What are Super Spins, Wild Grid Bonuses and Horizontal Reels in slots?

It is common knowledge among the slots community that Microgaming is one of the giants of the industry. Producers of the first online casino, the company has a long history (in online terms) of producing slot games that goes back to the 1990s.

Over that time, the company has produced a huge amount of games and those slots have incorporated many different types of bonus features too.

Now of course, we are all well aware that many slot games will have similar features. Free Spins, Wild symbols of all kinds (Expanding, Shifting, Random or even Multiplying) and pick to match games are all very common bonus options. In recent times, we have also seen a number of other features catch the eye of the gaming public including the likes of Rolling Reels and Multiplier Trails, Any Adjacent Pays slots, Win Both Ways slots and of course, the ever popular progressive jackpot games you can find with the likes of the Mega Moolah progressive network and the Wowpot progressive network of games.

However, there are also some features that are generally one-offs, added to a game and then for some reason, not revisited in other slots in the way other features are. So, in this article, we are going to take a look at some of the more unusual features you can find on Microgaming slots and also, which games you can try those features out for yourself when playing them.

So let's begin with one of these features which first appeared on a game released back in 2018, the feature was called Super Spins and it appeared on the Icy Gems slot.

• Super Spins - Icy Gems, Reel Talent (Just For The Win)

One of the most interesting features I have seen on a game was the Super Spins bonus on the Reel Talent and Icy Gems slots by Just For The Win. When this slot hit casinos back in 2018, I did expect to see a number of other games follow suit with a similar Super Spin bonus feature, but as yet I cannot recall seeing this same bonus on other games (though there have been slightly similar features on other slots).

In the Super Spin bonus, players have to land three wins on the reels. This can be from any number of spins (you can land three wins across the reels on the 20 pay lines of this 5x3 reel slot on a single spin) but most often you will land the feature across two or even three spins.

When you land a win, the symbol that has triggered the win will be added to the Super Spin box on the left hand side of the reels. The second symbol that triggers a win is added to the second box and then when you land the third successive win, that symbol is also added to the final box. You can land the same symbol in these boxes (and indeed, for a better chance of a bigger win, that is desirable).

Once the three boxes are filled with three successive wins on the game, then the Super Spin will take place. Here all five reels are spun but the reels are only populated with stacked symbols taken from the three symbols that made up your Super Spin trigger. Obviously, if you have two symbols the same, or better still three, then you can win much more.

Triggering the bonus with three symbols is known as the Silver trigger, with two symbols is the Gold and just one symbol is the Win Big bonus.

Super Spins is an interesting bonus and I am surprised it has not reappeared in any subsequent Just For The Win releases and if you fancy giving it a try, then load up Icy Gems or Reel Talent now for a shot. Spins cost as little as 0.10 per spin but you can ramp that action up to 100.00 per spin if you are a higher roller and fancy taking your chances.

• Wild Grid - Crystal Rift (Rabcat)

Crystal Rift is a very good looking slot that combines a space age theme with a rather unusual theme of crystals and minerals all set against a very atmospheric and beautiful backdrop. However as slot games go, it was perhaps the inclusion of the Wild Grid bonus that had people most excited about this Rabcat release from November 2018.

The game does feature a Rolling Reels game, although in this slot it is called Bonus Falls, where symbols will drop down from above to replace winning symbols on the reel, but it was not that feature but rather the Wild Grid bonus that had people excited.

Rather than use a multiplier trail based bonus for their bonus, Rabcat took a very different approach. On each spin, one of a number of Wild Grids are chosen from a selection. The Grids represent different patterns on the reels. Then when a spin concludes and if the spin is a winner, if the winning combination highlights any of the sections of the reel that are a part of the Wild Grid, then this will become highlighted.

If you can then land three Bonus Falls wins in succession, then all the different highlighted sections of the Wild Grid will turn into a Wild symbol for the next bonus fall, which means of course you stand a much better chance of landing a win.

I felt this was a nice and unusual way for the game designer to utilise what was a pretty standard Rolling Reels-type bonus but then add a chance to win more money than usual by using the Grid system. The main drawback of this though was that it was so different to other slot games, and with the Grid changing on every spin, it became tricky for players to fully keep track of what was happening on the reels.

That said, I still like it very much as a bonus feature and you should give it a try now on the excellent Crystal Rift slot if you think you would like to try it too.

• Horizontal Reels - Rainbrew & Sidewinder Slots (Just For The Win)

One of the things I have noticed about Just For The Win releases is that they will often release two or even three games in a short space of time that are generally very similar and which feature the same kinds of bonuses, but then they will often not revisit those particular bonus features again (at least not for a while). That certainly seems to be the case here with the interesting Horizontal Reel feature that was a part of the 2018 releases Rainbrew and Sidewinder slot games.

The Horizontal Reel feature was in the base game and sat alongside the standard 5x3 reel game set up that tends to be the default setting for most modern slots. On the two games above, both above and below the standard reels is a Horizontal Reel. This Reel is populated only by certain symbols, known as Top and Bottom Wild symbols.

The feature kicks in when you land a Wild symbol on the top and/or bottom row of either of the five standard reels. Whether you have landed a Wild at the top, bottom or in both positions on the reel will determine which of the Horizontal Reels will trigger, or whether both will.

The Horizontal Reels (also known as the Sidewinder as the reel spins from left to right, rather than from top to bottom), is populated with Wild symbols and spaced beteen them. If you land additional Wilds on either of the Horizontal Reels, they can be combined with the other symbols on the reels to potentially land bigger value wins.

You can also activate the Horizontal Reels using the Free Spins Scatter symbol too, and if you do, then you will need to land another Free Spin symbol on one or more of the Horizontal Reels in order to trigger the bonus game.

This is certainly an unusual bonus and it can take a few spins to get your head around how the bonuses work, but they are an interesting way to play and as such, if you want to try the feature out, then either of the Rainbrew or Sidewinder slots are a great place to start.

These are just three of the less commonly used features you can find on Microgaming slots released in recent times, which one is your favourite, or do you prefer a bonus feature that is more commonly used across slot games?