Reactor Slot
Red Tiger Gaming is usually known for feature-laden games that include free spins, reel modifiers and random features. However, once in a while the developer presents us with something that looks rather bare at first examination, but then turns out to be a surprise in disguise.
Reactor fits right into that category. It has no random or free spins features, but that’s not all – which is to be expected from the creative team at Red Tiger. They produced yet another new pay mechanic with pays both ways, where up to five reel modifiers and win multipliers can be activated on one spin to award wins of up to a huge 5,000x the bet.
Founded in 2014, Red Tiger Gaming is a relatively young game studio that stormed into the casino world with some highly entertaining, top-quality slots. Unseen pay mechanics, novel bonus features and superb graphics coupled with stunning 2D and 3D animations mesmerize slot players around the world. All their games seem to come alive once the animations set in, filling the screen with a suspenseful expectation and a feeling that the spin will end in a mega win.
The Futuristic Slot Reels
The design of Reactor is, as usual, absolutely impressive. Enter the futuristic world of the space age with a frameless game window and arc reactors on each side. These will dramatically discharge landing batteries to apply up to five reel modifiers. The reactors are connected to the display showing the activated reel modifiers, initiating some intense lightning strikes as soon as the triggering batteries appear on the reels. A catchy electronic music tune serves as a fitting soundtrack, interrupted by futuristic game sounds on winning spins.
The slot has eight pay symbols, one wild symbol and one bonus symbol. At the low end in ascending order of value are purple, red, yellow, and green crystals. They are followed by four futuristic robotic parts in matching colors. A ball of electric energy is the wild and top-paying symbol, substituting for all symbols. A charged battery is the bonus symbol, with just one needed to trigger the first reaction.
The Reactor Numbers and Stats
Don’t be fooled by the rather simple gameplay on Reactor. It is a highly volatile game with a maximum win in a single spin of exactly 5,000x your stake. The slot has five reels, three rows and 20 fixed paylines. The RTP is set at an industry average of 96.02%. Lining up five matching symbols on a pay line awards wins from 1.5 to 25x the bet.
Spinning the reels of this futuristic slot will cost from 0.20 coins up to 100 coins. AutoPlay is a function where players can choose anything from 10 to 100 consecutive spins, with a range of options as to when the run should stop. The slot game is in HTML5 format and can be played on desktop, mobile, and tablet across any OS platform.
Pay-Both-Ways Mechanic
Usually, slots pay for winning combinations on a set of five to 100 paylines, starting from the left reel. In most cases, players need to line up a minimum of three symbols to collect a win. Some slots have 243, 1024, or more ways to win, and pays are awarded for symbols landing on adjacent reels – irrespective of which lines they land on.
The third version of slots includes those which pay both ways. This means that all wins are paid for winning combinations starting from the left and from the right reels, awarding the coin win for each combination according to the pay table. One exception applies in most slots: wins for five of a kind are paid only one way, which is also true for the Reactor slot.
The Battery Respins and Reel Modifiers
Reactor appears as a simple, bare slot in the base game. It all changes dramatically when one to five charged batteries land on the reels. They trigger one respin with up to three reel modifiers and a win multiplier, impressively applied by the two reactors on each side of the game window. The number of extras corresponds to the number of batteries triggering the feature. Potential wins on the triggering spin are paid before the respin. Multiple modifiers will be applied successively on the same respin.
One battery will award a simple respin. Two batteries include the swap symbol feature, where the reactors transform a random number of symbols into higher-value symbols, providing a better chance to score a win. Three batteries activate the respin with the swap symbol feature plus random wilds, where a random number of wild symbols are added to random reel positions.
Four batteries in turn include the respin, the swap symbol and random wilds features plus a mega wild symbol – which sees a large wild symbol in a 2x2 or 3x3 size dragged onto the reels by the reactors. The final blast comes when five batteries land on one spin. The respin now includes all three reel modifiers, plus a random multiplier of 2x to 10x is applied to the total winnings from the respin.
We scored wins in excess of 500x the bet easily every time we managed to score five batteries in one spin. It won’t happen too often, but when it does, it is explosive and exciting time and again. The overall maximum win in a single spin peaks at 5,000x the stake, when the entire screen is filled with wild symbols and the last reaction unveils a 10x multiplier.
Other Reactor Reels
Reel modifiers are not new on video slots. They provide a great way for the game to produce suspenseful moments that have you wonder whether it all will end in a big win. Some of the very fine examples are Incinerator from Yggdrasil Gaming and Turn It Up! from Push Gaming.
Our Charged Verdict
We like the simple yet still suspenseful gameplay on Reactor. It shows that we don’t always need tons of features on a slot to be well entertained. The batteries landed often enough to keep us on our toes wondering whether it was going be the big one. And indeed, it produced some impressive wins of 500x and even over 700x the bet when hitting five batteries in one spin.
