent positions. The triggering canary also remains locked in position during the round.

The round of free spins begins with 3 re-spins and the canary scatters include a starting value of x1.

Both silver and gold canary scatters have the ability to collect coins, upgrades and multipliers in x-shape positions. The silver canary collects from adjacent x-shaped positions while the gold canary collects from x-shaped rows and reels.

The canaries have three lives which they can lose due to adjacent reel explosions. When a life is lost, a new canary steps in but starts at a multiplier value of x1.

Free Spin Special Bonus Symbols

These are the special symbols that can appear in the bonus round.
• Coins – add a value of up to 100x to scatter cages when collected
• Multipliers – increases scatter values by x2 or x3
• Bomb – explodes in an x-shape to affect symbols, removing canary lives too but also unlocking corner vaults
• Upgrade – turns silver cages into gold ones, adding an extra life.
• Gas – removes one canary life
• Dwarf – adds a canary life, also helping scatter canaries to collect all values from other scatters in a single spin
• Rat – adds a canary life to all scatters during each spin

Conclusion

Although this is the third slot in the series from No Limit City, it feels fresh and offers a unique take on what amounts to the same theme.

The angled reels, although strange to begin with, work very well, especially with the cascading/slider feature – this is a welcome introduction to game-play especially with the sleek visuals and animations that accompany the feature.

In addition, the enhancer symbols add plenty of variety to the free spins round and can prove very lucrative if you’re lucky. Despite a lower maximum bet than Misery Mining (65,000x your stake v 70,000x your stake), Dead Canary is a superior game to its popular predecessor.

RTP: 94.12%, Minimum Stake: 0.20

Dale Shelabarger

Freelance Contributor, creating content since 2003

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