Sparks Slots by NetEnt
NetEnt have a reputation of producing innovative and original slots and they’ve achieved this once again with Sparks. The game has an electronic theme, featuring neon colored swirling balls of electricity on the reels, these illuminating the reels.
This slot can pay from left to right as usual, however you’ll find an additional option which offers many more ways to win, while the wild symbol will mean many additional wins. Here you can add in additional ‘expanding cloning wilds’, these sometimes guaranteeing wins, while also allowing some huge payouts to head your way.
How to Win on Sparks
You’ll find two different options of how to play this game and you’ll choose these by selecting either of the buttons in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.
The first option is the standard play from left to right, where you’ll land a win when you land three or more consecutive symbols on one of the win lines. Your second option, and the one I would recommend to players who enjoy more winning spins, is the ‘both ways’ option, meaning you’ll win from both left to right and from right to left. The only difference between the options is the fact that the payouts listed on the pay table are double if you only play from left to right.
The wild symbol, which shows the letter ‘W’ in orange contained in a white ball of light, will substitute for any other symbol on the reels apart from the scatter. This is also the joint top paying symbol, as landing five in a row will pay 200 coins (all payouts listed here are assuming you are playing both ways). The standard symbols start with swirling balls of electric light in red, orange, green, purple and blue and have top payouts of 200, 175, 150, 125 and 100 coins respectively. Joining these symbols are the playing cards letters and numbers A, K, Q, J and 10, which are seen in exactly the same five colors as the balls of electricity and these have a top prize of between 50 and 30 coins.
Expanding Cloning Wilds
This NetEnt designed slot doesn’t have a feature outside of the base game, instead focusing on a highly entertaining base game. This entertainment is based on the ‘expanding cloning wilds’ that appear on reels 2 and 4.
When a wild appears it will expand either horizontally to the left and right one, vertically up and down one – or the worst case scenario of not expanding at all. The symbol to the left of the wild will now be replicated to the right of the wild, ensuring that you’ll have at least a 3 in a row win. If you manage to land a cloning wild on the same row on reels 2 and 4 on the same spin you’ll be guaranteed a 5 in a row win, as the same symbol will now be cloned across the entire slot. This sounds complicated, though once you see it in action a couple of times you will quickly know what to expect when the special wild symbols hit.
Eye Catching Neon Design
Sparks is a real eye catching slot. With a dark blue, space-like backdrop, the balls of light shine brightly on the reels, as does the title of the slot which sits proudly above the transparent reels. The control panel has the same neon-style effect, while the whole slot has something of a minimalistic feel, which works perfectly. The gentle accompanying soundtrack is ideal and fitting, adding to the ambient theme of the game.
20 Win-Line Setup
Sparks is a five-reel slot with a total of 20 win lines, each of these indicated by a small blue dot of light either side of the reels. The minimum spin cost is just 20 credits, although you can change the bet level from between 1 and 10, meaning a maximum spin cost of 200 credits (which will be automatically set if you use the ‘max bet’ button to spin). The coin value ranges between just 1c and $2. To the left of the spin button you’ll find the auto play button where you can set the slot to play without interruption for between 10 and 1,000 spins.
Overall Experience
You might imagine that a slot without any additional features outside of the reels might become a little tedious after a while, however this is not the case at all when playing Sparks. The sound and visuals make for a game which is simply a joy to play and the addition of the ‘expanding cloning wilds’ only improve things, adding an excitement to the base game that you won’t find elsewhere.