Megacluster Slots as a New Revolutionary Feature in the Online Gambling World

With slot games being the most popular of all casino games, online gaming software developers are constantly churning new releases to keep the masses entertained. This commitment has seen the advancement of slots from simple three-reeled games to titles that challenge nearly every boundary that was set by classic titles. With technology being more advanced than ever, software companies are continuously pushing the envelope of what we consider normal. Big Time Gaming is one of the providers at the core of this revolution, and its most recent contribution is the Megacluster slots that can be played for free.

Big Time Gaming first made waves in the gaming industry with the release of the Megaways. This feature allows punters to exploit hundreds of thousands of win ways in every single spin. BTG is once again on its way to rewrite slot history with the Megacluster slots that follow the same concept of bigger-than-life features. This addition to the slots’ realm is believed to be the next evolutionary step for online gaming, and this review breaks down the legitimacy of that claim.

 

Game Mechanics

Online casinos are no strangers to cluster pays, but leave it to Big Time Gaming to shake things up as they did with mega ways even with the existence of win ways. Megacluster slots feature a square playing grid, which differs from the usual ones where the reels are often more than the rows. Star Clusters slot, which is the first BTG release to include this feature, kicks off with a 4×4 grid arrangement. Not much about this playing grid stands out from the crowd, but the real action begins when winning combinations are landed.

Megacluster slot games provide winnings for landing character combinations of five or more icons. These combos are not bound to specific win line patterns and can be formed either horizontally or vertically on any position on the grid. The real threat is that the symbols used to create the combos split into four smaller ones, which form the mega clusters. The smaller items do not have to be of the same kind. For instance, if a winning cluster of five symbols breaks down to four items each, they create twenty new icons. That way, the screen grows from 16 to 32 tiles. The symbols continue to split for as long as new winning combinations are created. At the highest mega cluster, the display can expand to 8×8 play table that holds 64 positions. The grid then resets to the original four-by-four arrangement once no more combos are formed.

 

The Great Star Cluster Slot Features

Big Time Gaming’s Star Clusters is the only release with the megaclusters slot. In the game, players can expect a wide range of bonus features like with most other modern titles. These incentives include:

• Cluster pays: The main feature in the Star Clusters slot is the megaclusters that are used to award character winnings. The slot grants credit payouts for the appearance of five or more icons of a kind in vertical or horizontal formation. The slot payouts vary depending on the number of characters in the clusters as well as the stake used. The paytable, however, is not dynamic and displays the wins as fixed figures. The amounts change when being awarded, and they are as follows:

 

Icons	Winnings for
	5	6	7	8	9	10-11	12-14	15-19	20-24	25+
Turquoise gem	0.1	0.15	0.2	0.3	0.6	0.8	1	3	4	10
Yellow gem	0.1	0.15	0.2	0.3	0.6	0.8	1	3	4	10
Orange gem	0.15	0.2	0.4	0.6	0.8	1	3	5	10	20
Green gem	0.15	0.2	0.4	0.6	0.8	1	3	5	10	20
Blue gem	0.2	0.3	0.5	0.75	1.25	2	4	7.5	15	25
Red gem	0.4	0.6	1	1.5	2.5	3	6.25	10	20	30
Purple gem	1	1.5	2	2.5	3	5	10	15	25	50

 

Multiple combos can appear in a single round, which allows players to collect as much as 23,000 times the stakes used.

 

• Avalanche feature: The megacluster slot Star Clusters uses the cascading feature to award winnings. With this bonus, any symbols used in payout combos are removed from the screen, leaving room for the icons above to fill their place. This feature allows multiple combinations to be landed in a single spin. The avalanche continues to play for as long as winning combinations are being created. There is no limit to the number of avalanches that can be activated.

• Wilds: Star Clusters online slot features two wild symbols instead of the regular one. The first of these icons is the regular wild, which is denoted by a multicolored star. The character can replace all others to trigger winning clusters, but it cannot be used to make combinations of its own. The second Star Clusters wild is a golden star. The gold wild also serves to complete payout combos of regular items. It is also the only one that can’t be replaced by the standard wild. The gold wild offers a multiplier prize that grows by an increment of one whenever it is used in a cluster. As many as two gold wilds can occur in the same spin.

• Free spins: Star Clusters slot game awards free spins when five or more reactions occur in the same round. The bonus begins at two free spins and grants an extra spin for each reaction after the fifth one. Any gold wild that is on the screen when the incentive is triggered carries on to the freebies. When the icon achieves a multiplier value that is a multiple of ten, two more bonus rounds are given.

 

The free spins in the Star Clusters slot begin with an 8×8 grid instead of the regular 4×4 one featured in the base game. The megaclusters can activate as many as 256 tiles, which turns it into a 16×16 grid.

Differences from Regular Slots

Megacluster slots by Big Time Gaming showcase differences from regular slots right off the bat. Even though their functionality maintains some standard elements, they stand out from the crowd in various ways, including:

 

Grid Arrangement

Standard pokies often feature playtables with five reels stretched over three or four rows. Star Clusters breaks this norm to use a square grid with four reels and the same number of rows. The grid can grow to accommodate irregular reels and rows when winning symbols break down into megaclusters. The playtable can grow up to an eight by eight arrangement in the base game and sixteen by sixteen in the free spins. In regular slots, the number of reels and rows remain the same throughout gameplay.

 

Payout Combinations

Typically, slot winning combinations are created by three to five symbols of a kind. Megacluster slots, on the other hand, award winnings for combinations of five or more symbols. The combos can consist of more than 25 symbols.

 

Paylines and Win Ways

Nearly all slot machines use bet lines or win ways to determine winning combinations. Paylines usually mark out specific patterns on the grid that are activated when similar characters land on them. The symbols have to be on adjacent columns beginning from the leftmost reel. Some slots make an exception and pay both ways, but they have to start from the edge of the grid. Star Clusters slot skips the use of such patterns and awards players for any icon clusters formed horizontally and vertically. These combinations can land anywhere from the edges of the play table to the center.

Avalanche Wins

Megacluster slots adopt the use of the avalanche feature, which is rarer to find than regular spinning mechanisms. Normally, icons involved in winning combinations remain on the grid after awarding winnings until the next round plays. With avalanche winnings, the slots eliminate payout clusters allowing symbols to take up new positions. These cascades drive up the chances of landing more winning combinations in a single round.

 

Upsides and Downsides

The megacluster games may have entered the online market recently, but they have already garnered a significant following in casinos. Such success is owed to the numerous advantages they have to offer, including:

• Unique engine: Megaclusters are an entirely new concept in the slots realm that improves on the popular cluster wins. These slots offer players a new mode of collecting winnings from what traditional slots have to offer. Winning symbols not only break down into four smaller ones but also cause an avalanche that introduces new icons to the same spin.
• Bonus features: The megaclusters used for winning combos are the main attraction features in these slots, but they are not the only ones. The games include payouts of up to 23,000 times the stakes used as well as free spins, wilds, and multipliers.

Megacluster slots have their downsides as well that limit them from scoring perfectly on the comparison board, including:

• There is only one megacluster slot in the market, which is Star Clusters slot
• When the megaclusters occur, winning symbols become small and difficult to see

The Possibility of Success

Even though megaclusters are a relatively new concept with hurdles here and there, the idea will likely take off well with both players and software developers. Considering the success of Big Time Gaming’s megaways concept, megaclusters have a high probability of following the same suit to be adopted in a lot more slot games.