Best Slot Machine Bonuses
What better way to begin this list than with one of the most iconic slot machines of all-time? The Egyptian-themed Cleopatra slot is a 5-reel, 20-payline title that is hugely popular for a reason. Mar 20, 2020 What casinos have the best bonuses on slots? Featuring an RTP of 96.6%, the Magic Portals slot machine game is one of the very best ones on this list. Once Upon a Dime.
Also, these slot bonuses can help you defeat the house edge and balance things out – thus giving you a better chance at winning. Online Casino Slots Bonus. The best casino slot machines bonuses will give you a chance to play longer and will also allow you to play high limit slots by depositing a low sum at the beginning.
- Dec 24, 2019 We have rated here the best slots bonuses available online. Our rating is based on two main parameters: Winning odds: the edge the bonus gives the player over the casino. The level of the casino itself. If you are familiar with online casinos and the way slots bonuses work, you can go ahead and pick the one you like from the table below.
- Sep 18, 2020 The best slot machine to play is the one that comes with the right combination of volatility. This high volatility slot machine doesn't have many bonus games or features (even if you bet the.
What if — one day — you entered a slot machine bonus round and walked out $15,000,000 richer? For some lucky players, that has actually happened.
Long gone are the days when you spun 3 reels with fruit symbols on them and won a few free spins as a bonus round. These days, there are all sorts of awesome, entertaining bonus rounds which make video slots appear more like video games.
I’ve played thousands of slots in my time, and thousands of bonus rounds, too. I’m going to share the best I’ve encountered here.
Unsurprisingly, most of them give you the chance to win huge amounts of cash, which is part of what makes them so great to begin with!
The Mega Fortune Bonus Wheel
When it comes to slot machine bonus wheels, most people think of Mega Moolah by Microgaming first. While that is a pretty cool feature, I personally think the Mega Fortune bonus wheel is slightly better.
This is a feature that will get your adrenaline pumping for sure. It’s a multi-layered wheel with cash prizes and several progressive jackpots up for grabs.
So, how do you win the Mega Jackpot and walk away a millionaire? Each time the wheel spins, you need to land on an arrow to proceed to the next layer. If you make it all the way to the center, you can officially call yourself filthy rich.
This feature can actually be triggered fairly often in Mega Fortune. A few days ago I was able to unlock it 3 times within the same quick session.
The Scary Rich 3 Free Spins Round
Unless you’re a hardcore slots player like myself, you might never have heard of Scary Rich 3 from Rival Gaming.
It’s a horror-themed slot which is relatively unremarkable overall, apart from the cracking free spins bonus round. If you manage to trigger it with 5 scatter symbols you will get 666 free spins, which I can tell you from experience takes around half an hour to play through.
While that’s a heck of a lot of free spins and is enough to make this bonus round noteworthy by itself, there are also expanding wilds in play throughout. These significantly increase your chances of making winning combinations.
As I said before, it’s one of those slots few have heard of, but I have personally never seen another slot offering as many free spins in one feature.
The Avalon II Grail Bonus Feature
Sometimes a bonus feature is actually multiple bonus rounds all rolled into one, and that’s the case with the Grail feature in Avalon II from Microgaming.
If you manage to trigger this feature, you will have 8 different entertaining possibilities. There’s a dice roll game, 3 free spins rounds with up to 20 free spins and dynamic multipliers in one of them, 2 picking rounds with up to 160x your stake available, a fighting game with cash prizes, and a bonus wheel round, all within one feature.
This feature also has somewhat of a storyline to it, in which you need to retrieve ”the grail” and bring it back to Avalon. It’s got epic graphics and sound effects, which I have come to expect from Microgaming.
Why do I like this feature so much? Because it doesn’t get boring even when you trigger it multiple times within the same game. Oh, and you can win serious money, too.
The Breakaway Free Spins Round
Breakaway is an ice hockey themed game from Microgaming. It’s got loads of extra features, but the one which stands out most to me is the free spins round.
There are up to 25 free spins offered, which is nothing remarkable in and of itself, but all wins are instantly boosted 1,000% by a 10x multiplier.
