Cowabunga Dream Drop Slot Review

Cowabunga Dream Drop Slot RTP, Details & Wager Limits

The Cowabunga Dream Drop slot is played on 5 reels and has up to 3,087 ways to win. Match 3 or more symbols on adjacent reels beginning from the leftmost reel to form a winning combination. Only the highest win per line is paid.

Stakes range from just 10p up to £100 per spin. Like all Relax Gaming slots, simply hit the + and – buttons on either side of the bet value below the reels to adjust your total bet. Turbo spins and auto spins are also possible but only if you’re a non-UK player.

The Cowabunga Dream Drop RTP is 93.99%. 12% of this is used as a contribution to the jackpots. The non-Dream Drop version comes with an RTP rate of 96.01%. In terms of volatility, it’s in the high range and rated as 4 out of 5 by the provider.

The maximum win is 6,000 x your total stake. This is best achieved in the Free Spins feature as there is no limit on the number of free spins you can get. More on that bonus feature further down. But let’s not forget that this is a Dream Drop slot, so there is a huge jackpot on offer, which often hits over £1 million.

Theme: surf’s up!

Now, when I first heard about this slot, I’ll be honest, I was expecting Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was wrong. Cowabunga is a term used a lot with surfers and it expresses joy. So here we have a surfing-themed slot, which looks like it may well be set in Hawaii but we can’t be sure. I like how the reels are set inside a huge wave, that’s a nice touch.

The visuals aren’t too bad. The soundtrack, however, is a little dull in my opinion but fits the theme well. Land the Free Spins feature and daytime turns to dusk in the background, with the audio ramping up to intensify the gameplay.

On the reels, the different coloured fish make up the lower-paying symbols. The higher-paying ones are the surfers with different coloured boards. The orange surfer is the most lucrative symbol, paying 1, 1.5 or 2 x bet for 3, 4, or 5 in combination. The game’s Wild is a life buoy, which substitutes for all except Bonus symbols. They also pay 2 x bet if 5 land of them in combination. The Bonus Scatter is a shark. Here’s a useful list of the symbols in the game and the payout information for each:

Symbol	Payout/Info
Green or Blue Fish	3, 4 or 5 = 0.05, 0.1 or 0.15 x stake
Red or Orange Fish	3, 4 or 5 = 0.1, 0.15 or 0.2 x stake
Blue Surfer	3, 4 or 5 = 0.2, 0.4 or 0.6 x stake
Green Surfer	3, 4 or 5 = 0.4, 0.6 or 0.8 x stake
Purple Surfer	3, 4 or 5 = 0.5, 0.75 or 1 x stake
Orange Surfer	3, 4 or 5 = 1, 1.5 or 2 x stake
Wild	Substitutes for all except Bonus + 5 pays 2 x bet
Bonus	2 in view awards 5 free spins

Cowabunga Dream Drop Mobile

Like all Relax slots, Cowabunga Dream Drop is fully mobile optimised. Running on the latest HTML5 technology, you can play it on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices, including both iOS and Android smartphones. The visuals look great on a smaller screen.

Cowabunga Dream Drop Bonus Features

There are 5 bonus features to enjoy in the Cowabunga Dream Drop slot game. Middle reels can sync, nudges can improve wins, there’s a Free Spins feature and, of course, the Dream Drop jackpot. Let’s run you through it all so that you have a better understanding of the slot.

Sync & Expand feature

2 or 3 middle reels may randomly sync and expand up to 7 symbols high, this allowing for potentially bigger wins. The synced reels will have the same matching symbols in the same order.

Nudge feature

At any point in the game, the reels can stop but then nudge downward to improve a winning combination.

Free Spins feature

Land 2 Bonus Scatters in the base game to trigger this bonus feature. You will start with 5 free spins. What’s different here compared to the base game is that the 3 middle reels are always synced during this bonus round. Simply spin away until your free spins run out.

If you’re playing the non-Dream Drop version of this game, non-UK players can buy the Free Spins feature for 60 x bet.

Dream Drop Bonus feature

Randomly at any point, a jackpot spin may trigger after the regular spin has ended. If at least 1 Dream Drop symbol lands during the jackpot spin, you will enter the Dream Drop Bonus feature.

All Dream Drop symbols are carried over into this bonus feature. Played on a 5×5 grid, a different number of reels must be filled by Dream Drop symbols to land a jackpot:

• 1 for Rapid
• 2 for Midi
• 3 for Maxi
• 4 for Major
• 5 for Mega

Here are the prize values on offer:

Verdict: unique at least

3.4/5

Based on our expert’s review. Reviewed by Martin Backhouse

Martin Backhouse

Play Cowabunga Dream Drop

Cowabunga Dream Drop Slot

While the features on offer are fairly basic, the unique theme will be a hit with some and the Dream Drop jackpot will always entice plenty of players. A well thought out slot that could have done with a few more extras and a better soundtrack.

Pros

• Unlimited free spins
• Dream Drop Jackpot
• Unique theme

Cons

• Highly volatile
• Poor audio

While testing the Cowabunga Dream Drop slot, I was trying to think of previous surfing-related slots. The only 2 that spring to mind are Play’n GO’s Hotel Yeti-Way slot and Lightning Box’s Bondi Break slot. Both of those are fairly old and don’t have jackpots attached, so I guess you can call this one from Relax Gaming unique. It’s easier for a game to succeed when there’s little competition. If this was a popular theme, I’m not sure there would be much interest as the gameplay is pretty basic.

As I mentioned at the start of the review, I like how they’ve done the reels with the symbols all covered by a big wave. That’s where the interest ends for me personally. I wasn’t a fan of the soundtrack and the gameplay is pretty standard stuff. But don’t let my judgment put you off – feel free to try our demo and decide for yourself. Overall, it’s not a bad slot and the Dream Drop jackpot as well as the uniqueness of the theme are 2 strong positives.