Bayou Phantoms: Hunting Ghosts by Lantern Light

Some targets only exist in the light

Most shooting games show you everything on screen. Bayou Phantoms does not. Baron Croak, a dapper frog in a top hat and frock coat, carries a lantern whose beam sweeps the swamp, and the phantoms (the Ghost Catfish, the Phantom Heron and the Ghost Gar) are invisible outside it. They can only be hit in the light, and when they are, they pay double. Voodoo nets and mojo bombs also light them up where they land. That single rule turns a familiar format into something you have to think about.

The basics follow the usual fishing-game pattern. Tap the scene to fire at that point, hold to keep firing, and a captured target pays its multiplier times your bet. Shots bounce off the edges until they hit, and a shot that hits nothing is refunded. Higher bets power the lantern up through three levels, and the server decides every capture.

The swamp's residents and what they pay

The ladder starts with the Firefly at ×2, then the Lantern Frog (×3), Will-o'-wisp (×5), Skeleton Crawfish (×6), Ghost Catfish (×8), Snapping Turtle (×12), Phantom Heron (×15), Ghost Gar (×25) and Skeleton Gator (×30). The Golden Toad King carries a random ×50 to ×100. Remember that the three phantoms double their value when caught in the beam. Two special targets clear space:

• Firefly Jar: its fireflies fly to up to seven targets for one combined prize.
• Voodoo Drum: its shockwave takes every target around it.

Bosses and the bounty wheel

Three bosses arrive after a BOSS INCOMING alert and escape if they cross the screen. The Phantom Riverboat, a ghostly paddle steamer, pays a random ×100 to ×200; the Bog Beast, a giant of mud and roots, ×120 to ×300. The Swamp Witch Gator, pictured on the poster with her skull staff, summons fog that hides the targets. Each fog lights another hex candle and raises her multiplier, from ×120 up to ×500, and while the fog is down, ordinary targets caught in the light also pay double. Every boss captured spins the bounty wheel, which shows the prize as a bounty multiplied by a segment from ×1 to ×10. No single shot pays more than 2,000 times the bet.

Lantern, net or mojo

• Lantern bolt (×1): one target, and its beam reveals the phantoms.
• Voodoo net (×4): thrown where you aim, it catches up to six targets.
• Mojo bomb (×10): thrown where you aim, it blows up to ten targets.

Auto keeps firing, and Lock follows the most valuable target or the one you tap.

How to approach the Bayou Phantoms demo

Play Bayou Phantoms free with the lantern bolt first, at a low bet such as the equivalent of 10p, and simply follow the beam: you will start spotting the green outlines of phantoms as it passes. Once you can read the light, throw the occasional net into a spot where a phantom and a few small fry overlap. When the Witch rolls in her fog, slow down and aim where the beam is rather than where you remember a target was. Watch a few boss captures to see how the bounty wheel splits the prize.

No download and no sign-up; it plays in a phone browser as easily as on a laptop. The same game runs for real money at the casinos listed below.