Beach Invaders made its debut on August 31, 2023, offering players an enticing blend of thrilling gameplay and top-notch visuals.
Before diving into the game, it’s essential to consider its key metrics. Beach Invaders boasts a 96.17% return rate, high volatility, and the potential for a remarkable x10,500 maximum win. With a math model that strikes a balance and the possibility of substantial swings in gameplay, the excitement factor is consistently high. In summary, it delivers a robust gaming experience that caters to a wide range of player preferences.
Beach Invaders is particularly appealing to those who value gameplay that seamlessly blends traditional and innovative elements. Even in its base mode, the game offers entertainment, but it truly shines when wilds, scatters, or other special symbols and features grace the screen, elevating the overall experience to a whole new level.
What’s it about?
The invaders on this beach are actually extraterrestrial beings from outer space. It’s a playful nod to the classic arcade video game, Space Invaders. In this NetEnt release, you’ll encounter a charming frog-like alien character. The visuals are well-crafted and filled with entertaining details, although we’d advise against trying the cocktails at this beach bar. They come with unsettling eyeballs floating in them, but the flirtatious three-eyed female alien seems to enjoy them in the bonus round.
The core gameplay in the base game revolves around the expanding wilds feature, and a progress bar can make these wilds sticky for up to four spins. In the bonus round, the expanding wilds shift to the left as their multiplier values increase. This dynamic can lead to impressive payouts of up to 10,500 times your wager. However, it’s important to note that this is a high-volatility game, and it can put a strain on your bankroll as you play.
RTP and volatility
When it comes to the game’s statistics, Beach Invaders offers a notable RTP (Return to Player) rate of 96.17%, which exceeds the industry average slightly. It’s worth noting that this game allows for customizable RTP ranges, providing some flexibility for players.
On the volatility front, Beach Invaders falls into the high category, indicating that you can expect longer stretches without significant payouts, interspersed with potentially larger wins. The game’s maximum win of 10,500 times your wager is certainly respectable, although it’s not unprecedented for a game with this level of volatility.
Gameplay
In terms of gameplay, the betting range in Beach Invaders spans from a modest £0.10 to £10 per spin, which might not cater to high rollers but should suit most regular players. To secure wins, you need to land a combination of 3 to 5 matching symbols on at least one of the game’s 30 paylines, starting from the leftmost reel and moving towards the right.
The frog-like alien Wild symbol plays a central role in the game by substituting for any regular pay symbol, helping you complete or enhance winning combinations. Additionally, this Wild symbol offers its payouts, awarding 2.5 times, 10 times, or 50 times your stake for landing 3, 4, or 5 wilds on the same payline.
Bonus features
The Beach Invaders slot features the alien wild symbol, which plays a pivotal role in the game, particularly when it comes to the progress bar that enhances the wild symbol’s abilities. Additionally, the bonus round introduces an escalating wild multiplier system, adding to the excitement of the game. Let’s take a closer look at these features!
Expanding Wild
In Beach Invaders, the wild symbols always expand to cover the entire reel whenever they appear. It’s possible to land the alien Wild symbol on all five reels. According to the paytable, this symbol awards 50 times your stake for a five-of-a-kind win. However, since it invariably fills the entire reel upon landing, a five-of-a-kind wild win effectively equates to a full-screen wild win.
Achieving a full screen of wilds results in a payout of 1,500 times your stake.
Locked Wild Progress Bar
The Beach Invaders slot features a unique element known as the Locked Wild Progress Bar, which significantly enhances the gameplay. Here’s how it works:
Positioned on the left side above the game grid, you’ll find the Progress Bar, which consists of four milestones: 1, 2, 3, and 4. Pinkish ice cubes, attached to random symbols on the reels, are collected to fill the Progress Bar. Once the bar is completely filled, you’ll receive at least one guaranteed expanding wild symbol.
These wild symbols are not ordinary; they are sticky and remain active for a total of four spins. Additionally, achieving each milestone in the Progress Bar has a similar effect on any wild symbols that naturally land on the reels during your spins.
Once the Progress Bar is filled and you’ve enjoyed the four-spin sticky expanding wild feature, it resets, and you can begin the process anew. This innovative feature adds an exciting dimension to the game, keeping players engaged as they collect ice cubes and aim to trigger the expanding wilds.
Free spins feature
Free spins feature is triggered when you land a minimum of 3 scatter symbols on the reels, and this grants you 10 free spins. During the free spins, any wild symbols that appear will expand as usual, but there’s a twist. With each subsequent free spin, the expanded wild shifts one position to the left.
Additionally, the expanded wild gradually shrinks by one position per spin until it reaches a size of 1×1. At this point, it disappears, or it may vanish if it walks off the leftmost reel before reaching the minimum size.
What’s more, the bonus round introduces a Shifting Wild Multiplier system. This means that the wild multiplier increases by +1 every time the wild shifts or shrinks. The multiplier wild enhances any win it contributes to, and if a new wild symbol lands on top of an existing multiplier wild, it takes on the existing wild’s multiplier value as it expands to cover the reel. However, it’s important to note that if multiple wilds are involved in the same win, only the highest multiplier value is applied.
Verdict
Playing online slots often leads to encountering bizarre and fantastical themes, but a beach bar transformed into a UFO is certainly a unique spectacle, even in the world of slot gaming. Beach Invaders has a distinct NetEnt vibe from the past, reminiscent of the games they used to produce before the era of Evolution Gaming. The theme featuring an extraterrestrial visitor on the beach is charming and brought to life with entertaining animations. Keep an eye out for the UFO that periodically sweeps by before disappearing into the sky with a blink. This game is one of the best slots NetEnt has released in months!
However, when it comes to the base game, the features might not elicit much excitement. It primarily involves hoping for as many expanding wilds as possible, whether they come with sticky properties or not. Typically, only one appears at a time, and quite often, it lands closer to the fifth reel than the first. The unique aspect of these moving wilds shrinking as their multiplier increases adds an interesting twist, but some players might prefer that they didn’t shrink, as seen in many other games. While Beach Invaders might not represent NetEnt at its absolute peak, particularly in terms of features, the potential to win up to 10,500 times your wager should pique the interest of adventurous players looking for big rewards.
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