Pufferfish are known for their ability to inflate and appear much bigger than they really are. They can beat larger fish this way, even when the odds are against them. Normally, they go about their business, swimming around their colorful habitats and peacefully munching on the algae on the sea floor. However, if danger arises, they are quick to take action and overcome any situation by puffing up and being the bigger person, or should we say: the bigger fish. Their fascinating behavior was the main source of inspiration for the adorable aquatic critters in Puff Puff Puffer by Atomic Slot Lab from Bragg Studios, a charming take on the popular triple pots slots. Let's take a look at what they do, how they do it, and explore their picturesque world brimming with colors, shapes, and majestic marine marvels.
General overview
Puff Puff Puffer is played on a 5x3 grid with 243 paylines and volatility listed as medium. The background behind the slot face shows a typical tropical marine background with plenty of organic coral structures and colorful fish swimming around. On the left, next to the grid, you can see three differently colored pufferfish, each representing one of the triggerable game features. All three fish are animated, with huge googly eyes, and entertain the player by slightly twitching, flapping their fins, and letting out air bubbles from time to time in a very cute way. The entire situation feels like a scene from a cinematic animation feature, especially since the artistic style follows the contemporary aesthetics in animated blockbuster movies. The colors are very vibrant, attention-grabbing, and it's almost hard to look away from the screen as the entire scene is visually pleasing and rewarding.
Speaking of symbols, they include the usual fare of royals as low-paying symbols and cute marine characters as mid- and high-paying symbols, such as seahorses, butterflyfish, baby turtles, starfish, and sharks. Adorable octopi are wild symbols, sunken treasure chests are frame overlay symbols, while pearl symbols come in three varieties: in purple, orange, and green seashells. It is precisely these pearls that are the most sought-after symbols in the game, as they act as feature-triggering scatters.
The overwhelming catchiness of the visuals may be a bit misleading at first, and the initial impression may bring to mind children's picture books, but there is a very serious win-making machine operating behind the game's gentle and user-friendly cartoony appearance. There are very few games that can pull off such contrasts, and Puff Puff Puffer makes them work brilliantly, also thanks to a very chill steelpan/calypso musical score with brass section instruments and Caribbean-style sound effects. All this results in a slot game experience that can relax and excite at the same time. How is this possible?
Features and mechanics
Well, now that it has grabbed our attention, the game seizes the opportunity and mesmerizes with its tight mechanics and features that work together to deliver a thrilling slot experience. The game's one major threefold feature is enough to achieve that, namely the currently all-the-rage triple pots feature during which one, two, or three subfeatures may be triggered simultaneously. Remember those orange, green, and purple pearls we mentioned earlier? Each may start its respective feature randomly whenever it lands, and quite often even two or three at a time. What's best about it is that the features are not played independently, one by one. Instead, they are combined into an even stronger feature that becomes more than the sum of its parts thanks to the synergy between the subfeatures. So what happens exactly?
When one or more features are triggered, eight free games are awarded alongside additional enhancements that come from the triggering scatter pearl symbols. Purple pearls start the Sploosh feature, add from 2 to 17 additional free games to the default eight, and can be retriggered while the feature is already running to award 2 to 5 more. Green pearls start the Splash feature that adds (and re-adds when retriggered) 3 to 15 frame overlays to random symbol positions. Frame overlays add up on each single position and, when the feature is over, turn into multipliers that boost the random bet multiplier value of up to 100x the bet assigned to the overlaid symbol. Orange pearls, however, start the Splish feature (see what they did with the feature names?) that expands the grid from 5x3 to 5x6. This increases the number of winways from 243 to a whopping 7776 and unlocks this way the game's massive winning potential.
So, let's say you trigger all three features: you will get eight plus seven or so free games, a total of fifteen, which is nothing to sneeze at, then about eight frame overlays, which translates to a couple of 2x and 3x multipliers, and a 5x6 grid to play your free games on. 2x and 3x multipliers (higher ones are not uncommon) may not seem much, but keep in mind that the values they multiply at feature end can go all the way to 100x the current bet. What's more, each sunken treasure chest that lands in this phase will add one frame overlay to its position and further increase the final feature payouts.
As if that wasn't enough, there's a buy bonus option built into the game, a common addition to games from Atomic Slot Lab. For 100x the current bet, you will instantly trigger at least one feature - if not all of them - and kickstart your game session with an exciting test of your current luck. We'll never get tired of saying that we simply love this option as it takes nothing from players who prefer to take it easy while offering a valuable shortcut and often a significant boost to those impatient to dive right into action. Game devs, take note!
Our final verdict
Due to its impressive style and accentuated color scheme, the game may appear somewhat surreal, especially with the cutesy pufferfish in their bright and vivid colors. However, anyone who has ever gone snorkeling or diving on a tropical island can confirm that the visual wealth of the game isn't exaggerated at all. What's surprising is that the game creators managed to craft a game that can feel intense and deeply profound (pun intended, of course) despite its perceived visual lightness. It's an achievement in and of itself, as few studios can pull off (or are willing to attempt) such a daring stunt. For Atomic Slot Lab, it paid out very nicely since the game works like a charm and accomplishes its purpose with style, polish, and zing. Feature mechanics feel intuitive, they are retriggerable, which is a very welcome thing in any game, and satisfy the wish for animated slot action quite regularly. Even after a few hundred spins, we never got bored in the base game and were more than pleased with the trigger frequency of the free games feature(s).In short, these adorable pufferfish can generously supersize your payouts, jack up game sessions with lots of free games, expand the grid to create thousands of opportunities to win, and escalate the thrills considerably with boostable multipliers. Some games require you to take a deep dive before you can explore their appeal in full. Puff Puff Puffer doesn't: it's more like a snorkeling trip in which you only need to submerge your head a bit to start admiring amazing scenes underwater and enjoying the game. Follow the fins of these lovable marine creatures, immerse yourself in their colorful underwater world, and discover the extraordinary win-swelling abilities of Puff Puff Puffer!
