Basketball Star

Sports have always been popular choices for online slots, and Microgaming's Basketball Stars game is another example of that theme. This is a part of their Sports Stars line of games, many of which look and feel the same. While there are some definite similarities to the other games in this line, this particular title also stands out for having some basketball-specific features. Overall, it's a solid game, but it's not going to win any awards for the most original title ever created. With that having been said, it's a great choice for basketball fans.

Game Layout

The layout of this game is five reels and three rows with the 243-ways format. This is used in all of the Sports Stars series games. Players select a total bet size based on multiples of 50 coins with this game. While we're going to discuss the payouts below, we should point out that they are all based on playing with exactly 50 coins. If you want to play for higher stakes, then you'll need to multiply the stakes accordingly. This game has a medium overall volatility, largely due to the fact that there are so many different ways to win on each and every spin.

Symbol Set

There are nine regular symbols in this game, and Microgaming. The first five are based around basketball players in action, and they're easily identifiable by the color of the square around the action for people who aren't familiar with basketball. The red symbol pays 600x for five, the orange gives 300x, the yellow is good for 250x, the green pays out 150x and the blue gives players a win worth 125x. This is a fairly flat payout schedule, and that helps with the volatility in this game as well.

The four low-tier symbols are different items associated with basketball. The gold medal pays 120x for five of a kind, and the sneakers pay 100x. The set of six water bottles will give you a win of 80x, and you can get 70x for five of the written play symbol. These aren't as large of wins as the high-end payouts, but they aren't down in the dumps either.

In-Play Features

Basketball Star is special in the sense that it has two in-play features that give you extra value. The first is a stacked wild. This wild only shows up on the last three reels, but it always shows up wild. This gives you a lot of extra chances not only for making the big four-reel and five-reel payouts that give you the best wins, but also for hitting multi-line wins that translate into major prizes awarded all on the same spin.

Next is the Wild Shot feature. This feature is triggered on random spins, and there's nothing specifically that you need to do to trigger this slot feature. When it's initiated, you'll get completely wild reels on the second and fourth reels, and you'll be guaranteed a win on that spin as well. This means huge payouts because that's a four-line win you're guaranteed, at a minimum, and they're being paid multiple ways because of all of the wilds.

Free Spins With Rolling Reels

During the free spins feature, you'll get access to the Rolling Reels feature as well. You can pick up free spins by lining up three or more of the basketballs anywhere on the reels. Three gets you 15 spins, four gets 20 and five earns a set of 25 free spins. The Rolling Reels feature gives you extra payouts by removing winning combinations after they are paid to allow new combinations to fall into place.

This amounts to a sort of re-spin feature, but what makes it even more valuable is that the re-spins are given multipliers starting at 2x and going up to 10x.

Overview

The look and feel of Basketball Star is the same as all of the other games in the Sports Stars series by Microgaming. However, this is a popular series of Microgaming slots for a reason. As you can see, this title is completely jam-packed with features and value, and there are a lot of ways to win sizable payouts with multi-line wins. Overall, it's a game we recommend for players who prefer solid gameplay and a high hit-rate over flashy graphics or unique themes.