Starburst XXXtreme

Base Game

The XXXtreme Starburst looks pretty much the same as the original Starburst. However, there are some major gameplay differences. The 5-reel slot no longer pays both ways but on 9 lines and from left to right only. Symbols, too, look exactly the same, but NetEnt have increased the maximum payout for a few of them. Among them are the two highest-paying symbols which now pay up to 20x (Lucky 7) and 50x (BAR). Meanwhile, small standalone combos now pay a little less than before.

Betting ranges are still very flexible, letting players wager anywhere from 0.10 to 50 credits per spin.

👍 Tip: Starburst XXXtreme plays with a 20% hit frequency, which is 1.2%-2.8% less than before, depending on what version of Starburst RTP you compare it to. The wins are noticeably bigger.

Starburst Wild

The superstar of the game is unquestionably the Starburst Wild. Just like before, it appears stacked on the entire reel but only on reels 2, 3 and 4. This time, however, each one of them will have a win multiplier of x2, x3, x5, x10, x25, x50, x100 or x150. Get two or more Starburst Wilds to combine the multipliers for a total of 450x!

Another lucrative feature of this expanding wild symbol is the free re-spin that is also earned with each Starburst Wild. Even if you don’t hit anything the first them, you’ll still get a second chance. Every additional wild will add +1 re-spin, so landing three wilds at once will get you three free spins with three guaranteed wild reels! And now there’s also a second way of getting them.

Random Wilds Feature

The Random Wilds Feature only comes with the XXXtreme version of Starburst. It can be triggered at any time, even during the re-spins, and it can land up to all three expanding wilds onto the (middle) reels at once. Mind you, getting even a single such meteor wild needs quite a bit of luck, but it’s a nice surprise factor that doesn’t mess up the simple structure and the minimal feature stack.

XXXtreme Spins

There are NetEnt slots with the bonus buy, like Dead or Alive 2 Feature Buy for example, but this is the first game with the XXXtreme Spins. This particular bonus buy instance is tailor-made to Starburst and lets players instantly trigger a spin with one or two wilds for a fixed gamble cost:

• 10x the bet for 1 guaranteed Starburst Wild
• 95x the bet for 2 guaranteed Starburst Wilds.

Unlike a similar feature from ELK Studios known as the X-iter, the XXXtreme Spins will remain active until you manually deactivate them! Given that each such spin can cost upwards of 4,750 credits, this can cause some serious damage when such gamble re-bet goes unnoticed.

The good news is that the RTP is higher when XXXtreme Spins are activated. The return increases from 96.45% to 96.26%. It’s not configurable by casinos (for now), in contrast to the original Starburst that has not one but 8 different RTPs ranging from 90.05% to 99.06%.