Football Star Deluxe slot takes the game into extra time!

The original Football Star slot was a 243 Ways to Win, 5x3 reel, Rolling Reels slot that you could play from 0.50 per spin. It featured Super Stacked Wilds, a Free Spins bonus game, with multiplier trail, and a randomly triggered base game bonus that could turn reels Wild and land you a guaranteed win.

Microgaming handed this basic game to Stormcraft Studios a little while back and asked them to come up with a new and improved version. The result is Football Star Deluxe, which was released on the 28^th May. To get a general feel for the game, and I have to say that the end result is pretty impressive.

We have a 5x5 reel set and spins start at just 0.18 (although to play all 88 lines, your minimum bet will be 0.88). The bonuses are very similar to what is in the original game and of course Rolling Reels is still very much in play in both the base game and Free Spins.

So does this new version of the slot improve on what was an already impressive original? Here's what we found out.

Overview

• Game: Football Star Deluxe
• Developer: Stormcraft Studios (for Microgaming)
• Reels: 5x5
• Pay Lines: 88 (18, 38 and 68 lines also selectable)
• Minimum Bet: 0.18 (0.88 for all pay lines in play)
• Maximum Bet: 44.00
• Jackpot: 3,200x
• Free Spins Bonus: Yes
• Other Bonuses: Yes
• Progressive: No
• Volatility: Medium

Presentation

The presentation of the Football Stars Deluxe slot is perhaps a bit more muted than the original game. The stadium is blurred out to bring the focus on the reels and the symbols on the reels have all been given a bit of a revamp. The sound on the slot, crowd effects and the occasional commentator comment, are very similar to the original but again have just been tweaked.

You can see the different pay line options on the left of the reels, but I would suggest 88 is the best option to play. The 5x5 reels are centre screen with the controls to the right. Autoplay and Quickspins are available if you want to use them.

There's no mistaking that this is a Football Stars slot game though. Stormcraft Studios have wisely decided that evolution, not revolution was the way to go with this popular game and I think it works well, certainly in terms of how the game looks and sounds.

Football Star Deluxe slot video

Where can I play the revamped Football Star Deluxe slot?

You can play the Football Star Deluxe slot at any of the Mega Moolah casinos on the Where to Play page, Bonus page, Rewards page or Country page.

What is on the reels?

As we have mentioned before, the symbols on the reels are similar to the original Football Star slot, but have been given a lick of paint and a polish this time around. There are nine standard symbols on the reels and not a playing card in sight, which is nice to see.

The boots, the football shirt and the football match in progress are the three lower value symbols. Higher value symbols come in the form of the referee and five different players in various football poses. The player with the star next to them is the high value symbol, offering around 27x your bet as the top prize.

Wins start off very small, at just a fraction of your bet but four and five symbol wins do pay considerably more and it is worth noting that symbols can be stacked, so you can win across multiple pay lines to increase the value of the win, and also with different symbols on the same spin too.

There are two other symbols on the reels in the base game, the Wild and Scatter which are linked to the main bonus features below.

Wild features

In the base game the Wilds are only available on the third, fourth and fifth reels and they can be Super-Stacked on the reels. You can land some great value wins if you can hit some matching symbols on the first two reels, with a few Wilds on the remaining three reels.

There is also a Striking Wild bonus which can randomly trigger in the base game. When this occurs a footballer will appear on the screen and will turn either reel 2, 3 or 4 entirely Wild to guarantee you a win. Furthermore, while the bonus is in play, the reel will remain wild for any subsequent rolls you get in the bonus feature.

Free Spins features

The trophy symbol is the in game Scatter and if you can land three or more of these across the reels, then you trigger 12 Free Spins, which also has Growing Wilds and a Multiplier Trail bonus in play.

In Free Spins, each Rolling Reel win you trigger will move the Multiplier Trail onto the next level, which goes from 2x the standard amount to 8x the standard win. The more of these Rolling Reels wins you can land, the better the potential value of your win could be.

In addition in Free Spins, you also have Super Stacked Wilds on the second reel, as well as the third, fourth and fifth reels and each spin you have in the bonus round sees these stacks grow by one.

Best feature of the Football Star Deluxe slot

What I like about Stormcraft Studio's take with this game is that they have not been afraid to keep the vast majority of what made the original Football Stars slot so popular in this new game, and just tweaked it a little. The Free Spins bonus is undoubtedly the star of the slot, it is the way you can win the most amount of money in the game by far, but the other bonuses and the new 5x5 reel set do vive this game fresh appeal, especially if you have played the original a great deal and are looking for a fresh footballing challenge.

Conclusion

My one gripe with this slot when I did the playthrough and in the review was the lack of a multiplier trail in the base game. I think that omission is a bit of an oversight, especially when you consider you have more symbols on the reels, but fewer pay lines than the original. However, it is not an own goal as such as this is very much a very good slot to play. It offers a fresh challenge to the original but retains all the playability an enjoyment that was a key factor in the original game's popularity. Stormcraft may have just made a few small changes and given the game a lick of paint, but in truth, that was all it really needed to give it fresh appeal.