With Starz Megaways, Pragmatic Play has launched its second game with the popular Megaways engine. The game shoots you straight into the stratosphere right from the start. Yes, the game is obviously heavily influenced by the popular Starburst, but so are literally countless other games. It’s the nature of the business, though Pragmatic might have made it a bit less obvious (by dropping the gem symbols, for example), unless of course their actual strategy (which indeed seems to be) was to skip over it).
Having a very volatile Megaways option is not a bad thing for fans of the NetEnt classic (although an actual Starburst Megaways is supposedly just around the corner at the time of writing this review). In any case, the Starz Megaways slot plays on 2 to 7 reels and up to 117,649 ways to win. You can place bets ranging from 20p to £100 per spin on all platforms and devices. Playing on your mobile or tablet is smoother than ever, and this is a fast-paced game if we’ve ever seen one.
Get ready to literally “play among the stars,” as the old tune goes, because this is certainly a visually appealing game with a soothing, otherworldly soundtrack. The base game features extended wilds, which can be very helpful in getting bigger wins and keeping you afloat as you approach the all-important bonus round. This is where things can really heat up as you can land up to 4 sticky wild reels in the middle and win up to 10,000 times your bet. There is no cascading or avalanche feature in this game, which is unusual, but fans of Starburst should be pleased while we wait for the “real thing” to hopefully be released soon.
What are the symbols?
It’s hard for us to decide whether the 5 low value symbols should be stars or atoms, or perhaps a mixture of both. Either way, they certainly look cosmically cool, and all the premium symbols here are gems in different colors. You need between 3 and 6 matching symbols on a payline to win. If you win with 6 symbols, your payout doubles due to the win in both directions. Here we present you the paytable for Starz Megaways slot:
- Green Gem – Pays 2.5x for 6 in a combination.
- Purple Gem – Pays 1x for 6 in a combination
- Red Gem – Pays 0.75x for 6 in a combination
- Blue Gemstone – Pays 0.6x for 6 in a combination
- Pink Gemstone – Pays 0.6x for 6 in a combination
- Stars / Atoms – Pay either 0.5x or 0.4x for 6 in a combination
What are the bonus features?
Starz Megaways offers unusually few bonus features for a Megaways Engine slot, but the reason for that is obvious, as the source of inspiration shines through these efforts like an ever-present sun. The base game really only has one bonus feature, and that is the Expanding Wilds feature.
The wild symbol looks like a somewhat primitive drawing of a sun, in which the rays are represented by massive red and yellow spikes. The wild can land only on reels 2, 3, 4 and 5, that is, on the 4 middle reels. All the regular symbols are displayed so that you can form winning combinations, and this is done so that your payouts are always maximized.
The wild symbol also expands when landing and covers the entire reel. Land 4 fully stacked wild reels, and it can lead to some very solid payouts for base games. Unlike Starburst, there is no Sticky Wild respin feature here, at least not in the base game. Now let’s take a look at what the bonus round has to offer.
Free Spins in Starz Megaways
Triggering the free spins feature is simple enough. You need to land 3 of the bonus scatter symbol, a symbol that looks like a replica of the star that our dear planet is currently orbiting at a speed of about 108,000 km / h. The bonus scatter can land on all the reels, and you need to land 3 somewhere in sight to trigger the bonus round.
You can land between 3 and 6 solar scatters, giving you 6, 8, 10 or 15 spins. The wild symbols expand vertically to become fully stacked wild reels here as well. Now they also become sticky wild reels. The Wilds remain sticky as long as the free spins last, which means that it is better to make all 4 middle reels wild. Unfortunately, there is no way to retrigger the free spins bonus round or get extra spins.
Game instructions
Pragmatic Play has a pretty simple and straightforward game interface, and experienced players will have no problem finding what they need. If you are not a beginner, you may want to skim through this part of the review or skip it altogether. Newbies, however, should probably pay close attention.
You can start by checking out the paytable. To do so, click on the “i” icon in the left corner. Since this is a dynamic paytable, the symbol values will shift according to the bet level you choose. You win by landing matching symbols from left to right or right to left on adjacent reels. You can also read all about the game’s bonus features in the Paytable menu.
The small hamburger menu icon next to the “i” button will take you to the game settings. Here you can activate the Quick Spin option, which we always run ourselves if possible. You can turn the music and sound effects on and off separately, which is a nice touch, and there is a battery saver option. Finally, you can turn off the Intro screen to save some time the next time you load the Starz Megaways slot.
