Starburst Pokie

The pokie has 5 reels and 10 fixed lines. The most important thing to know about this architecture is that lines pay both ways, from left to right and from right to left. This has two major implications, both fairly beneficial and lucrative for a player. Firstly, no winning combo is lost as soon as any combination lining up from the leftmost or rightmost reel does pay out. Secondly, a 5-icon combination pays twice, from either side of the reels. Given the design of the gameplay and the both-way principle, Starburst is probably one of the most profitable space odysseys ever. What’s more, the both-ways-pay principle makes winning combos fall more often, thus shortening the waiting time between wins. To launch the spaceship and start collecting riches of the space, a player needs to place a real money bet. It is adjusted based on the value of coins and the number of coins per line. The pokie accepts up to 10 coins per line, coins may be valued from NZ$0.01 to NZ$1.00. These two key indicators of bet settings allow one to start the play at the cost of only NZ$0.10 or raise the total bet to NZ$100 per spin. Given this range, the pokie machine is equally attractive for thrifty players on and high rollers alike. As soon as a bet is placed, reels are ready to set in motion and symbols are prepared to create winning combinations. There are 7 regular symbols and 1 feature symbol. Regular symbols are violet, blue, red, green and yellow Crystals, cosmic lucky Sevens and extraterrestrial Bars. Non-feature symbols pay when three of them match on any line counting from the left or right; if there are 5 symbols of a kind, they pay twice. The paytable does not look too generous. Crystals award x5 to x60 the line bet, Sevens award between x25 and x120 and Bars pay x50 to x250. This means that a player may expect the return ranging from NZ$50 to NZ$2,500 at max. But still, this is not the best payout the pokie is capable of, because it pays both ways. This means that the paytable is effectively twice as rich and non-feature symbols may in fact award up to x500 the line bet (NZ$5,000 at max). This earning capacity is greatly supported by the only feature symbol present in the pokie machine. The only feature symbol is the Starburst Wild. It may come only on reels 2, 3 and 4 during the base game and bonus feature. The Starburst Wild can do many things, all working in the best interests of a player. Firstly, it substitutes for any regular icon and assists in the creation of winning combinations or, to translate it into space language, winning constellations. Secondly, it bursts, thus matching the online casino pokie title perfectly. When it lands on any reel, it literally bursts and, as any normal star does when exploding, it expands and takes the reel entirely. Thirdly, when the Starburst Wild appears on a reel and expands, it triggers a bonus feature with a capacity to boost the payout up to the absolute maximum of 50,000 coins or NZ$50,000 moneywise. This is certainly a decent award by standards of any online casino. There can occur a situation that a single line hosts two winning combos at once. In such a case the slot machine weighs the combos and pays only the highest win.

When the Starburst Wild lands on reels 2, 3 or 4, it expands and covers the entire reel it has landed on. The slot machine does not pay any award even if there are winning combos; instead, it makes the reel made up of Starburst Wilds freeze, and then respins the four remaining reels. The outcome depends on a situation which develops after the respin. If the respin brings a new Starburst Wild, it bursts and expands to take an entire reel and the game awards an extra respin. As Starburst Wilds can be on the three central reels, chances are to get three respins in a row. If this happens, the feature ends up with reels 2, 3 and 4 taken entirely by Starburst Wilds. The game counts the resulting payout and adds the total to the balance. The best possible win happens when there are matching icons on reels 1 and 5: this situation means that all the 10 lines pay twice the top award of a respective symbol. Depending on that symbol, the total win may start at x100 and reach x5,000 the line bet (NZ$50,000 at max). This huge win can also be won with only one wild reel in the middle and four other reels taken by matching symbols. There are many instances that the pokie machine pays the best award promised by the developer. Naturally, these considerations are valid if the game is played for real money.

Beautifully designed and misleadingly simple, the Starburst pokie machine by NetEnt is among the most popular games in online casinos. This 5-reel 10-line pokie accepts bets between NZ$0.1 and NZ$10 per line and pays both ways. Wins range from x5 to x250 the line bet or up to NZ$2,500. A Starburst Wild Respin feature can pay up to NZ$50,000.