Stars Ablaze Slot Machine

Pros:

• Great main game prizes. We love being able to drop serious money from a single spin. If players were to be betting the maximum on Stars Ablaze, the highest payment is a huge R3 240 500!

Cons:

• Dull theme. Sure, the classic fruit machine slot is a tried a tested style, but it isn’t very exciting in 2019.
• Uninspiring artwork. The design team have obviously tried to stay loyal to the theme of classic casino gambling. However, with far more creative tools at their fingertips than those designers before them, they could have easily modernised the look of the game, whilst still remaining true to the concept of Stars Ablaze.
• Lack of bonus features. This is consistent with many other vintage slot designs. However, we’d like to see the theme modernised with some proper bonus features.

Top Jackpots

The top jackpots on the Stars Ablaze slot machine are each awarded for matching five of the same symbols along one of the game’s five fixed win lines. These higher payments are represented by symbols taken from classic fruit machines.

We’ve listed the prizes for each five-of-a-kind combination below:

• Star = 7,500x the line bet.
• Lucky Seven = 2,000x the line bet.
• Watermelon = 800x the line bet.
• Plum = 400x the line bet.

Game Features

Blazing Bonus

Landing the game’s “Bonus” symbol anywhere on reels one, three, and five simultaneously will trigger the Blazing Bonus.

In each level of fruit symbols, players must pick one of the symbols to reveal a cash prize. They will then advance to the next tier of symbols. The Blazing Bonus will end when the player reveals “Collect” or wins the fifth and final level (Star symbol).

Players should note that the number of symbols they can choose from decreases as they progress through the bonus. Unfortunately, this means they are increasingly likely to select the “collect” the further up they travel through the tiers.

Regular Symbols

In addition to the higher value symbols on Stars Ablaze, there are also some that award smaller prizes. These are also represented by images associated with the birth of the slot machine (more fruit). Just like their top jackpot-awarding counterparts, we’ve listed the prizes for each five-of-a-kind winning combination below:

• Orange =200x the line bet.
• Lemon = 100x the line bet.
• Cherries = 40x the line bet.

Betting Limits

The number of win lines is fixed at five on the Stars Ablaze slot machine. This means that players can only adjust the amount bet on each one. The minimum here is just 1p. This makes the lowest possible bet per spin just 5p. Meanwhile, the largest line bet possible is R450. When this is selected, the maximum bet per spin is R2 200.

We think that most players should find these betting limits more than accommodating. However, those high rollers in command of the largest bankrolls may find them a little on the low side.

Overall Rating

In case you didn’t guess already, we weren’t very impressed by Stars Ablaze. Playtech have created loads of these classic fruit machine style games and we’re not really sure why. Most of them play the same and do little to inspire excitement amongst players. We’re sure there will be some folks who love the simplified and stripped back gameplay but with so many other options out there, it’s hard to see why they would choose Stars Ablaze over a huge number of similar titles.

That said, there are a couple of redeeming features. Firstly, there has been an effort to include a bonus feature. It’s a simple “pick a box” style side game and it’s reasonably exciting the first couple of times it is triggered.

Perhaps the best thing about the game is the high main game prizes included. The fact that players can win 7,500x the amount bet on a line is certainly worthy of praise. Whether it’s worth playing Stars Ablaze for long enough to hit this top prize is another matter entirely, however.