Underwater slots hold a unique place in the fantasy niche of online slots. There are a lot of stories to be told here. NetEnt has decided to move away from the standard Atlantis formula and instead focus on a group of beautiful mermaids.

The highly volatile slot has 20 paylines and sharp graphics, as expected. You get to unravel the secrets of the mermaids and their home – the deep ocean. The main gameplay feature revolves around three types of wilds, which are collected in separate meters and unleash various features. The wild features come in addition to symbol removals in the bonus stages, all contributing to some genuinely decent wins.

It’s an enchanting underwater world filled with secrets and treasures, and it’s up to you to solve everything. As is often the case with NetEnt slots, this one incorporates various story elements into the gameplay, making for quite a unique experience despite the standard base game. If you want to learn more, read my Mermaids review below.

NetEnt is widely considered one of the best slot studios. It’s all thanks to the decades of experience paired with hits such as Starburst and Gonzo’s Quest. The innovative developer brings sharp visuals and great animations to a mysterious underwater world ruled by mermaids.

The graphics and animations are nothing short of amazing. You’ll dive deep into the ocean, with submerged mermaid statues flanking the reels. On the reels, you’ll see the titular mermaids in all their glory. The slot truly shines in the visual department, and it’s easy to play too.

All of its controls are located beneath the reels for easy access. You can play it easily on your desktop or on the go via mobile.

The first thing you’ll want to do before you start playing the Mermaids slot is adjust your bet. You can choose between 10c and $40 per spin – the usual NetEnt betting range. The green spin button is another familiar NetEnt element borrowed from other slots. Hit it to spin the reels.

Played on a 5x3 grid, the slot features 20 fixed paylines for winning combinations. You can achieve a win in a traditional way by matching three or more symbols. The base game itself is pretty straightforward until you start collecting the wilds. As expected, the mermaids pay the most. There are four of these premium symbols in addition to four low-paying card royals.

There are four wilds to keep an eye on. They all substitute for other symbols in winning combinations and pay the most – 100x for 5 of a kind. One wild appears regularly in the base game, while the other three are available via the special features.

In addition to the regular wilds, there are also three special wilds: green, purple, and white progression wilds. When one appears, it powers up the respective globe above the reels. When one is filled, it triggers the respective feature. The three available options are a picked bonus, wild spins, and mermaid spins.

The picker bonus begins when you collect 15 purple globes. You then get three picks with 15 shells on the screen. Simply click on the shells you want to get mermaid wilds, wild spins, or prizes between 2x and 50x.

Thirty green globes will deliver ten mermaid spins. Random wilds are active in the bonus round, with 2-6 added to the reels before each free spin.

Collecting 60 white globes or winning the mermaid spins via the bonus picking round triggers ten free spins. Random wilds are added to the grid once again before each spin, but this time, the card royals are removed from the grid, leaving you with much higher winning opportunities.

The Mermaids slot has no bonus buy feature, which is a shame. It would have been much better if the slot allowed you to buy into any of the bonuses.

Owing to NetEnt's enormous popularity, the Mermaids slot game is available in most casinos online. Therefore, I headed to my favorite site, loaded the game, and started playing.

I had a lot of fun during my session, as the game offers a straightforward experience without complicated features. I didn’t have a lot of luck winning big in the base game, but I managed to trigger the picker bonus once, and it paid back wonderfully.

Due to the lack of a bonus buy feature and the high volatility, triggering the other bonus rounds was tougher than expected.

Overall, I liked the design and gameplay features in this refreshingly straightforward slot game, which is not hard to play at all.

The Mermaids slot has an RTP of 96.09%, which is right around the industry average for high volatility slots. However, it’s not the highest-paying slot in NetEnt’s portfolio, with a maximum projected win of 1,974x the bet.

Mermaids is a fun slot with no significant surprises. However, its features are great, and it’s easy to play. With three different bonus rounds, it will surely impress both new and seasoned players. 

With 20 paylines to win across and wild collections that trigger the different features, this title has a lot to play for. On top of that, it comes with NetEnt’s sharp graphics and cool animations, which will help immerse you deeper into the experience.

If you love underwater or mermaid-themed slots, there are numerous alternatives you can also try. Check out Wins of Mermaid Multi Power for a more powerful math model or the iconic Mermaids Millions slot from Games Global.