The number of slots is increasing at a rapid rate, as online slots operators try to steal the edge on their competition. There’s a lot of it out there, which means designers and developers have got to bring their A-game every single day to keep creating games that players love. With so much competition between games operators, it means 2019 has been an exciting year so far in terms of variety for games players.
Part of the success of the online slots has been the easy access to them on mobile devices, which has made them convenient if you can’t head out to play on a slot in an arcade somewhere. Another is the potential to win big on them. Operators don’t have to employ staff the same way as they might if they ran a games hall, which allows them to offer higher prize money.
One of the best ways to keep up with all the new games out there is by visiting an affiliate site for online gaming. They’ll provide recommendations of some of the best slots sites so you can then go and try them out. In the meantime, let us bring you up to speed on some of best games of 2019 so far:
Safari King
Safari King is set in the African savannah and is a 5 reel game which features the usual suspects — Jack, Queen, King, Ace — plus 10 and 9 on the reels, as well as gazelles, zebras, cheetahs, rhinos and, the most rewarding of the symbols, elephants. It’s a good looking game, developed by Pragmatic Play and released in February 2019, and has a medium-to-high variance.
If you fill the reels with elephants and wilds — the lion symbol being the wild — you can win 1,000 times your stake. That means there’s potential to win as much as $250,000. Symbols such as the Bonus scatter make the game even more interesting to play: If it appears on reels 1, 3 and 5 at the same time, you’ll receive access to the free spins feature.
Gemtastic
Red Tiger Gaming introduced fantastic little jewel-themed slot to online gamers in January 2019. This volatile game will really get the adrenaline pumping when you play it, and you can win up to as much as 10,000 times your original stake. The reels are set against a diamond mine backdrop, and it’s a 6 reel, 5 row grid. You have 9 gemstone symbols, the best of which is the orange one — Land 3, 4 or 5 on a payline, and you could win 1.5, 3, 6 or 12 times your stake. The rainbow W is the wild. Land 6 in combination, and you stand to win up to 75 times your stake.
One of the coolest things about the game is the chain reaction feature. Every time you hit a winner, the game destroys the symbols and replaces them with new ones. For as long as you keep winning, the chain reaction feature keeps going, and with each new chain reaction, the multiplier increases a level x 1. Payouts boosted by multipliers can exceed 15x.
Jumbo Stampede
If you’re a fan of safari themes, you’ll like Jumbo Stampede, which came out in January 2019. It’s a 6 reel slot from iSoftBet and there are more than 4,000 ways to win, which makes it both generous and appealing to gaming fans. The scatter symbol will unlock the free spins round — and you can win up to as many as 100 free spins — where there are also multiplying wilds. During this round, the Mighty Jumbo, the elephant, may appear and he doesn’t have to be adjacent for you to win — and when you do win, you win big.
The Wiz
The Wiz entered the slot world in January 2019 and is the work of Elk Studios. The game takes you back to magical, medieval times. You’ll see keys, broches, spoons and other magical artefacts on the reels, the most rewarding of which is the sun — 5 of these across a payline, and you’ll win 10 times your stake.
The Wiz symbol is one of the best symbols of the game. When 2 of these appear, you get a teaser of the Free Spins bonus game; 3 or more Wiz symbols, and you get the complete game. The player can trigger the bonus game again and again, and the wizard transforms low value symbols into higher value ones. As a result, you have more opportunities to win and to win more.
The dragon is a wild and lends an extra edge to the game. He adds a random multiplier of 2 to 5x to any payline he appears in. In the Free Spins round, he becomes a “Walking Wild” and adds multipliers to any line he becomes part of, again increasing the amounts you can win.
Snake
Snake from Live 5 Gaming, and released in April 2019, features 7×7 cascading reels and an exceedingly generous potential win of 14,000 times your stake. The game goes with a retro theme reminiscent of Snakes ‘N’ Ladders slightly. It’s all about the snake, though, who can convert losing spins into winning ones when it comes onto levels 1 and 2 and collects food with 1 or 2 blocks, adding to its 20 symbol length. As you chalk up wins from the snake, these go onto the game’s progressive level meter to get you into the free spins. Each win in the Free Spins game will increase the multiplier, which starts at 3x.
It’s only June, and it’s already been a phenomenal year for online gaming. The community has some splendid games, with themes such as medieval, safari, jewels, magic and retro, and which gave players plenty of opportunities to win — and win big — as well as just enjoy themselves. Operators are always working hard to provide new games, and the project teams behind them grafting to create them, so gamers can expect further online thrills and spills throughout the rest of the year. Bring them on!
