Slot machines started out as a simple mechanical device. They had three spinning reels, 3 paylines and a lever that you pulled to spin the reels. The challenge of lining up matching symbols to receive a payout proved to be popular and playing the slots became a favored pastime in salons and candy stores, in casinos and in other places where players could enjoy a quick gaming interlude at their leisure.
Over the years, slot machines evolved. Today, they are sophisticated real money casino gambling adventures that captivate gaming enthusiasts around the world. 21st century slots involve innovative features that make the gameplay more interactive and exciting and offer diverse opportunities for winning real cash prizes.
It's relatively simple to play a slot but for those who want to maximize the experience, it's important to learn more about the various features that the machines offer. Each slot includes its own selection of gameplay elements so you should become acquainted with the various slots features so that you can select a machine that suits your own individual gaming preferences and interests.
Some of the most popular and widely-used slots features at today's casinos include:
Wilds and Scatters
Some of the first features that slot designers inserted into slot machines were Wild symbols and Scatters. They quickly became so popular that, till today, they are standard in today's slot machines. Wild symbols and Scatters were introduced in the '30s when slot machines became a highlighted casino event at Vegas casinos.
Wilds – symbols that substitute for other symbols on the reels to facilitate the completion of winning combinations – were introduced first. Later, Scatters were added as a feature that provided the element surprise – matching Scatter symbols, occurring on any payline or pay way, creates a special Scatter Combination payout (often with a multiplier) and frequently triggers a series of free spins.
Over the years, Wilds and Scatters have evolved. Wild symbols still substitute for other symbols but now, there are different types of Wilds in addition to the traditional Wild substitute. They include:
- Expanding Wilds, which expand to cover an entire reel. If an expanding Wild appears on your screen, you'll have more opportunities to complete paylines and win more payouts.
- Stacked Wilds which stretch up to 5 Stacked Wilds at a time whenever 2 or more Wilds join together. The Stacked Wilds can cover entire reels which creates a Wild Reel where all positions are wild so winning combinations are more easily completed.
- Striking Wilds that transform regular reels into Wild Reels.
- Sticky Wilds cause Wilds to stick to the reels, even after the next spin occurs. When that happens, your Wild has additional chances to complete combinations.
- Exploding Symbols trigger explosions of winning combinations after the original payout has occurred. New symbols then appear on the reels for extra opportunities to score wins.
- Oversized Wilds are oversized wilds that expand to cover entire reels and complete multiple paylines at a time. Oversized symbols are particularly valuable when they are high-value symbols.
Reels Features
The action moves faster and the payouts come quicker with special reel features. You can find these features, for the most part, on five-reel slots, but some of the newer 3-reel slots offer these features as well. They include:
- Mystery symbols appear on the reels without a pre-determined value. You may see them as question mark symbols and sometimes they don't appear at all on the paytable. If a Mystery Symbol appears on your spin, it may take the form of any of the game's other symbols, including Wilds, Scatters, bonus symbols, etc. In some games, Mystery Symbols stack on the reels for multiple wins on the same spin. Mystery symbols are new in the slots world but the feature is popular and slots observers predict that they will start appearing more often in future games.
- Rolling Reels games – sometimes called "Cascading Reels" games -- have the winning symbols removed from the reels whenever a payline is completed. The symbols explode, flash, or simply disappear, after which, new symbols roll down to fill the empty spaces on the reels. You can collect multiple payouts from one spin! You may also have a multiplier train that increases the multiplier on our win for higher payout prizes.
- Morphing Symbols are determined before the game starts – the player chooses his/her preferred morphing symbol before the reels start to spin. The chosen Morphing symbol can then expand to cover an entire reel to complete paylines and deliver payout prizes.
New Popular Features
You may not be familiar with some of these features because they're rather new but they're becoming more prominent because players find that they add value and entertainment to the gameplay.
- 243 PayWays Games– In a 243 PayWays game, you don't need to create winning combinations on specific paylines but rather, you have the whole gameboard on which to create your combinations.
- Free Spins – Free spins rounds are usually triggered when 3 Scatters appear simultaneously on a spin, but other factors can activate the feature. If you are awarded free spins, you will be allotted a set number of spins where you spin for free and collect the resulting winning payouts. Sometimes there are respins, so free spins retrigger if the triggering combination triggers on a free spin, you are awarded more free spins.
- Multiplier – multiplies your wins by a pre-determined multiplier value.
- Buy Bonus – you can deposit money to buy more bonus rounds.
- Pick-a-Bonus – gives you multiple choices for a bonus and allows you to choose your preferred bonus from available choices.
- Jackpot – extra prize awarded in some games. Some jackpots feature amounts that are life-changing!
If you know which features a game offers, you'll be able to choose the best game option for your personal Grande Vegas gaming adventure!
