The felines on show in Cats aren't of the cute, furry variety. They're big cats so think lions, tigers, leopards, cheetahs and jaguars. They can all turn into double symbols which offers the prospect of 10 symbol payouts. The reels do look a little odd when the double symbols hit. The two-headed big cats look as if they've been genetically cloned. With potential payouts of 2,500 coins we're not going to complain too much about the slightly unusual visuals though.
Cats also comes with a Wild symbol that substitutes for all other symbols apart from the paw prints. When it appears in a winning payline with any of the big cats it counts as a double symbol. The wild is the game's biggest payer, offering jackpots of 10,000 coins if you find a five symbol combination.
The other symbol to keep a special eye out for is the paw print which is the key to triggering the Free Spins feature. Get 5 or 6 paw prints anywhere on reels 2, 3 and 4 and you will trigger the feature (remember, you can hit double paw prints so it's not quite as tricky as it sounds).
4 paw prints will double any winning payline, 5 will give you 5 free spins with 6 offering 10 free spins. It's possible to re-trigger more free spins during the feature so hope to track down those paw prints.
Cats is a popular slot in land-based casinos in Las Vegas and the online version offers similar possibilities of striking it big for a relatively small outlay. The variance is on the higher side of medium so the big wins are relatively rare. If you're lucky enough to find a combination of wilds and double symbols in the feature then the wins can be of a big size.
The graphics are certainly a little dated compared to the glossy, HD-style visuals found in many new slots. The high volatility still makes Cats worth a look though but I prefer playing Pharaoh’s Fortune which was released online at the same time and has since been revamped. If you like cat-themed slots, Prowling Panther (also by IGT) is very good.