Features of mobile pokie machines
Pretty much all Australian online mobile pokies have similar features. Things such as the jackpot, paylines, reels, symbols and etc will be there no matter what pokie you choose to play with. However, there are variations sometimes, meaning that you will encounter a software provider (the lads that make the pokies) that likes to go a bit crazy with those features, but at a baseline, they’re all the same.
Let’s start with the essential part of all mobile pokies in the world, the reels, and continue on from there until we’ve covered pretty much everything there is to cover.
What is a Reel?
Let’s try to make this as simple as possible, shall we? A reel is the part of the pokie that does the spinning. A classic mobile pokie would have three reels and three rows, totaling around 9 symbols on every spin right? Those symbols have combinations that lead to winnings and that “cha-ching” sound we like so much.
But, the best mobile pokies in Australia usually come with more than three reels. It’s not uncommon to see five reels, six reels or in some cases 11 reels in a single game. The more reels there are, the better your chances of scoring a really big win, or at least have a small win on every spin.
Reels are the backbone of any pokie, without them, they’re just a stale image.
Types of Symbols
This may get a bit overwhelming for beginners. In a “normal” mobile pokie, players would find around 4 types of symbols, but now that everybody’s trying to be different and develop the “next best pokie in the world” it’s not uncommon to find at least 10 different symbol types in a single game.
Quite taxing on the mind, isn’t it? Well, don’t worry, the baseline here is also based on those 4 original symbols. Let’s try and focus on them as much as possible.
Regular Symbols
Regular symbols are always going to appear in your AU mobile pokie games regardless of who’s the developer and how hard they tried to be different. Regular symbols are the ones that appear the most on your screen. Imagine that you’ve just hit the button and spun the reels, what’s the symbol that you expect will appear the most? The K, the J, or the Q right? Or maybe one of the numbers from 1-10, it doesn’t matter.
What matters is that those Js, Ks, Qs, and numbers are what we refer to as regular symbols. They’re not the best to get, but if they get a great combination going, it could even lead to a jackpot, but on very rare occasions. All you need to know is that, as long as they make a combination, they’re welcome.
Unique Symbols
Unique symbols are a bit harder to describe because well, they’re unique. Pretty much every single symbol you can imagine, that isn’t a regular symbol is what’s referred to as a unique symbol. Pretty easy explanation right? Well, it gets a bit more complex once we move into the wilds and bonuses, but let’s stay here for now.
Some of the best Australia mobile pokie sites have games that are based on Vikings, Egyptians or even Romans. So now try to imagine that game, what would be the unique symbol? Well, for vikings it could be an axe or a longboat, for Egyptians it could be the pyramid or one of their gods, and for the Romans, it could be a senator or a legionary. Basically, everything that’s not a generic Q or J symbol classifies as a unique symbol.
P.S. They usually pay the most.
Wild Symbols
So, what’s a wild symbol, and why is it called wild? No, it’s not called that because it jumps up and down, it’s called a wild because it can take the form of any symbol on the reels. But let’s reiterate or try to bring an example.
Let’s say that your AU mobile pokie game is based on Vikings and has 3 reels. You press the button to spin the reels and you get a Viking on the first and third reels. In normal circumstances this would not lead to a win, but what’s this? There’s a wild symbol on the second reel, thanks to its features it can turn the combination into a winning payline.
The wild symbol can do so in almost every scenario, regardless of what the symbol is. The only combination it doesn’t participate in is the bonus feature.
Speaking of which…
Bonus Symbols
And here we are with the bonus symbols, the most desired symbols in any mobile pokies Australia can offer. These symbols are the ones that can help players make 100x or even 1000x of their initial bet thanks to the additional features that are always present when it initiates. But how do you get them?
Well, first you need to check the game’s description. If it has a bonus feature, it will most likely let you play it if you get at least three bonus symbols during a spin. But how do these features look like?
The most common one is the “free spins bonus”, which gives the players anywhere between 7-20 free spins with additional features.
There’s also the “rolling reels feature”, which lets symbols be destroyed if they participate in a combination, thus allowing new symbols to fall from the reels and make even more combinations.