The volume can also be adjusted in-game, which is always a good idea. Now it’s time to choose your bet level. To do this, click on the plus and minus icons on either side of the spin button. The betting range is from 20 pence to £100 per spin. You can either spin the reels manually or set up the autoplay feature. The latter offers you between 10 and 100 autospins, and you have many stop options here, as well as a turbo spin option that is only available for autospins.
The 200 Spins Starz Megaways Experience
We don’t think there’s a faster Megaways game than the Starz Megaways slot, and you can turn on the turbo mode in the autoplay feature to see for yourself. With no cascading reels to slow us down, we completed 200 spins in just a few minutes. Don’t worry, because these were some intense and eventful minutes, to say the least.
One intriguing aspect of this game is that it’s supposed to be very volatile, but it doesn’t really feel that way. At least not in our limited experience of 200-300 spins (yes, we did some extra spins because everything was going so fast). You’re sure to get lots of dead spins and minute wins, but then you’ll get hit by a few stacks of Wilds and be right back on your Space Horse.
We triggered the free spins bonus round more or less every 50 spins, and it’s almost like you can set your watch to it. The first time we got 6 spins and no sticky wild reels, and this gave us a paltry 24x payout. We had a 48x “mega win” in the base game right after that, as if the game was apologizing to us.
Our next bonus round brought us 3 Sticky Wilds and a total win of 91.20x, which was decent. After about 50 more spins, we landed 4 scatters, and this gave us 8 free spins. This time we didn’t get a single Sticky Wild until the last spin and won a record low of only 1.20x our bet from the whole thing!
Luckily, we triggered the bonus round again towards the end of our session and this time we filled all 4 middle reels with sticky wilds pretty early on. This earned us one big win after another and we ended up with a solid 222.8x payout. All in all, we were up a few hundred pounds from our session and we will definitely be back for more!
Summary
NetEnt is rumored to be planning a Megaways version of Starburst this summer (2020), but Pragmatic Play may have misled them a bit with their Starz Megaways release. No, it’s not an exact copy of NetEnt’s flagship in any way, but there are certainly enough similarities to make it pretty clear where the inspiration came from.
For players, this is merely a win-win situation as NetEnt now has to sharpen its teeth against strong competition, and you can see that this is a solid warm-up before the main headliner arrives. To be fair to Pragmatic, Starz Megaways is a good game in its own right and triggering the bonus round seems far easier than usual for this developer. The potential is solid as well, not least because the usual and annoying GBP 250,000 cap doesn’t exist here.
Pros
Wild reels expand on the 4 middle reels
Free spins with sticky wild reels
High volatility and 10,000x maximum win potential
Cons
Without many of the usual Megaways engine features
Starz Megaways Slot FAQs
What is the RTP of Starz Megaways slot?
This game has a return-to-player percentage of 96.48%, which is slightly higher than the industry average, but you can get a lower payout due to the RTP ranges. Available RTP values are 96.48%, 95.53% and 94.54%.
Is Starz Megaways similar to Starburst?
Although there are similarities, Starz Megaways is not a copycat. Obviously, the theme and graphics are quite similar, and the expansion of the Wilds feature is clearly inspired by Starburst as well. However, the volatility here is much higher and so is the maximum win potential.
What is the biggest possible win here?
You can win up to 10,000 times your bet on Starz Megaways slot, which is not too unusual potential for a Megaways engine game. However, there is no maximum win cap here, so playing with the highest possible bet can earn you a cool £1 million.
How volatile is Starz Megaways?
The game is very volatile (5 out of 5 volatility rating according to Pragmatic Play), but it feels less volatile than it actually is, at least this is our experience after a limited number of spins.
How many winning ways are available?
There are between 324 and 117,649 ways to win in this game, which is more or less average for a Megaways slot.
Is there a free spins mode in Starz Megaways?
Yes, and you trigger it by landing at least 3 scatters. The expanding wilds here become sticky for the duration of the bonus round. In our experience, the free spins feature is triggered more often than you might be used to from Pragmatic Play slots with high volatility.
Can I play the Starz Megaways slot for free?
Yes, this is no problem at all. Just scroll to the top of the page and you’ll find the free demo version of the game, which you can download instantly.
