Wild Stars Slot – Free Demo

A Star that fills a reel and stops it

Wild Stars was launched at the beginning of 2015 by Amatic. My test run covered 469 spins at 10.00 a spin. The feature set was a little sparse. The help panel lists no free spins round, no multiplier feature and no progressive. However, it did have one hold-and-respin feature, which could freeze a whole reel of Stars in place. It landed once in those 469 spins.

A few things are obvious right away: the action takes place on a 5-reel, 3-row grid with 10 paylines. The ten line patterns cover three straight horizontals, two full-height zigzags, a shallow V and a shallow peak, and three shapes that step between rows across the middle three reels. The symbol set is the vintage one, too, with Cherries, Lemons, Oranges, Plums, Grapes and Watermelons occupying most of the paytable. Grapes and Plum share a single box on the paytable, as do Orange and Lemon. A Seven is at the peak of it. The Star sits outside that ladder as the wild.

Wild Stars is a moderate proposition, moving onto the math model, and RTP is the usual figure of 96.00%. My session ran 4,690.00 through the game and drew 2,725.00 back. Volatility rests at a medium level, rated 3 out of 5, and bets begin at 10 p/c per spin. That works out at a 58.1% return over the 469 spins.

Wins happen when matching symbols land left to right on neighbouring reels from the leftmost reel, and the fruits are used as the low-value symbols. Only 133 of those 469 spins paid anything, and 71 of them returned less than the stake. The Seven is the high pay. My longest gap without a win ran 14 spins and ended on spin 174. The paytable is listed in cash rather than in multiples of the stake. The bet level those cash figures are quoted at is not recorded anywhere in the help screens. The Seven pays 2,500 for five of a kind, 250 for four and 50 for three, the Watermelon 250 for five, and the Cherry 75; there is a wild symbol too, the Star. It substitutes for all symbols.

What the Respin gives back

The feature in Wild Stars is a single one. That Respin is free and lasts exactly one spin. It has the extra advantage of a wild that stands in for everything else on the reels, and three Stars on any one reel grant a Respin. The three Stars have to land on the same reel and fill its three rows; Stars scattered across different reels do nothing beyond substituting.

The reel that filled with Stars stays in place during the Respin, while the rest spin again and payouts from the Respin are added to the winnings. In my run that happened on spin 453, the only time the feature came in over 469 spins, and the spin paid 410.00 with the Respin included.

The Respin cannot repeat: three Stars landing on a reel during the Respin itself do not grant another one. So the most the feature can deliver is one extra spin with a full reel of wilds locked in. Three Stars on all five reels do not grant one at all, so the feature plays once and returns the reels. That single trigger accounted for 410.00 of the 2,725.00 I won back.

Final Minty Score: Four hundred and sixty-nine spins bought one held reel, and the balance closed 1,965.00 below where it opened at a 58.1% return, which is what a ten-line fruit cabinet with a single feature looks like when the feature stays away.

469 spins that never got back to the start

Well, it is plain, so there is no bragging in the game. The balance never once rose above the 10,000.00 it started with. Wild Stars has a conventional reel set, the same ten paylines Lucky Joker 10 Cash Spins runs, and the math model is fixed at a medium level; even the paytable is stated in cash rather than in stake multiples, and of all the oddities, this might be the most divisive of all for some players. My low point was 7,494.00. The retro cabinets had a bells-and-fruit feel of a bar machine somewhere in Austria or thereabouts. Wins above ten times the stake came three times in the run: 410.00, 320.00 and 150.00. Wherever it was felt a lot more simple than the reading you have to do here, and it's impossible to tell what the figures mean at your bet level. The closing balance of 8,035.00 was 1,965.00 below the start. But it is a thing you could picture players wanting to escape from for a bit of clarity. Behind those top three came 98.00 on spin 370 and 68.00 on spin 269.

Or maybe it won't matter a fig. My two best results came four spins apart, on 449 and 453. Wild Stars still has a breezy, old-school character, and the feature is easy enough, so players who enjoy the old fruit capers of Hot Seven will probably be eager to spin this one as well. The held reel keeps its three Stars for the Respin, so every payline running through it resolves with a wild in place. By the way, the rules don't state a win cap, and the 2,500 on the top row of the paytable is the largest thing listed, not a declared ceiling. They give no trigger frequency for the Respin either.

Technically, Wild Stars doesn't do much the vintage machines didn't, it just wrings one additional thrill out of the beloved format.