Next, we have the generic “cash bonus”, which just lets the player choose one of three options to get a large bonus immediately. Needless to say, this one is the least popular among users playing mobile pokies in Australia or generally all over the world.
Finally, we have multipliers. These bonuses usually add a new symbol that multiplies whatever you win in a spin, they simply assign that multiplier feature to a wild symbol.
Overall, that’s what you’ll get from bonus symbols unless they lead you to a jackpot game, but that’s a discussion for another time.
How to control your game
There’s more to online casino slots than just pressing the spin button. Sure, the most important function is the one that lets you play the game, but let’s pay attention to the ways you can adjust your experience of the game.
At the controls bar, you will notice some buttons that have a “plus” or “minus” symbols on them. This helps you to adjust the amount of money per bet. The more you bet, the more you win, simple as that.
But it’s best to go easy on the AU mobile pokie games at first because you want to get as much entertainment from them as possible.
Also, make sure if the game has the “gamble feature”. It’s usually tucked away in the lower-right corner of the game and allows players to double their previous winnings by guessing the color of a card.
Good news! That’s pretty much it about the controls. Let’s now look at the types of themes you can expect.
Themes and design
It’s going to be quite surprising to read this, but most of the software developers that make these games, have very similar design and theme patterns. Yes, it’s weird saying this after we mentioned how everybody’s trying to stand out, but that doesn’t mean nobody’s following trends.
Pretty much every software provider, regardless if they’re making Australian mobile pokies, always target global trends in design and themes. So far, we’ve had around three that can be recalled.
These were the classics with fruits and cards, then there was the Egyptian craze, and finally the Viking invasion. Nearly every single pokie developer out there has at least one game in these categories, and it’s not something to be ashamed of either.
Some of the best games that have ever been made are indeed based on these design patterns.
What does RTP mean?
We’re pretty sure you’ve seen RTP mentioned on one of your favorite casinos, but it’s never really explained what it means. Usually, it has a percentage right next to it, which makes it a bit hard to understand for a beginner.
RTP is an abbreviation for Return to Player. Although it’s never completely accurate, it’s usually there to give you an expectation of what type of winnings you can expect from the slot on average.
Again, there are hundreds of Aussie pokies on mobile, therefore the RTP isn’t always accurate. It’s just there to tell you that you can profit from this game one way or another. You shouldn’t expect the RTP to be more than 99%, because that would not be beneficial for the casino. It’s usually somewhere around 95-97%. It’s actually quite a nice tool to filter the hundreds of pokies available online. But you should also pay attention to volatility.
What does volatility mean
Volatility is also a very important part of your decision-making process. It indicates how often you should expect to win something from a single spin. If the volatility is high, that means that you’re much more likely to win something, even a very small amount during a spin. But, if the volatility is very low, that means that you have to push through numerous failed spins to get to the big wins.
It has been proven multiple times that Aussie mobile pokie apps with lower volatility could lead to amazing wins, something next to x100 of the initial bet. But in order to get to those numbers, players will have to face dozens of failed spins that bring them nothing.
It’s all balanced in the end anyway.
Are mobile pokies the ultimate casino games?
We all know that pokies are not the only source of entertainment one could find on an online casino. There are things like live roulette, blackjack, card games and etc. Needless to say, there are more than enough options that one can choose from to both, have fun and make some money in a casino.
But some say that pokies are the best way to go about this. Is it true though? What are the pros and cons?
Pokies are very simple
Even though we took out sweet time to explain all the details about Australian real money mobile pokie games, it’s still one of the easiest gambling games to learn. All it takes is to read the explanation once and you’re good to go. Or if you don’t like reading, then playing a slots game for free for a couple of hours is enough to help you understand every little detail about their design.
Furthermore, there are no weird combinations that one can strive for, nor is there any skill involved. This gives players the chance to just lay back and relax as they press that spin button and watch the animations play out.
They don’t take too much time
One of the primary reasons why people avoid games such as blackjack or poker is because of how slow-paced they are. Nobody is trying to rush with their decisions in these games, it’s all about strategy and the way you go about using your cards.
The reason why people avoid it is that they could get bored in the middle of the game, forcing themselves to play recklessly just to finish it faster.
