Game: Ocean Magic
Manufacturer: IGT
Advantage play potential: Medium
What Makes it Special: Bubbles are wild, but landing atop an Ocean Magic symbol makes a lot more wilds appear. Bubbles hang around until they’ve moved off the screen, even if a player cashes out.
Ocean Magic is part of a wave of IGT persistent state games that bring some advantage play opportunity to the casino floors. Bubbles appear at intervals and hang around for up to four spins, offering wilds.
Similar to our conversation about Golden Egypt, we’ve reviewed a Gimmie Games game that’s very similar to Ocean Magic, Dragon Lanterns. But Ocean Magic game first, the OG game with floating advantage play potential. Let’s dive in and see how Ocean Magic works.
Understanding the Game
Ocean Magic is a 5×4 reel set with 50 lines. Bubbles can be added on any spin. Each spin, any bubbles present on the screen will move up one space. Once they reach the top reel, on the next spin they leave the reel set. Bubbles are always wild.
There are two betting options and three betting levels. The baseline bets increase in 50 cent increments. Or, you can double your bet on a bet level, and while lines will still evaluate at the same pay structure, you can Bubble Boost, which brings more frequent new bubbles to the reels. Unlike some More/Better bets, the bubbles being wild are able to help improve the number of winning lines or help them reach farther across the reels, improving pays, so it’s not just a bonus payout booster.
Magic Wilds Feature
On any spin, if a bubble and an Ocean Magic symbol land on the same space on a reel, wild bubbles will appear all around the Ocean Magic symbol, potentially offering a 3×3 block of wilds. This is where the line pays can get exciting if you have the wilds in the right space. Or, you can get multiple Ocean Magic symbols to line up, and therefore even more wilds.
Free Spins Bonus
Three or more treasure chests trigger the Free Spins bonus. Unlike most slots, the free spins bonus isn’t a set number of spins. Instead, based on the number of bonus symbols triggered, you pop bubbles, which inside can contain free spins or more picks. When you run out of picks the free spin bonus begins.
Just like in the main game, bubbles can be added on any spin, and each spin float upward. They still remain wild, and still expand when they overlap with an Ocean Magic symbol. So the bonus is just the same basic game mechanic as a bonus round. But depending on picking you can end up with quite a few games, which can make the bonus pretty significant!
Understanding the Advantage
Just like Dragon Lanterns, the floating symbol, in this case, the bubbles, is what makes it an advantage. There are six bet levels to check per denomination (if the game is multi-denomination, you can have six per denomination). Checking all six for any lingering bubbles can immediately give you a read on the advantage.
The more bubbles, and the more to the left and lower to the screen they are, the better the advantage opportunity. And you know there is only a certain number of spins before the bubbles disappear (unless it adds a bunch more, which can only help you), so the investment is limited to a few spins, but can pay out beautifully if things line up right.
Watch and Learn
Check out IGT’s demo video showing off the core features of Ocean Magic:
