
Starburst™ Online Slot by NetEnt
Sparkling gems flood the reels in the Starburst demo slot, as I noted when I recently played it. The multicolored wild is the best bit of the game though, as I’ll note in this review.
Starburst is known for its simplicity, yet it still manages to look good and provide one feature – the Starburst Wild feature – that keeps you watching on every spin. Come with me as I lay out the basics for this NetEnt slot game, so you know what to look for when you play.
Software: | NetEnt |
Reels: | 5 |
Payline: | 10 |
RTP: | 96.1 |
Volatility | - |
Min. Coins per Line | 1 |
Max. Coins per Line | 10 |
Free Spins: | ⨉ |
Bonus Rounds: | ✓ |
Wild Symbol: | ✓ |
Scatter Symbol: | ⨉ |
Multiplier: | ⨉ |
Progressive: | ⨉ |
Autoplay: | ✓ |
Starburst has proven itself to be a big hit, thanks to its simplicity and single appealing special wild feature.
This game comes in just about average with a RTP set at 96.09% – the average being bang on 96%.
Of the seven main symbols, the BAR icon pays the most, delivering 250x your bet for five on a line.
3 Symbols | 4 Symbols | 5 Symbols | |
---|---|---|---|
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x 0.50 | x 1.00 | x 2.50 |
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x 0.50 | x 1.00 | x 2.50 |
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x 1.00 | x 2.50 | x 6.00 |
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x 0.70 | x 1.50 | x 4.00 |
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x 0.80 | x 2.00 | x 5.00 |
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x 5.00 | x 20.00 | x 25.00 |
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x 2.50 | x 6.00 | x 12.00 |
The game only has 10 lines to play on, but they all pay in both directions as an automatic feature.
Starburst remains the best of its kind, but other developers have come up with similar games too, such as those in the below table.
The loading screen that appears when you first access the game reveals a few clues to what you might see during it. Once I reached the game, I was able to confirm a few basic facts:
I went through the coin values to find seven options, ranging from a penny up to a dollar. You might see different values depending on your currency and your location, which you may have noted before if you played the Tome of Madness demo, for instance. However, NetEnt also supplies you with 10 bet levels in the Starburst demo. This means that whichever coin you choose, you can multiply it by 10 for the paylines – and then by up to 10 again to get a bigger bet as well. That said, covering all 10 lines for 10 cents or the equivalent in another currency is the lowest available wager.
The ‘pay both ways’ element is worth expanding on, as it means you can land prizes from the leftmost reel as usual – but you can also generate prizes from reel five over to the left of the game. Better still, I found that each line bet covered both ways, so if you think about it, it’s like betting on 20 lines, except here you have just 10 of them, with 10 coins played per spin.
Whenever I load any game, such as the Gold Fish Feeding Time slot machine, I always review the paytable first. This will show all available symbols appearing in the game. I spotted a green circle with a lowercase ‘i’ in it over to the left of the first reel, at the bottom of the screen. That loaded the paytable when I hit the button.
Here, I spotted seven regular symbols, mostly gems, but also a bar symbol and another featuring a red 7. There’s just one special symbol to find in the Starburst demo, and that is the wild symbol, which I’ll explain more about next. There are no scatters or other bonus symbols involved, so the eight-pointed star icon with each point displayed in a different color is the one you need to watch for.
The paytable has just three pages, which is quite small for a slot game. The first page reveals the Starburst Wild, the only special symbol you can find in the game. This has three major features associated with it:
I took a spin around the Starburst free demo and can confirm this feature. Whenever a wild lands, it drops other wilds onto the other positions on its reel. Those all remain in position while the remaining reels spin again for free. You then have a chance to net one or more new prizes according to what happens. You can see this is more straightforward than the game highlights mentioned in the Gladiator slot review. I think it’s one reason why it has remained a major hit over the years since its release.
If you manage to get another Starburst Wild landing on one of the other two reels it can appear on during that respin, you’ll get another free respin of the reels – this time with both Starburst Wild reels held in position. Since there are three reels the wild can appear on in all, it means there is a slim chance of getting three expanded wild reels while the two outer ones spin again. If you manage this, you could then get multiple prizes on that last spin, given where the wild reels are positioned. And remember, the game pays both ways, too.
I did wonder about this, since the game was launched back in 2012. However, it does perform well on mobile devices including smartphones and tablets. The simplicity of the design helps in this manner, since it is easy to view even on an iPhone or Android smartphone. You can access both the free and paid versions of the game in this manner. There are other games that look good on mobile too, such as JetX, but that works differently to this title.
There are thousands more complex slots you can play, but if you fancy something that’s straightforward to understand from the off, Starburst nails it. While there isn’t much of a background to speak of, this focused my attention on the reels – and the gems and icons there certainly did sparkle.
It’s rare that a slot pays both ways, so that was great to see. You’ll find, as I did, that you’re watching for the wild symbol to appear, as this is the best part of the game. For a simple and effective slot game, you can’t do much better than to try some Starburst demo play for starters.
This is an earlier yet still successful slot developed by NetEnt.
It’s possible to land up to three respins if you get a wild appearing on each successive spin.
No, there are only respins available to find in the game, courtesy of the wild reel feature.
No, you should find you can play it at all good online casinos available in your region, since most work with browser-based games.
The demo is playable for free, but you can play from one penny per line if you switch to the real version.
Players must be 21 years of age or older or reach the minimum age for gambling in their respective state and located in jurisdictions where online gambling is legal. Please play responsibly. Bet with your head, not over it. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, and wants help, call or visit: (a) the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey at 1-800-Gambler or www.800gambler.org; or (b) Gamblers Anonymous at 855-2-CALL-GA or www.gamblersanonymous.org.