Ned and his Friends Slot
Ned and his Friends is a 5-reel, max 30-pay line online video slot from Betsoft. This rather creepy slot has a very unique theme – a weird-looking guy who lives in an apartment with a group of singing rats. Yes – you read that right. Of course having a group of singing rats is something that Ned likes to keep a big secret. Even his girlfriend doesn't know … as if a creepy-looking guy living alone in an apartment with a secret clan of singing rats would have a girlfriend! Ned's squeeze has a habit of popping around unannounced (possibly to check on Ned's current mental status), and the sight of a handful of lyrical rodents makes the poor girl swoon. We can't say that we have a great deal of faith in Ned and his girlfriend's long-term future together.
There are five different ratty symbols altogether, and they are joined on the reels by the freaky-looking Ned, and a door. There are three special symbols too – the singing rats symbol, the mouse-hole symbol and Ned's lady friend. This slot has a maximum of thirty lines, and you can select how many of them you want in play for each spin. You can choose your coin size from 0.02 to 1.00, and the number of coins you want to gamble with each spin from one to five. Your final line bet is the number of lines multiplied by your bet level multiplied by the size of your coin. When you're ready to go rat-catching, hit the spin button.
Payout & bonus rounds
The chubby rat and the long-haired rat are the lowest payers in this game – two of them anywhere on the reels will win you double your line-bet. Our freaky 'friend' Ned is the biggest payer. Land five of him and you'll receive five hundred times your line-bet as winnings.
If you land three or more singing rat symbols in any position on any reel, then you will trigger the singing rats free spins feature. You can enjoy watching Ned's rodent buddies sing and dance during your freebies. You can earn additional free spins during this mode by landing more singing rats free spins symbols on the reels.
By landing three or more mouse-hole (rat-hole?) symbols you earn the 'Click Me' bonus. Select one of the mouse-hole symbols to reveal a mystery prize.
Three or more girlfriend symbols anywhere on the reels earns you the 'Ratty Rat Doo-Wop' bonus game. Ned's (alleged) girlfriend faints when she sees the singing rats (as opposed to phoning Rentokill) and you must select a rat to sing her back awake. Get it right and you win a cash reward.
We can safely say that this is the best slot we've seen in the common 'slots featuring singing rats' niche. The animation is wonderful, as you would expect from Betsoft, although the soundtrack (think 'Alvin & The Chipmunks') and Ned's frequent admonishments when you play too slowly for his liking do get annoying. You can play with no sound though of course! It's all a bit too cheesy to be honest (pun intended), and Betsoft have done many, many better games than this.