Starquest Slots
We’re off into space with Starquest, a brand new slot machine from Big Time Gaming, bringing together everything we love about two popular subjects: space and gambling. The space theme has been done to death and so we were weary about this new instalment from the brand. We shouldn’t been though, it’s a cracker, especially with their patented Megaways feature.
Crammed with a lot of symbols and a couple of wild bonuses, this game is giving without going over the top about it. So let’s fasten our seatbelts, twist and lock our helmets into place, maybe pick up a few snacks, and then blast off into the unknown!
Ride of Your Life
As already hinted at, the majority of the bonuses come from wilds here, and so it makes sense to look at them first. Instead of your conventional wild you have a full reel wild, which is a space age girl holding a laser gun; she dominates an entire reel, valued as high as five individual tiles put together.
Even though she can sub other symbols, she also applies a multiplier to your wins when she appears; the amount begins at a lowly x1 and increases up to x5 over time, should she stick around long enough. If she doesn’t jet off back into space she can trigger the respin wilds feature. She shoots her laser and the reels begin rolling, and if she appears on yet another reel the same thing will happen again; wherever she lands she becomes a sticky symbol, frozen in place while the other symbols fly by.
That would be it as far as features go, but then there’s the Megaway system that Big Time Gaming have created. What this essentially does is give you up to 117,649 different ways to win some cash during each game. It sounds impressive, but it very rarely occurs on those reels, though you’ll know when it does as the counter at the top tells you so. In theory this should be a feature we love, but we didn’t rate it, and it didn’t seem to do much when it did happen - our wins didn’t seem larger in any way.
Galactic Symbols
In regards to the other icons we have in Starquest, their values top out at just 15 credits, which pretty much sums up what the rest of them are like: dull. It sounds very harsh, but when it comes down to slot machines, you want a good return for your stake, and it doesn’t feel like you quite get that here. Of course any multipliers applied will make a difference to what you get back, but still, it’s not a base jackpot to write home about. When you’re in space you want to be given the world, not a chunk of it.
Turbo Boost!
As for the controls in this game, they’re very very VERY simple: there is literally only the betting range to change and then you can spin. You do this by clicking either increase or decrease on the ‘Stake’ toggle, with a beginning bet of 1 and and an end one of 2,500, which frankly just seems mad! Even more so when you consider that none of the symbol values increase when your bet does, so you could be risking all that cash for a 15-credit payout? We don’t think so.
A Dying Star
Maybe it’s just us, but we don’t see the appeal of this title at all - it looks good, but the features just aren’t up to scratch. We can’t deny it has staying power because it utilises a popular theme, and if you only wager a small amount of money then it could be seen as worth your time. However, it still doesn’t change our overall conclusion of this slot.
