Nolimit City’s space-themed online slot game, Milky Ways, has a lot going for it. In this space, NetEnt’s iconic game Starburst is the standard to compare other space-influenced games, and Milky Ways seems to have taken a lot of stuff from that game into consideration. The music and colours used especially serve to remind fans of Starburst, and it is definitely a nod and a tip of the hat to one of the best games of the genre.
However, truth be told, Milky Ways is far better, at least where looks are concerned. We’ll get to the gameplay in a bit, but this game has been superbly designed, with asteroids floating about in the background and a massive black hole drawing your attention in the middle of the screen. The music is excellent too, with some definite alien-sounding themes mixed with more Earthy tunes to create a soothing soundtrack. It is definitely a relaxing experience if one just closes their eyes and listens to the music, but there is a game to play here as well.
Coming to the game itself, the betting options range from $0.20 to $100 per spin. The RTP on this game is a decent 96.14%, however, some operators may choose to reduce this to 94.24% due to the high volatility. It’s a medium/high volatility game, and when combined with a hit rate of just over 33%, should mean that players are able to bag wins pretty frequently.
Instead of the standard five reel, three row setup, players get 243 paylines, with three or more symbols lined up from the left to right will give winning combinations. The classic J-A card symbols are present, along with various coloured gems. These gems are very low value though, with five gems only giving players 2.5x of their stake, for example.
Milky Ways Features
The game’s features are where comparisons with other games can come to a halt. The first one, called Solar Wilds, is the Wild for the game. It appears on reels 2,3 and 4, and can substitute for all but the scatter symbols. The Wilds come with a multiplier of up to 3x, which are multiplied even further if more than one Wild icon is in play.
Next up, we have the bonus game, which is unlocked when the player lands three or more Milky Ways scatters. Three Milky Way spins are awarded when this happens, where two rows are locked to create a 5×5 grid with 3,125 win possibilities. Each spin guarantees that two Solar Wilds will land on one of the three middle reels, and if a scatter appears, another free spin is given to the player.
When a win takes place during a Milky Way spin, it triggers a Fusion Spin. Here, the winning symbols are locked and then a respin takes place. New winning symbols are also locked, and this process repeats itself till no new winning symbols are generated.
The bonus rounds are triggered once every 66 spins on average, but if you can’t be bothered to wait that long, the developer has included a Nolimit Bonus Buy option, where three scatters will definitely land on the next spin, for a price of 38x of the stake.
Milky Ways Summary
While initial impressions may make it look like the game is heavily inspired by Starburst, the gameplay makes it clear that it is anything but. Nolimit City has been an innovative game developer, and that trend continues with Milky Ways. The soundtrack and design are definite highlights for this game, and the developer deserves credit for these. However, the game is not a high-intensity slot game, and there are a few areas of concern. It can get repetitive at times, but that is to be expected in the video slot genre. Secondly, the symbols pay out very low-value wins, but at the same time, the max potential win of 5,664x of the bet shows that there is value in the game as well.
The bonus features add to the thrill of the game and are the major fun points. The hit frequency is pretty generous, meaning that players don’t have to keep waiting for these rounds to be generated, but with only three bonus spins, they don’t last too long. The Fusion Spins bonus is potentially exciting, but again the low symbol values can be a bit of a dampener.
In general though, this is a solid offering from Nolimit City, and shows what a good job the developer has been doing. The visuals and audio are testament to a great team behind the scenes, and this is a decent game for the general ambience and the potential to pick up a few wins on the way.