Cricket Star slot: Microgaming smashed the ball out the park with this game!

If you have been watching the cricket this summer, then you cannot have failed to have been impressed by some outstanding performances and dramatic finishes.

England claimed the Rugby World Cup in incredible fashion thanks to Ben Stokes heroics and then the same player turned into an Ashes hero for England when he almost single-handedly batted England to an unlikely victory in the third test.

The Australian team may well have retained the Ashes but England battled back to draw the series 2-2 and all this bat and ball action has whetted the appetite for many for the close of the cricket season in England, but the good news is that you don't have to miss a single thing thanks to the exciting Cricket Star slot from Microgaming.

This slot is one in a series of sporting themed slots which are set up very similarly and use 243 Ways to Win in conjunction with Rolling Reels, a Free Spins bonus round and a randomly triggered base game bonus, along with stacked Wilds to keep bowling players over.

So does the Cricket Star slot smash the competition for six, or will it be out for a duck? We decided to take a closer look and find out for ourselves.

Overview

• Game: Cricket Star
• Developer: Microgaming
• Reels: 5x3
• Pay Lines: 243 Ways to Win
• Minimum Bet: 0.50
• Maximum Bet: 50.00
• Jackpot: 12,500
• Free Spins Bonus: Yes
• Other Bonuses: Yes
• Progressive: No
• Volatility: Medium

Presentation

The presentation of the slot is rather simple but it is nicely done. The setting for the reels is a cricket ground with the pitch at the bottom of the screen. The reels are superimposed over this floodlit scene and it does look very effective on screen.

The soundtrack is simple and basically consists of cheering crowd noise and the occasional burst of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" which is one of the more unusual aspects of the slot, but which is becoming more common in cricket, especially when players lose their wicket and a new batsmen comes to the crease.

Overall, the slot looks nice and sounds fine, nothing will blow you away, but in truth it is the mechanics of the game, rather than its looks that will have most appeal.

What is on the reels?

The good news is that all the symbols on the reels are all to do with Cricket and there are none of the playing card lows anywhere to be seen. Symbols include a crowd of people, an umpire, a team appealing for a dismissal, two batsmen running, a player taking a catch, a batsman sweeping the ball away, a wicket keeper, a bowler and lastly a close up of a batsman.

The symbols are nice and clear and are decorated in a number of colours which represent the different major nations in world cricket when they play one day or 20/20 games.

Alongside those symbols are the Wild symbols and the Scatter, which link to the main bonus features of the slot which we explore below.

It is also important to note that there is Rolling Reels in operation in this game and that means that when you land a win, the symbols will flash and disappear and new symbols from above will drop down into the empty positions on the reels. This can trigger further wins from the same spin and is a potentially lucrative way to increase the initial win on a spin for players.

Wild features

The Cricket Star logo is the in game Wild and this appears on the middle three reels only. However it is Stacked on these reels and this of course offers you the opportunity to land multiple Wilds on a single spin, as well as Wilds dropping down on the reels to replace other wilds when the Rolling Reels bonus kicks in.

There is also a completely random base game bonus called Wild Wickets, which can occur on any spin and which can turn either reels 2, 3 or 4 completely Wild and will guarantee the player a win when it does so.

Free Spins features

The Free Spins feature on the slot is triggered when you land three, four or five Scatter symbols anywhere across the reels on a spin. When you do, you will trigger either 15, 20 or 25 Free Spins respectively.

During Free Spins the Rolling Reels bonus is in play and this time, when you land successive Rolling Reels wins, you will increase the value of the multiplier applied to those wins up to a maximum of 10x the standard amount, which is a considerable increase on the typical win in the game.

Unfortunately, the one down side to the Free Spins bonus is that you cannot re-trigger the bonus from within the bonus round.

Best feature of the Cricket Star slot

For me, the best feature of the Cricket Star slot without any doubt is the Rolling Reels bonus. This feature can make even a small win in the base game increase in size if you can land the right symbols on those extra symbols that come down after a win has disappeared. However it is its value in the Free Spins round, when it has a multiplier attached to successive Rolling Reels wins, that it can really make a massive difference to the amount you can win when playing the game. It also triggers frequently and as such, you never feel too far away from landing a decent win in the game.

Conclusion

For me, Cricket Star really does bowl a slot player over quite nicely. The presentation is a little basic, but captures the essence of the game nicely, but it is the Stacked Wilds and the Rolling Reels feature that make this game so enjoyable. Add to that a potentially lucrative Free Spins bonus round, where those Rolling Reels win come with an increasingly sizeable multiplier, and you have all the ingredients for a top class sports slot.

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