Online slots have evolved far beyond simple 3-reel games, as evidenced by the vast array of bonus features available today. Leading casinos offer slots packed with innovative bonuses that engage players and give more profit potential. They also provide extensive slot libraries, including all the most popular bonus features like free spins, cascading wins, walking wilds, and more. Players at casinos like Betzone can expect to find top slots sporting the latest trends, such as buy bonuses and pick rounds with hidden prizes.
While themes and graphics are essential for capturing players’ interest, it’s often the bonus features that keep people coming back spin after spin. Slot bonus rounds, special symbols, and other features, as highlighted in a comprehensive Betzone Review, add an extra layer of excitement and opportunities for big wins. Here are some of today’s most popular and profitable in-game slot features:
Buy a Bonus
One of the hottest trends is the “buy a bonus” feature, which allows you to pay to trigger bonus rounds like free spins instantly. Instead of hoping to hit 3+ scatter symbols randomly, you can buy your way into the fun. While purchasing a bonus costs extra, it provides guaranteed access to where the biggest payouts are. Slots like Money Train 2 let you buy the Money Cart Bonus round outright. The buy price ranges from 60x to 100x your bet, which makes sense, considering you might have to spin tens of rounds before triggering bonus features.
Gamble Feature
The gamble feature presents you with a simple game of chance after wins. You can increase your payouts x2 or x4 by guessing the colour/suit of a hidden playing card. Winning boosts your earnings while losing forfeits them. It’s a risk-reward mechanism that keeps gameplay exciting. Gamble features are standard in classic fruit slots like Cherries Gone Wild and newer video slots like Razor Shark.
Prize Wheels
Everyone loves a good wheel spin. Prize wheels show up after bonuses or wins, letting you spin for a chance at jackpot prizes, free spins, multipliers, and more. The wheel is divided into segments with various credit values or bonuses. Wherever the ticker stops after your spin determines your prize. While it’s random, wheels build anticipation and deliver rewards. Check out slots like Buffalo Power: Hold and Win for prize wheels in action.
Cascading Reels
This popular feature originated in social slots like Candy Crush and has transitioned beautifully to real money slots. Rather than spinning reels, symbols fall vertically on the grid. When you make a winning cluster or line, the characters disappear, and new ones cascade down to fill the gaps, potentially triggering more wins. Each cascade builds excitement and takes you closer to big payouts. Some cascading reel slots include Rise of Olympus and The Legend of Bigfoot.
Expanding Symbols
Standard slot symbols that only pay out when they line up can feel limiting. For this reason, slot software developers introduced expanding characters, which blow up to cover entire reels when hit. An expanding diamond symbol may only take up one spot initially but then stretch across all positions on its reel. This opens the door to huge wins from what starts as a small symbol. Sexy Hula King is one example of a slot that employs expanding wilds to crank up payout potential.
Walking and Sticky Wilds
Wild symbols that move around the reels give you more chances to hit winning combinations. Walking (or moving) wilds land in place, then slide horizontally or vertically on the next spin or cascade. Sticky wilds lock in their spot for subsequent spins after initially landing. Both variations extend the impact of wilds over multiple spins for bigger payouts. In some pokies, walking wilds come with multipliers which increase with every spin, substantially growing payouts. Classic slots like Secrets of Atlantis and new releases like Sugar Rush employ walking and sticky wilds.
As slot developers compete for players’ attention, they continue finding innovative ways to deliver bonus thrills. Whether buying bonuses on demand, spinning prize wheels or triggering avalanches of cascading symbol wins, these features make games more Interactive while rewarding players with big payouts. Slots will only get more creative in the future as developers dream up new bonus concepts. For now, these in-game features are taking slots to the next level and keeping players happy spin after spin.
