Space Invaders Slot – Free Demo

Cannon Fire and a Passing UFO

There is no question about the origin of inspiration for this slot and yes, you figured it - the Space Invaders arcade game! I played it at a 1.00 stake from a 1,000.00 balance. A sense of pace, excitement and arcade nostalgia is what Inspired Gaming have certainly managed to convey. Wins pay left to right on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost one.

With it's 5 reels, 3 rows and 20 paylines, it appears at first look like a typical configuration. The 20 paylines are fixed, so there is no line count to adjust. But Inspired Gaming are attempting novel things here. In my session the Bonus Wheel came up three times in 360 spins. It is presenting a mechanic called the Bonus Wheel. An awarded bonus can be collected as it stands or gambled for a higher-value one, and a lost gamble pays a consolation mystery prize.

The UFO mechanics is a plain idea. It runs in the base game rather than inside a bonus. A UFO travels over the reels – and when the Cannon strikes it, one of five reel modifiers is activated. On losing spins the UFO can also beam a random symbol into a super-sized Mega Symbol, and the Cannon can shoot Invader symbols off the reels so new ones cascade in to form a win. Among them is Monster Wild, where Wilds grow to fill the whole reel. The other four are Wild Cannon, which shoots Wilds onto reels 2, 3 and 4, 5 Of A Kind, which guarantees a five-of-a-kind win, Mega Reel, which merges the reels into a 3x3 block of Mega Symbols, and Bonus Boost, which adds Bonus symbols to raise the chance of the bonus.

Wilds, Locks and Six Wheel Prizes

Wild symbols substitute for all symbols except for the Bonus coin scatter, and if the Monster Wild modifier is activated, Wilds grow to fill the whole reel. The best-paying regular symbol is the Space Invaders logo, which pays 25x the total bet for five on a line.

A selected symbol freezes in Lock N Spin Invasion and the reels respin, and if no fresh identical symbols arrive, respins finish. Three Red or Pink Invaders return 0.2x the total bet, and 39 of my 77 paying spins paid less than the 1.00 stake.

3 or more Bonus coin scatters trigger the Bonus Wheel. My session landed three coins on spin 169, spin 243 and spin 291. It spins for one of six bonuses. The six are Shoot Out, UFO Climber, Wild Cannon Free Spins, Monster Wild Free Spins, Mega Reel Free Spins and the Space Invaders arcade round. The Cannon inserts Sticky Wilds in Wild Cannon Free Spins, and they stay on the reels until the close of the Free Spins. At the end of a bonus, Pick A Coin offers three coins that can end it, add another bonus or extra spins, or award the Space Invaders bonus.

Three Wheel Spins in 360 Rounds

The slots are appearing progressively like video games. My balance never rose above the 1,000.00 it started with and bottomed out at 883.00. But if the promise and sturdy game mechanics are not contained in the bundle, nice looking slots don't stretch all the way. I'm not certain it is.

Our Minty Verdict: Over 360 spins at 1.00 each I won back 283.70 of 360.00 wagered, a session return of 78.8% against the stated 95.00%.

When testing the slot I needed 169 spins to activate the initial bonus. The wheel landed on Wild Cannon Free Spins that time. It returned roughly 100x, and after that it was downhill from there. Spin 243 brought Shoot Out for 15.00, and spin 291 brought Monster Wild Free Spins for 43.00. The Bonus Wheel is a little enjoyable. The three bonus rounds paid 158.40 between them, 56% of everything I won. It is the sole thing that keeps this slot fairly engaging. Only 77 of my 360 spins paid anything, and the longest dry run lasted 22 spins, ending on spin 286. But symbols are low rewarding, and there is no feeling of big potential to keep one thrilled. The largest win outside the wheel was 22.00 on spin 325.

The max win cap on this slot is 1,250x the wager and, meanwhile, the RTP in this game is 95.00%.