Australian slot developer Big Time Gaming (BTG) will debut its ground-breaking new Megaclusters™ game engine in its hotly awaited latest release, Star Clusters.
Star Clusters and the never-before-seen Megaclusters™ mechanic will launch on June 24, initially exclusively with Scientific Games Digital, before going live the same day with the Flutter Entertainment group of brands that includes Paddy Power, Betfair, PokerStars, and SkyVegas.
Pre-release reviewers say we should believe the hype. Big Win Boards called Megaclusters “another milestone in the evolution of online gaming that will forever change our perception of cluster-pays slots,” and awarded Star Clusters a 10/10 rating.
On the face of it, Star Clusters looks simple enough -- and anyone who spent many lost afternoons in the mid-2000s absorbed in Bejeweled will be familiar with its grid of colourful, cascading precious stones.
But BTG is adept at taking a game that appears simple and underpinning it with revolutionary new mechanics that transform it into something else entirely – just as their innovative and widely popular Megaways™ engine has helped redefine the slot machine over the past few years.
With the new Megaclusters™ mechanic, each symbol that forms part of a winning combo will split into four smaller symbols to create even more Megaclusters. When combos appear within these smaller symbols, they explode, and new ones fall into their place until the combos dry up.
This means the 4x4 grid with its 16 original tiles can break into a maximum 64 tiles during the Megacluster™ mode.
Suddenly, the game becomes a giant slot within a slot and the cluster pays format has been turned on its head -- as has everything you ever thought you knew about slot machines.
BTG CEO Nick Robinson said: “We believe that Megaclusters™ is a quite literally a game changer in the online casino space and we’re delighted that it’s received a great reception from reviewers. Expect to see this mechanic feature in more BTG games in the future.”
Dylan Slaney, SVP Gaming, Digital at Scientific Games said: “This is an exciting new development that once again brings breakthrough player experiences from our OpenGamingTM ecosystem. What I love about BTG’s games is their ability to redesign a classic by using rich layers of technology to create something diverting and unexpected. That’s really evident in Star Clusters and it’s a thrill to bring the global launch of this new Megaclusters™ mechanic as an exclusive first on OGS .”
Star Clusters is the first Megaclusters™ slot from Big Time Gaming. It features a 4×4 grid with wins triggered by clusters of 5 or more identical symbols. Winning symbols break up into 4 smaller ones to form more wins, whilst Gold Wilds bring win. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Comscore today announced the addition of new state clusters to its digital audience measurement suite in India. The introduction of the new clusters allows.
Star Clusters is the first Megaclusters™ slot from Big Time Gaming. It features a 4×4 grid with wins triggered by clusters of 5 or more identical symbols. Winning symbols break up into 4 smaller ones to form more wins, whilst Gold Wilds bring win multipliers into the game. In the free spins round the grid expands to 8×8 and the top payout rises to 23,000x.
Where Can I Play Star Cluster Megaclusters™ Slot?
ALL ABOUT STAR CLUSTER MEGACLUSTERS™ SLOT
We’ve written many times on The Slot Buzz about our admiration for Big Time Gaming and we don’t need to repeat the story of their influence on the slots industry here. The Megaways™ game format is now a mainstay of UK slot sites and casinos and the popularity of these games is testament to the genius and creativity of this Australian developer. Impressively BTG have continued to push things forward, innovate and bring new ideas with pretty much every new release since Bonanza back in 2016, with barely a dud in their catalogue. And now in Summer 2020, they’re bringing us another dose of wildness as they weave some Mega magic into the cluster pays grid slot format. As you would expect, it’s a grid slot, but not as you know it, and whilst it may be light on features, the first in what we hope will be a series of Megaclusters™ games is still an excellent looking slot with great win potential.
GAME SET-UP, SYMBOLS AND GRAPHICS
The first thing that hits you when you load up the Megaclusters™ game is the bright and cheerful colors, all pinks, reds, yellows and greens. The background is a simple pink and you’ll be serenaded by an electro-house mash up that keeps you bopping along throughout the game. Now, the grid itself starts out as a very simple 4×4, though of course it’s not going to stay that way now is it? No. But more on that in a minute.
You’ll need to form clusters of five or more symbols linking horizontally and / or vertically to hit a win.
The symbols are all gemstones that come in a wide variety of colors, and landing 25 in one cluster can get you a top payout of 50x. There are also two important wild symbols to be aware of. These are the basic wild and the Gold Wild. Both sub for all other gems to create winning clusters whilst the Gold Wild comes with the advantage of adding multipliers to any win it features in. Each Gold Wild in a cluster will add 1x to the multiplier value of the win. Note that the multiplier re-sets when the win is over.
STAR CLUSTER MEGACLUSTERS™ SLOT RTP, VARIANCE AND PAYOUTS
Star Clusters Big Wing
Like almost all the Big Time Gaming and Megaways™ output, Star Cluster is a high variance slots, though not perhaps as high as a Bonanza or a Lil Devil. It’s not such a mean slot and perhaps might be entry level for those seeking to get a taste of the high-risk action who have previously been turned off by the long periods of dry spins that typically frustrate in highly volatile slots play. The RTP is set to a reasonable 96.54% and the top payout of over 20,000x is suggests this game will be capable of delivering some epic moments. Just bear in mind though that those big, big wins will be few and far between.
GAMEPLAY AND FEATURES
Star Clusters Big Wine
Megaclusters™
The Megaclusters™ mechanic is the big headline feature of this game, though of course there are free spins and multipliers to enhance the basic gameplay too. So, whenever you land a winning cluster you’ll see each of the symbols that forms part of that cluster breaking up into 4 smaller ones, with the potential to create more clusters themselves. And when a win occurs with the smaller symbols they are removed from the grid and new ones drop into replace them, in the classic format of a cluster pays grid game.
Free Spins
To trigger the free spins round you’ll need to land five consecutive wins or reactions from one spin. This gets you two free spins, plus 1 more for each reaction or consecutive win greater than 5. Additionally, the multiplier value accrued from Gold Wilds from the spin that triggered the bonus round is carried over into your free spins too.
The free spins round plays out just like the base game but with enhancements – the gird expands to 8×8, and when the Gold Wild multiplier reaches 10x so another 2 spins are added to your total, with no limit to how many times this can happen.
Clearly the action really hots up in this slot when more and more symbols are in play on the expanded grid, and when the Gold Multiplier is peaking. Game on!
OUR VERDICT
As you would expect Star Clusters is an innovative take on the classic grid slot with a clever twist on the standard gameplay. It’s a little light on features and we will wait to see how things develop as hopefully more games in the Megacluster™ series arrive in the coming months and years. But despite its simplicity it still looks to be a highly entertaining game and one that will have a broader appeal than some of the high variance monsters that BTG have unleashed in their time. So enjoy, and gamble responsibly.