There are really many slot games available in online casinos, all different and with many different game options. But if we have to divide this amount of online slots into some categories, we can mainly identify three that are the ones that most differentiate the game: the number of Paylines (payment lines), the number of reels, the type of game offered and finally the theme related to that online slot. But let’s go into detail.
Paylines
The paylines of which an online slot game consists are those active lines on which you can obtain winning combinations if the symbols that compose them and indicated in the payment table are aligned. Some online slots have a fixed number of paylines, some slots allow you to change their number at the player’s discretion.
A very simple example to understand what paylines are, is to imagine the classic slot with 3 reels. Here, if you were to get three identical symbols in an aligned way, that is an active payline. Obviously the more paylines a slot machine offers, the greater the chance of getting one or more winning combinations.
Number of Reels
The reels dial the vertical lines inside the game grid of a slot machine. In the Online version they are the transposition of the reels of the old lever slots. Classic online slots usually feature 3 reels of play; the more modern ones 5 reels (to tell the truth most of those available, also called video slots) up to those that are starting to depopulate with 6 reels (like the Book Of Ra Deluxe 6) up to 10 reels of play (as in the Book Of Ra 10).
Types of Slot Games
Online slot machines we can further divide them into 3 other small categories. The first is that of the Classic slots, that is, those single-line machines with usually 3 game reels and that recall the old slots that were found in the bars at the beginning of their diffusion and that recall their graphic and sound characteristics. The most modern slots are the Video Slots, with eye-catching graphics, a 5 reel number up, bonus games and built-in special features.
We can then find the 3D slots that are the latest generation with the highest quality animations. Finally we can mention the Fruit Slots, those completely themed with symbols representing fruit and which have always dictated the law. As the years go by and new technologies available to programmers and software houses, free online slot games are reaching truly high-level levels of quality and engagement.
Extra Features of Slot Games
There are many extra game modes built into the most modern slot games. Let’s face it, it’s also the features that attract the most attention of players for the increase in the chances of winning they entail compared to the main game. This is why software houses are now only developing games with increasingly captivating extra functions. Let’s see them individually.
- Slot with wildcard symbol: is a symbol that has the function of replacing every high symbol, except the scatter, within a winning combination.
- Slot with Scatter symbol: It is the symbol that pays a win even in scattered order on the reels of a slot, so even if not aligned on a paylines. They are also the symbols to which access to the bonus game is usually linked.
- Free Spins Slots: The free spins feature allows you to get free spins with which you can get extra winnings without any amount being climbed from the player’s balance.
- Respin: is the function that allows the player, paying an extra odds, to spin the reels he selects in a position to try to get a winning combination.
- Sticky Wilds: They are wild symbols that remain stationary in the position where they were drawn for a certain number of spins.
- Stacked Jokers: They are wild symbols that appear in bulk on the reels covering two or more tables of the roller (everything too).
- Random Jokers: This feature is usually added during bonuses with free spins. It predicts that some wild symbols are randomly turned into wildcards with each spin, thus increasing the chances of winning combinations.
- Slot with Double function: is an extra function (cheated also game Gamble / Risk) that allows you to double and even quadruple the winnings obtained in the main game through a card game (red or black / guess the seed of a card / high or low etc).
- Multiplier Symbols: They have the function of multiplying the value of a winning combination of which they are part by the number of times indicated on the symbol itself.
- Free Spins Bonus: it is that bonus game that involves the assignment of a certain number of free spins with which you can get extra winnings and for which the player’s balance is absolutely not affected. Additional functions can be added to the free spins function among those described above such as multipliers, expandable or sticky wild symbols, causual wildcards etc …
- Slots with themed Bonus: it is a bonus round that includes a game that recalls throughout the theme that characterizes the slot machine with which you can win extra prizes.
- Slot games with Jackpot: slot machines are often matchedfixed or progressive jackpots. Some jackpots can be won by getting a certain combination in the main game, some through a specially created jackpot game that will determine the winning of the prize.
- Double-round Hold Function Slot: present in double spin slots (such as WMG slots), allows the player to decide which reels to lock before making the second spin.
- Autoplay function: allows you to set a number of turns to be made without the player having to give the input to spin the reels with each spin (it is also called automatic play).
- Nudge: is a function that gives the player the opportunity to rotate a roller of a position either down or up to try to get a winning combination. It is also referred to as ‘hit’.
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Online Slots Themes
The variety of online slot gaming offer is given not only by the extra built-in features, but also and above all by the many themes that the developers of the various slot games are inspired by. There are really dozens of themes that can be identified in the wide range of free and real money slot games offered by the various software providers in order to cover the personal tastes of each player.
There is no limit to imagination and themes and this has always been a great strength of video slot gaming in both the web and physical sectors (bar and vlt slots or land-based casino slots). Obviously over time it has also been statistically possible to understand what are the issues that attract players the most, bringing the different software providers to focus mainly on these.
Egypt themed slots are definitely the most popular internationally, along with Mayan online slots and Epic slots in general. The references to still mysterious civilizations, powerful gods or mythological characters that still fall into our history thanks also to very successful films dedicated to them (for example the Gladiator to whom the Gladiator slot was dedicated) have a great attraction to the players and are in fact the most played and sought after.
Another much loved category is that of free Horror slots, that series of free slots without downloading dedicated to the world of our fears: ghosts, monsters, vampires, assassins, terrifying characters populate these free online slot games, arousing great interest in many players. Among the most famous slot games in this category we cannot help but mention the legendary slot Haunted House.
There is also no shortage of more light and fun themes than the previous ones with a series of slots that we can identify in some categories: slots on Animals, Fantasy slots and online slots on sports. Fun animals, pure fantasy characters and a series of slots dedicated to all the major sports in the world await you.
Finally, we can’t forget about the Classic Slots, dedicated to all fans of the dawn of slot machines. Simple in their operation and in their graphics, usually single line, composed of the classic symbols that have accompanied slot games since their inception. They are the most basic online slots, light years away from the modern video slots that are being offered now, but that still fascinate all those players linked to the past and history of slot games.