Breakaway has a 125,000-coin jackpot, which is also worth playing for. Still, this is all about bonus rounds, and I definitely want to mention the free spins round here. Multipliers of 2x and 3x are common, but 10x deserves a special mention.
If the ice hockey theme doesn’t appeal, then either Football Star or Rugby Star also have free spins rounds with 10x multipliers. Check them out.
The Hall of Gods Picking Feature
Hall of Gods by NetEnt takes you back to the mythical era when Odin, Loki, and Thor ruled the minds of the Nordic people.
Thor’s hammer is a symbol we still recognize today, and it’s an important one in this bonus feature. How it works is that you take Thor’s hammer and smash various shields on the screen for cash prizes.
What makes this relatively simple feature so special? The fact that you can win millions instantly by finding one of the Hall of Gods progressive jackpots behind the shield you smash.
This feature has the power to make you a millionaire in a few seconds flat, and I think that makes it special, even if I haven’t yet had the good fortune to win it.
The Gonzo’s Quest Avalanche Reels
Gonzo’s Quest is one of NetEnt’s most popular slots of all time. It’s a simple game, but it has one brilliant feature I really like.
The “Avalanche Reels” make it possible to win multiple consecutive times off one single spin. This means that when you create a winning combination, the symbols involved disappear and are replaced by new ones, potentially unlimited times in a row.
While this is not totally unique in itself, Gonzo’s Quest adds extra spice to the rice by adding a dynamic multiplier element. For each consecutive win, a multiplier will increase by 1x, up to a maximum of 5x.
Just imagine 5 wins in a row from one spin, with the fifth win boosted 500% automatically (after all the others). That’s why this feature deserves to be included on this list, in my view.
The Mega Moolah Bonus Wheel
There’s no rule against having two entries for great slots bonus wheels, right?
While I stated clearly above that I feel the Mega Fortune bonus wheel is the best of the lot, the Mega Moolah one is still pretty immense.
This is more of a traditional bonus wheel, meaning there is just one layer to it. There are 4 progressive jackpots which can be won, starting with the Mini and going all the way up to the Mega.
If you’re lucky enough to land the Mega jackpot, welcome to the millionaire’s club! Mega Moolah is renowned for paying out ridiculous jackpots more suitable for a state or national lotto draw than a slot machine.
Slot machines are the syrup that sweeten the pancake experience of an average casino. A Las Vegas gaming venue offers shows, restaurants, exhibits, a resort experience, and more. Guests have more things to do than just gamble.
But then there’s the small roadside casino. The smokey atmosphere makes it hard to breathe, there are a few dozen slot machines, and if you’re lucky, there might even be a cheap sandwich bar.
Unless you’re a local who can’t get out of town, there isn’t much reason to visit the smaller casinos. But if they have any good slot games, especially older ones, they might be worth a visit.
Two things make playing a slot game somewhat more entertaining—the chance of winning a nice jackpot and the bonus game feature.
1 – Simple Bonus Games Can Be a Lot of Fun
There were nights I’d walk into a casino and see a large bank of machines light up and start spinning their wheels. They blared loudly, with stimulating sounds, hoping to attract passersby. I didn’t see the point of the game.
And yet, people would sit down and play. The bonus feature sends the wheels spinning like crazy and they land on win after win. I saw one player watch in excitement as her bonus ran to over $200.
A simple bonus game can make it all worthwhile if it pays a nice prize. VGT slots are famous for their “Red Screen” bonus, where players watch win after win roll up on the machine.
If the bonus rounds come often and pay something extra, they make an otherwise dull game worth playing. My wife and I never spent much time on these games, but it’s obvious why you still find them. People like to see wheels spin as their credits explode.
2 – The Self-Playing Spin Bonus Feature
This one’s not so bad. The player doesn’t do anything but watch as the game spins the reels and pays prize after prize.
That’s the theory anyway. I’ve hit two different kinds of autoplaying bonus games. The best ones do exactly what you think. They spin the reels and pay a prize every time.
The worse autoplaying bonus games just throw in some extra random spins. There may be a prize or not. When you win $5 on the combination that triggered the bonus, you expect a little more.
It’s fun to watch your credits roll up as the game spins and spins and spins. It’s no fun at all to watch the game spin and spin and spin without paying anything. Game designers, take note!
