Original Release: IGT, 2015
Watch your money drain to the tune of a stop-and-start bootleg Rock Lobster
Lucky Larry Lobstermania 2 (IGT, 2015)
I’d heard good things from people about the original Lobstermania, so this caught my eye on a recent casino trip. Maybe the original game is different? Because the sequel just felt like a very high volatility money sink that doesn’t even bother to give you the most rudimentary animations or sounds to keep you interested.
It presents as a “penny” slot but the minimum bet you’ll probably see at machines is 60 cents. That covers all lines, it’s a simple 4×5 game that seems to be oriented on chasing the three jackpots. The game’s listed RTP is 96.5%, which is generally about as high as slots gets, but I assume that’s predicated on people hitting the very rare jackpots and getting huge returns to offset a lot of losing. These alter in value with your bet but the biggest one ranges from 5k to 250k credits.
At a short brush the game just feels like it has a ton of dead spins and eats your money fast. I had no luck getting to any bonus features with a reasonable amount of spend and had to go online to check them out. It does offer stacked wilds that can give you a pretty big individual line win here and there, and wins can also receive a random multiplier of up to 5x. And when you land three of the Lobstermania symbols (in some fussy positions) you get a situation similar to Konami’s 3×5 games where you pick either a relatively small instant payout or to go for it with some amount of free spins. Any of these can end up giving you a pretty big win to offset all that general losing, but the trick is in getting to it without dumping too much of your money first.
My other criticism of the game is it really tries to offer no eye or ear candy at all (other than little chunks of Rock Lobster), just shuttles you through its low-effort lobster world as fast as possible. So I’d say this is only for someone specifically looking for high volatility in an uncomplicated game with multiple possibilities of big wins (and ready to lay out some money), or if you’re looking to burn some “fun bucks” and want to just go for a fairly big jackpot without having too much of a minimum bet.
Videos
If you just wanna listen to the song
If you want to hear Peter Griffin singing about Iraq Lobster