With AU mobile phone pokies one doesn’t have to wait until the game finishes, because there is no finish. You can stop the spins whenever you want wherever you want. Only a select few pokies have something similar to a progression level, therefore there’s no such thing as “quitting in the middle of the game”.
Much more diversity
Playing just one game is going to get boring over time, no matter how much money you’re able to make from it. When you’re playing something like blackjack or poker, there’s pretty much nothing that can be added to it to make it unique right? There’s a set of rules and if there is a change in those rules, it turns it into a completely different game.
With pokies, you get much more diversity. The developers have much more flexibility to make them unique. This could be through a different design, a completely new feature like an additional reel, or just a very interesting bonus level.
Overall, if you get bored by a single slot, there are thousands of mobile pokies Australia casinos are begging you to try.
No skills required
Although we mentioned that there is no skill gap in these games as an advantage, it could be perceived as a disadvantage as well.
Players who dedicate hours to poker or blackjack walk away from the games with at least a bit more experience, which gives them the opportunity to perform better in the future. That’s how we have those poker champions that make millions from a single game.
However, with mobile pokies, there’s pretty much nothing to learn. There’s no pattern that you can learn to use in the future, and there’s definitely nothing that can give you an edge over the game to generate more in profits.
It’s all about the entertainment here. The only advantage we can think of in this case is a deposit bonus or something.
Speaking of which…
What types of bonuses do online mobile pokies have?
There are usually three types of bonuses you can find on Australian casinos. These are the deposit bonus, the no deposit bonus, and the free spins bonus. They’re usually activated through codes that the casino gives to the players, and depending on how much you’re willing to deposit, it could lead to a completely different experience than other players.
Let’s discuss them more in detail.
Deposit bonus
A deposit bonus is not in direct correlation with pokies, even if they’re the best Australian online mobile pokies out there. This bonus is a bit broader, it covers the whole gambling industry in a sense because it has everything to do with a player’s account balance.
The most common version of a deposit bonus you will find is the first deposit bonus. This is where a casino offers to add extra cash to the money a player is willing to deposit on his or her account. Let’s take a look at an example.
Most Aussie casinos have a deposit cap of AUD 500 that they’re willing to offer a bonus on. The bonus will most likely be 100%. This means that if you deposit AUD 500, the casino will give you an additional AUD 500 to play with.
You can’t withdraw this money though, you have to use it for playing on the platform.
If the casino allowed you to withdraw these bonuses, what’s keeping you from applying from dozens of accounts and running the company dry then? The casinos don’t spend millions of dollars on these pokies for mobile devices for nothing, they expect to profit from them just like any business expects from an investment.
Let’s now take a look at the no deposit bonus and see what’s so different about it.
No deposit bonus
A no deposit bonus is slightly more beginner-friendly. As the name already suggests it’s a bonus that’s given to a player without them having to deposit even a single cent with the casino. However, it also comes with its disadvantages.
What you need to consider is that the bonus that’s being given to you isn’t virtual money. It’s real money that you can use to make real money from the games that you play on the platform. Therefore, the casino needs to make sure that you use it one way or another.
Because of this, the casino could choose a specific AU mobile pokie game where you can use the bonus and nowhere else. Plus, you’ll have a deadline to use the money. If you don’t it’s deducted from your account.
Some casinos also like to install a maximum amount of play funds before you can qualify for withdrawals. It’s usually five or 10 times the amount of the bonus, but it’s easy to achieve it considering how you’ll keep gaining more money as you continue to play.
This bonus ranges between AUD 100 and AUD 200 in most cases.
The free spins bonus
The free spins bonus is one of the most popular mobile pokies bonuses Australia casinos like to offer. Simply because it’s effortless and they get to profit from promoting a specific game as well.
In most cases, you’ll find this bonus associated with a specific game. It could be because a software provider paid the casino to promote their game, or they simply provided it with a discount as long as they had this feature.
The free spins bonus immediately gives the player somewhere around 20-50 free spins on a specific slot that they can’t use anywhere else. It’s a good way to gather up some funds on the account for free and then diversify your choice of games in the future.
