Convert spins into wins in the Rugby Star slot

With the Rugby World Cup underway in Japan at the time of writing and interest in the sport riding on something of a crest of a wave around the world at the moment, now is a perfect time to take a look at another slot game in the Microgaming series of sports-themed slots that consist of 243 Ways to Win and a Rolling Reels feature.

Having recently looked at the Cricket Star slot, as well as the new Break Away Deluxe slot, we are now focusing on the Rugby Star slot and if you have tried any of the other two games in the series that we reviewed recently, it won't take you too long to see just how similar they are.

However, with a jackpot of 120,000 coins to be won, not to mention a number of other bonus features available, how does the new Rugby Star slot fare in its own right? Does it offer something different to the other two games beyond the subject matter? Is this a Rugby slot you can scrum down with and enjoy over the whole of the season and beyond? Or is it one you think the ref would call a penalty on?

Let's take a closer look and find out.

Overview

• Game: Rugby Star
• Developer: Microgaming
• Reels: 5x3
• Pay Lines: 243 Ways to Win
• Minimum Bet: 0.50
• Maximum Bet: 50.00
• Jackpot: 120,000
• Free Spins Bonus: Yes
• Other Bonuses: Yes
• Progressive: No
• Volatility: Medium

Presentation

The presentation of the Rugby Star slot is very similar to all the other games in the series. The game is set in a stadium, which is nicely rendered and does look very effective as the backdrop to the game. The reels are super-imposed over the pitch, although these are not technically reels as it is a Rolling Reels game, which sees symbols drop down from above rather than reels spinning.

Bet's start at 0.50 per spin but there are 243 Ways to Win in play, so it is not a bad value bet. You can increase the value of your bet up to 100 times that amount if you so desire. The sound is a little basic with just sound effects used in the main game and it does feel as if it is a little sparse. Considering the setting is a stadium, it would have been nice to have had some crowd noise or some noise from the game as the backdrop too.

What is on the reels?

There are a number of different symbols on the reels and they vary in value and all of them, as you would expect, are linked to rugby in one way or another. There are four symbols that are lower value wins and these are the boots, the headgear, the stadium overview and the trophy.

Alongside these symbols are five that show rugby players from different nationalities competing against each other. These offer slightly better value wins than the lower value symbols.

One thing to note is that three and four symbol wins are generally very low paying on this slot and you only tend to make a profit on a win if you trigger a 5-symbol win.

Remember too, with Rolling Reels, winning symbols will flash and disappear from the reels and be replaced from symbols dropping down from above, which can trigger additional wins from the same spin (and this is a key aspect of the bonuses available in the Free Spins section of the game).

Wild features

There are over 40 Wild symbols (the Rugby Star logo) on the reels and these symbols appear on all reels except the first reel. They can also be stacked on those reels too and when you land one, or better still, two or even three stacks of Wilds together, that is when you can land some of the much higher value wins available in the base game.

Plus, when Rolling Reels kicks in and the winning symbols disappear, when the Wilds are stacked, this means that more Wilds can drop down onto the reels in their place, which gives you a better chance of triggering additional wins from the same spin.

Alongside the Wild symbols there is also a Wild Pass feature that can trigger at random in the base game. When this happens up to two of the middle three reels will randomly turn completely Wild and in doing so, will guarantee you a win. When this feature triggers this can see you land some sizeable wins in the base game.

Free Spins features

To trigger the Free Spins bonus you need to land three or more of the Rugby Ball Scatter symbols across the reels. When you do you will win a prize of between 5x and 250x your bet depending on how many Scatters you landed to trigger the bonus.

The amount of Free Spins you land also depends on the number of Scatters with 15 Free Spins for 3 Scatters, 20 for four and lastly 25 Free Spins for all five Scatters landed across the reels.

During free spins, any wins you land with the Rolling Reels features in addition to the first triggering spin will come with a multiplier attached. The size of the multiplier will grow with each successive Rolling Reel win landed up to a maximum of 10x the standard win.

Best feature of the Rugby Star slot

There are a lot of features on the Rugby Star slot to pick from when it comes to the best feature, I think Rolling Reels is what makes the slot so enjoyable and the fact that it triggers relatively frequently for a medium variance slot is a positive. However, the real winner is the Free Spins bonus round with that multiplier trail on the Rolling Reel wins as this can produce some of the much bigger wins in the game and that is what will really get players hitting the spin button on the slot.

Conclusion

Rugby Star slot is a very enjoyable addition to the sporting series of slots from Microgaming. It is similar to the other games in the series, that is undeniable, but it is going to have more appeal than to just Rugby fans as it has some excellent bonus features, a good number of wins in a session and perhaps most importantly, a sizeable jackpot prize that you can win. I believe this is one of the better slots in the sporting stars series of games from Microgaming and it is well worth a few spins.

You can play Rugby Star slot at any of our Mega Moolah casinos.