Do you prefer traditional paylines, ways-to-win slots where symbols don't have to line up, or no paylines at all where each symbol is a winner? Do you like regular free-spin bonuses, or do you like the hold-and-respin features?
Regardless of your likes and dislikes, slot machine designers and manufacturers are sure to have something right up your alley. Working year-around to appeal to all kinds of players is what they do.
You can see that in four new slot games that are finding homes at online casinos. Online slots offer players increasing variety in gameplay, bonus features and wager sizes.
Let's take a look at these four games new to the online slots world.
Bloomin' Bunnies
A little gardening can make your bankroll grow a graphically lush game from Light & Wonder.
With five reels each three symbols deep, Bloomin' Bunnies is a 243-ways-to-win slot. Instead of traditional paylines, payoffs come on three or more matching symbols as long as they are on consecutive reels starting from the left.
A gorgeous garden awaits you with pink, purple and yellow flower buds that can bloom with a boost from a watering can. Other symbols include frogs, caterpillars and snails along with a bunny that serves as a wild symbol and is one of the keys to winning.
Gameplay is divided into sets of five spins. You can win with any matching symbols, but your chance at big wins depends on landing flower buds and watering cans on the reels.
If you get a watering can, it sprinkles any buds on the screen for that spin, and they open into lovely blooms. The open blooms display prizes that you can win only if you land a wild collect symbol on the fifth spin of the cycle, or if you're lucky, during free spins.
The wild bunny can appear on any of the first four spins to enhance your chances of landing a winning combination. On the fifth spin, the bunny becomes the wild collect symbol.
Should you upgrade all three buds into flowers within a five-spin cycle, you launch a free spins round. That's where you have your best shot at big wins.
During free spins, the only symbols are the flowers, wild collect bunnies and the watering cans. The flowers display either a credit award, a jackpot or a number of additional free spins. The watering cans are multipliers during the free round, multiplying the awards on the flowers by two, three or four.
No matter what the flowers display or how many times they're multiplied, you win only if a wild collect bunny appears on the same spin.
The free spins and wild collects occur often enough to keep you engaged, leaving Bloomin' Bunnies an entertaining, fun game with a decent shot to win.
Ritual Respins
Lightning Box Games has carved out a reputation for designing fun-to-play slot games, and Ritual Respins is filled with eerie entertainment. The game has five reels, each three symbols deep, and is a 243-ways-to-win slot without traditional paylines.
Screen background is a magical temple with the Baron – a grinning skull-faced figure in a purple suit with a feathered top hat – off to the side. Reel symbols fit in with a spooky theme. Voodoo dolls, skulls holding candles, magic books with a five-sided star symbol, and bottles of potions are among the regular symbols.
A mystical-looking woman with a snake draped around her neck serves as a wild symbol. She, along with cauldron symbols, a second chance symbol and a treasure chest are the keys to your biggest wins.
When three cauldrons land on the screen, it launches a hold-and-respin bonus. The Baron adds credit award displays to each cauldrons, and the cauldrons lock in place and reels spin for the chance at more cauldrons. If you go five spins without adding cauldrons, the round ends and you win the awards displayed. As long as you keep adding cauldrons, the number of remaining spins resets and the round goes on.
If a treasure chest lands on the screen during the feature, you win the credits displayed while the Baron applauds. Remaining spins reset to five and the round continues until you run out of spins or fill the screen with cauldrons.
There's a second way into the bonus event. Sometimes when you have two cauldrons on the screen, a second chance symbol will appear. When that happens, the cauldrons lock into place for one spin. If a third cauldron comes up on the second-chance spin, you advance to the hold-and-respin event.
Hold-and-respin is one of the most popular features in modern slots, and Ritual Respins gives it an eerie, fun spotlight.
[Note: For more information on some of these slot terms and features, see the 888casino Slot Machine Guide.]
Hollywood Queen
High 5 Games puts a touch of glitz and glamour on Hollywood Queen, set in a movie-making golden age. It has six reels instead of the usual five, and each reel is four symbols deep. With that setup, there's a high payline count, with 466 lines.
Movie cameras serve as wild symbols, and they can sometimes come in stacks. Stacks of wilds can lead to wins on multiple paylines, something you're going to want to see for wins worthy of a star.
The highest-paying symbol is a platinum blonde actress with a string of pearls around her neck. Other featured symbols include three actors, one leading man with dark hair and a mustache, supported by a fellow in a brown suit and glasses and a Hollywood heavy who sports a beard while wearing a dark suit and hat.
Lower payers include the usual A, K, Q and J, along with a 5 – High 5 Games always includes that 5.
Other special symbols include stacks of film reels that can lead to jackpots, and a classic blue limousine. Land three or more limos on the reels and you go to a free-spin bonus event.
In the free spins, the limos are replaced by added movie camera wilds. While the regular wilds come in stacks, the converted limos do not. They're single symbols marked with a left-pointing arrow, and can come up only on the third, fourth or fifth reels. When they do, they expand horizontally to the second reel, so if you get one on the fifth, you'll have wilds on the same line on reels 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Most wins are of the low-paying A-K-Q-J-5 variety, and this is a higher variance game than Bloomin' Bunnies or Ritual Respins. You can get some Hollywood-blockbuster wins, offset by frequent losing streaks.
Fishing for Cash
There are no paylines, nor is this a ways-to-win slot. There are few paying symbols, and you're going to see a whole lot of spaces occupied only by a sea-plant background. Yet there is a lot happening in this High 5 game.
Fishing for Cash is played on five reels that usually are five spaces deep. With extra bets in a Power Spins feature, you can grow the reels to seven, eight or nine spaces deep for extra chances to win. Betting 15 times your base wager takes you to seven symbols deep, with eight for 30 times or nine for 45 times.
And there's also a "Spincrease" feature that increases the value of winners as you play. A meter to the left of the reels is marked in percents. Each spin adds a percentage to the meter, and each time you reach 100, the payoff on winners rises.
To the left and right of the reel grid, animated fish illustrate the underwater theme. On the reels, broad-leafed sea plants grow as background.
There are only three paying reel symbols: three different fish. But each fish is a payer by itself. You don't have to line up matching fish or land multiples on consecutive reels. Each fish displays a credit award, and any fish on the reels pays its designated amount.
Other symbols include free spins, wheel spins and jackpot symbols. You can win one, three or five free spins, and as with the fish, it takes only one symbol to bring a round of freebies. It's the same deal with wheel spins. One wheel symbol brings a spin of an on-screen wheel for credit awards to pad your bankroll.
Five jackpots are built into the game with the smallest, the red jackpot, available only on the first reel. Jackpots are of increasing size as you move toward the right, with a green jackpot symbol for reel 2, blue for 3, orange for 4 and the biggest, purple for the fifth reel.m As with all other winners, it takes only one symbol to win a jackpot.
Given all those features, your highest payback percentages come when you've bought the Power Spins and have played enough to increase winners to maximum value. A game that starts at a base return of 90 percent can grow to exceed 96 percent. Be aware that even at maximum value, the house has an edge. Have fun, but don't overbet your bankroll.
