The Great Icescape gave me five bonus rounds in 100 demo spins, and two of them paid more than 2,500.00 each on a 15.00 bet. Apart from a short spell in profit after spin 8, the session was losing until spin 69, with a run of twenty empty spins in a row; then spin 70 paid 2,509.20 and spin 91 paid 2,569.20. The balance finished at 104,396.20.
United States
The Great Icescape available at Cafe Casino
Same game, real money
Cafe Casino runs the same The Great Icescape with the same math and adds a welcome bonus for players from the United States:
300% up to $2,000 + 150 FS 18+ · T&Cs apply · the demo stays free
Five bonus rounds
Eighteen spins won anything at all, and five of them reached the bonus:
| Spin | Paid, base part and bonus |
|---|---|
| 8 | 168.60 |
| 70 | 2,509.20 |
| 86 | 225.00 |
| 91 | 2,569.20 |
| 94 | 133.20 |
Together they paid 5,605.20 of the 5,896.20 that came back on 1,500.00 staked. The other thirteen wins added 291.00, the best of them 90.00 on spin 39. Spins 19 to 38 lost every time, and the balance hit its low of 99,325.60 just before spin 70.
Penguins behind ice
The board is five by five, but on a paid spin twelve cells around the edge are frozen. Only one cell of each outer reel and three of each reel next to it are open, so the spin pays on 45 ways; with every block gone the count is 3,125. Animals and card ranks sit on blue or purple tiles, and the colour matters later.
| Symbol | Tile | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Penguin | purple | 50 | 200 | 500 |
| Pink fish | blue | 30 | 150 | 300 |
| Squid | purple | 25 | 100 | 250 |
| Blue fish | blue | 20 | 80 | 200 |
| A | purple | 15 | 40 | 50 |
| K | blue | 10 | 30 | 40 |
| Q | purple | 8 | 25 | 35 |
| J | blue | 6 | 20 | 30 |
| 10 | purple | 5 | 15 | 25 |
| 9 | blue | 5 | 10 | 20 |
The game has a base bet of 25, so at 15.00 a spin each paytable point is worth 0.60. Nothing on the reels substitutes for anything else, and nothing scatters. A win gives a free respin, and before it starts each winning symbol smashes one ice block, so a lucky chain opens the board step by step. When the last block breaks, the Bonus Respin feature begins.
Blue for the multiplier, purple for lives
The bonus starts at x2 with one spare life, shown in two igloos under the board. Winning symbols are collected by tile colour. Ten blue ones raise the multiplier by one, and ten purple ones add a life.
A bonus respin that wins earns another. One that misses costs a life, and with no lives left the round is over. Collected symbols carry over from one respin to the next, so the multiplier only grows.
Spin 91, respin by respin
The spin and two respins paid 12.00 each and broke all twelve blocks.
The demo's own game history lists every bonus respin of that round with its win before the multiplier. Fifteen respins were played:
| Respins | Multiplier | What happened | Paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | x2 | miss, the spare life is used | 0.00 |
| 2-4 | x2 | 42.00, 18.00, 24.60; ten blue symbols and a new life | 169.20 |
| 5-6 | x3 | 72.00, then a miss that costs the life | 216.00 |
| 7 | x3 | 156.00; the multiplier moves to x4 | 468.00 |
| 8-11 | x4 | 36.00, 30.00, 30.00, 18.00; two lives collected | 456.00 |
| 12-13 | x4 | two misses, both lives gone | 0.00 |
| 14 | x4 | 306.00; the multiplier moves to x5 | 1,224.00 |
| 15 | x5 | miss, round over | 0.00 |
Respin 7 was full of penguins and blue fish.
Respin 14 came after both lives had gone, so it was the last chance. Squids were everywhere, and 306.00 at x4 became 1,224.00.
The bonus came to 2,533.20, and with the 36.00 before it the spin paid 2,569.20, more than 171 times the stake.
Spin 70 reached x7
The earlier big round started with 132.00 from the spin and its respins, and its multiplier went further, to x7. Its best moment was at x5: nines on all five reels, sixteen ways of five, 192.00 before the multiplier and 960.00 after it.
The round ended at 2,509.20. Taking the balance from 99,325.60 to 101,819.80, it turned a losing session into a winning one in a single spin.
| Feature | Specification |
|---|---|
| Provider | PG Soft |
| Released | May 2019 |
| Board | 5 x 5, 12 ice blocks; 45 to 3,125 ways |
| Bet | 0.75 to 225.00, base bet 25 |
| Respins | After every win; each winning symbol breaks a block |
| Bonus Respin | x2 and 1 life; 10 blue symbols +1 multiplier, 10 purple +1 life |
| RTP | 96.33% (PG Soft) |
| Max win | 50,000x the bet |
The Great Icescape FAQ
How do you reach the bonus in The Great Icescape?
Why does the tile colour matter?
Why does a spin cost 15.00?
A year and a half later PG Soft moved the same engine to space in Galactic Gems, with asteroids instead of ice and lives collected from any winning symbol.
I have run the same 100-spin test on many other PG Soft games; they are all on the home page.