3 – Pick Game Bonus Features Make Life More Interesting
I’ve played more pick bonus games than I can remember. I’ve dug for treasure, rubbed genie lamps, chased groundhogs, thrown lemmings off of cliffs, and fished for prizes. I’ve also picked random boxes and balls.
The appeal of the pick game bonus lies in the mystery. You know you’ll get something special, but you don’t know what.
I like guaranteed picks over “pick until you lose” games. A guaranteed pick game prize is much more satisfying even if it’s a small prize. I’ve picked the “game over” option too soon on some games.
Here Are The Best Slot Machines With The Best Bonus Rounds
Some adventure-based games have pick features where the player chooses a room in a house or a door in a hallway. The prize amount could be substantial. And yet the game’s appeal comes from the highly detailed setting.
4 – Combo Spin and Pick Bonus Features
I don’t remember the game but there was one that ran through three screens on the bonus game. On each screen, you picked a few items to determine a prize.
That was a complicated bonus game but it was fun to play.
5 – Interactive Bonus Features
There is an online slot game, Mr. Vegas, where players get to play casino games inside the game. The normal game consists of spinning the reels just like any other slot.
When one of the bonus features is triggered, the player may play a game of virtual roulette, pull a lever on a slot machine, or throw some dice. It’s a different “spin” on spinning reels.
Another adventure game I played was based on Dungeons and Dragons. The name was something else. The player spins the reels as normal but the bonus feature is a dungeon walk.
The dungeon is filled with treasure and traps. The bonus round can last a long time as long as the player doesn’t walk into a trap. While it’s not a game of skill, it’s not as disappointing as the simple “pick and lose” scenario I described above.
There’s no real skill involved in playing most of these interactive bonus games. They’re all about making random choices.
6 – Skill-Based Bonus Games
I had heard for years that slot machine games are not truly interactive. How many times have you hit “Stop” hoping to catch a bonus game?
The game always spins past the three trigger icons because the outcome was already decided. The “Stop” button just stops the reels from spinning.
There’s a mathematician who says it’s better to let the reels spin on. The random number generator will cycle through a few more numbers if the player waits. If you feel like you’re having a run of bad luck, just wait a couple of minutes between spins.
Best Slot Machine Bonus
Maybe that’s another myth, but I’ve played a few games that were truly interactive in the United States. One was war-themed where the player shoots at enemies in the bonus game.
You know it’s a truly interactive game when the screen displays instructions on how to use the controls to guide the weapon or character avatar. It’s possible but expensive to develop some real skill with these games.
I don’t know if people really caught on to these games, but the war game kept my attention for a while. I just wish it had paid better in between bonus rounds.
7 – The “Choose a Style” Bonus Game
I’ve played these games more than I should admit. My wife showed some of them to me. They were online games.
When the bonus round is triggered, the player is prompted to choose a side. It might be a dancer in a dance-off or a good/bad character. The bonus game plays out on the basis of that choice. It creates a different experience.
Another game I’d place in this category prompts the player with a screen to choose how the bonus feature is to play out. It’s like a prize-o-meter. You can choose bigger payouts (they come less frequently) or lower, more frequent payouts.
Conclusion
Some bonus game features are just designed to take your money. For a while, I tried adding to my bet or gambling with my bonus win in a second game. It might be “double or nothing” or some other random game.
These are terrible bonus features. The “double or nothing” prize might look attractive but the chances of winning are less than proportionate. Someone described these games as pure profit for the casino. Players should never risk their winnings from a paid spin in a bonus game.
I’ve shot arrows at apples. I’ve climbed mountains. I’ve swum vast seas. It feels like every possible type of bonus game has been imagined. And yet each year, new games hit the market.
Some bonus games are just pure entertainment. There was a vampire-themed game online a few years back that had incredible music. You’d keep playing just to hit the bonus game.
Modern slot games use space-age console designs. They have great sound systems, play your favorite songs, and use incredibly detailed graphics.
For all that investment, a lot of their bonus games are boring. I’m well past the “push a button to start watching reels spin” stage. For me, the best bonus games always enhance my experience by giving me something to do.
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