Following the release of the Rugby Star slot, which was released to coincide with the start of the Rugby World Cup, that slot has been tuned into other sporting themes including Basketball Star!
The first thing to note is that if you have spent any amount of time playing any of the other slots in this "star"series, then the Basketball Star slot will look and play in an exceedingly familiar vein.
That's not a bad thing however as the game-play on the slot is very good. It plays at a nice pace and the game looks and sounds excellent, capturing the atmosphere of a big time Basketball match up very nicely indeed.
In terms of looks, there are several positives. The graphics are simplistic, yet the serve the game well and are very easy to follow. The decision to maintain the Basketball theme across all the symbols in the game and not resort to using playing card lows, also helps keep you engaged in the game. There are still high and low value symbols of course, it is just nice that the lows aren't that obvious in the game.
What is nice is that when you land a winning payline with some of the symbols, you are treated to a little animation running prior to receiving your win. A small touch, but it does certainly enhance the ambiance of the game.
The basics of the slot are that this is your typical 5x3 reel slot from Microgaming, but it is one of the new breed of 243-ways to win slots, which is great for players who like games which pay out smaller amounts more often. Certainly that is what happens when you play the Basketball Star slot, both in the base game and especially when you trigger some of the many different features of the slot.
What is also pleasing is that you can wager any amount between 0.50 per spin up to 50.00 per spin, which makes this slot ideal for both the smaller stakes players, as well as those that like to spend a bit more on each game to try and maximise their wins.
That combined with a house edge of between 3 and 4%, means that this is a game that won't make too big a dent in your bankroll as you play as you do tend to win regularly, even if the wins you receive are not going to be life-changing in the main.
What really does mark out Basketball Star however is its number of features and the two most immediately apparent of these are the Cascading Reels and Stacked Wilds features.
We'll look at the latter of these first. As the reels spin, you will notice that the Basketball Star slot logo is the in game wild and that on reels three, four and five, the wilds are stacked various symbols high, On reel three, you get 18 Wilds stacked high, on reel four it is 25 Wilds high and on reel five it is a stack of three.
Obviously landing these stacks across all three visible symbols of the reels is great because it gives you a greater chance of success, especially if you can land two or all three stacks on screen on a single spin.
The stacked wilds are also important due to the Cascading Reels feature. This feature is triggered throughout the game whenever you land a winning payline. When this happens, all the symbols that have contributed to the winning payline will disappear and the symbols above them will drop down into view on the screen.
This can then trigger additional winning paylines on top of the original payline. If you do trigger a second winning payline, then these too will disappear and be replaced with other symbols until no payline is visible.
Of course, if you have stacked Wilds in this situation, you can trigger multiple wins if the Wilds keep dropping down from the stack, which is another thing to look for in the game.
These features certainly add a lot of spice to the base game, but there is another feature that will get your heart racing when triggered and that is the Wild Shot feature.
This randomly triggered feature can occur at any point in the base game and is similar to the Wild Pass feature in the Rugby Star slot and Cricket Star slot. When triggered, up to two entire reels will turn Wild and on the subsequent spin, you are guaranteed a win.
Of course, no Microgaming game worth its salt is complete without its Free Spins round and Basketball Star is no different. Land three, four or five scatter symbols across the reels in the base game and you will trigger 15, 20 or 25 free spins respectively.
There's no automatic multiplier on wins in these free spins initially, but what is interesting here is that the Cascading Reels bonus is in operation here too and every time you land a win through Cascading Reels, you will get a multiplier, which goes from 1x your win to 2x, to 3x, 4x, 5x and finally 10x your win.
The free spins round is certainly where the bigger jackpots in this game can be won, especially if you can land several wins from a single spin thanks to the Cascading Reels feature.
There is a huge amount to like about the Basketball Star slot and we are convinced that like the other sporting star slots that have preceded it, this game will go on to Hall of Fame status with slot fans.
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