There are few video slots that have managed to stand the test of time quite like Starburst. Released in 2012 by Swedish iGaming software studio NetEnt, Starburst arrived in an era when smartphones had only just cemented themselves in the mainstream. Initially, it was powered by Adobe Flash plugins, like most other browser-based video slots. Before long though it was converted to HTML5, giving it long lasting cross-platform appeal. Fast forward an entire decade and Starburst is still going strong. In fact, it still features heavily in the list of UK welcome bonuses, with some licensed casino brands dishing out free spins exclusively for use on Starburst.
If you’re unsure what the fuss is all about, here in celebration of Starburst’s 10-year anniversary we’re going to explore what makes this game such a timeless slot. First and foremost, it helps being developed by one of the industry’s most successful iGaming software studios. NetEnt has consistently won awards through the years for the safety and innovation of its slot and live casino productions. The studio took the lead as the first iGaming studio to reimagine its slot portfolio from Flash into HTML5, delivering an infinitely better player experience that’s not such a drain on device resources.
What’s Starburst like under the bonnet?
There are several reasons why Starburst has enduring appeal within the iGaming industry. First and foremost, it carries a low barrier to entry for beginners to online slots or slot gameplay in general. It can be a little confusing with all of the noise and the reels spinning, particularly for first-timers. However, Starburst has just ten paylines, which makes it easier to keep track of the potential symbol combinations.
Starburst is also designed with a “Win Both Ways” game engine. This means that it doesn’t matter whether your symbols match from left-to-right or right-to-left, you’re guaranteed a win. The theme of the slot is also highly engaging and has inspired many other popular video slots through the years. The reels are set within an intergalactic environment, with a cinematic space-age soundtrack that builds the intensity.
One of the main benefits of the Starburst slot is that it’s not jam-packed with bonus features. Admittedly some more experienced slot players may find that not to their preference, but for entry-level players it’s ideal. It’s easy to keep track of when the bonus may drop in Starburst as the main bonus feature is based on the ‘wild’ symbol. The multi-coloured star symbol is the wild symbol and whenever it appears on a reel, it will expand to fill the entire reel, helping to magnify potential payouts.
Whenever the expanding wild symbol appears and fills a reel, it triggers a free re-spin too. This means you’ll get two spins for the price of one. During that free re-spin, the reel that’s full of wild symbols remains locked in place, giving you a shot at filling up one of the other reels with wilds. In fact, it’s entirely possible to fill all five reels with wild symbols from five successive free re-spins. With fully wild reels, you can win Starburst’s maximum jackpot too.
As you can see, although Starburst is somewhat lacking in the volume of in-game bonus features, there is an enduring depth to the ‘Expanding Wilds’ feature that keeps players coming back for more.
More recently, NetEnt has tried to emulate the success of the original Starburst. Spin-off versions like Starburst XXXtreme have tried to add a new dimension to this tried and trusted franchise. This was released in 2021 and actually contains one fewer paylines than its predecessor. Aside from the original Expanding Wilds feature, this also contains an ‘XXXtreme Spins’ mode, which allows players to guarantee the appearance of wild symbols to try and fill up the reels with multiple free re-spins.
Despite these attempts to follow-up on the original, Starburst remains one of the most played slot titles in the global iGaming scene. Whether NetEnt will ever manage to design a slot game that eclipses its popularity is very much up for debate.