What Are “Free Spins” Slots?
Most 5-reel slots are termed “bonus slots“, meaning that they have a feature, normally triggered by a certain combination of symbols appearing. In standard video slots, these tend to be “pick ‘em” style bonus rounds where the player uses the mouse to reveal hidden prizes. However, a more entertaining bonus round comes in the form of “free spins“, where the player is awarded X spins, normally with multiplied payouts.
For example, the most popular online free spins slot is Thunderstruck, a Microgaming slot which is available at [King Neptunes] (USA), [Thunderstruck, there is an orange symbol known as a “scatter ram”, it being a picture of a ram ‘n all, and when 3 or more of these appear anywhere in view across the 5 reels, you get the feature. In Thunderstruck’s case, you are awarded 15 free spins, where every win is trebled. If the win includes the “Thor” wild symbol, this doubles the win, so effectively you get 6x the normal payout for that win combination.
During the free spins, the scatter rams (see image, left) are still present. If you get another 3 (or more), you get another 15 free spins added. This is called a “retrigger” and there is no limit to the number of retriggers tou can get. This principle is applied to almost all free spins bonus slots, although in some cases the retrigger is not allowed (IE: with the Wagerworks Flash slot called The 50,000 Pyramid), so it may be worth checking. That said, the scatters themselves award a prize during the free spins so it’s not all bad, especially if you have a decent win multiplier going. There are plenty of slots that follow the Thunderstruck model, both on the Microgaming platform (”Spring Break”, “Ladies Nite” and “Summertime” are exact replicas) and elsewhere (Cleopatra at Wagerworks casinos for example).
Some slots combine the “pick ‘em” approach with the free spins multiplier. The aforementioned 50,000 Pyramid game at Virgin or [Microgaming slots, such as “Glory Of Rome” and “Inca’s Gold”, and a number of RTG slots at [Free Spins Slots reviews here at OCSM for more slot machines of this variety. One thing you should be aware of is the effect of variance which comes into play more on these types of slot.