What Are Megaways Slots?
Megaways™ is a popular slot game format devised by Big Time Gaming in which the number of active paylines in the game changes on every spin, making for exciting and unpredictable gameplay. Megaways slots have a much larger number of paylines than ordinary games. It’s not uncommon for a Megaways™ game to feature as many as 117,649 paylines, or even more.
How Do Megaways™ Slots Work?
Sounds complicated? Ok, well let’s break it down like this. There are two key features that make the Megaways™ engine work.
- In a Megaways™ game the number of rows on each reel is not fixed. Instead between two and seven symbols are displayed on each reel after every spin. A system called random reel modifier decides how many symbols are in play.
- Paylines are different in a Megaways™ game. For a win to be triggered it is only necessary for three or more identical symbols to land on adjacent reels – the position of those symbols on each reel doesn’t matter.
Based on these two rules a six-reel slot with seven symbols in play on each reel will have 117,649 active paylines (7x7x7x7x7x7).
The popularity of Megaways™ games is in part down to this clever game engine, but it’s also because of the creativity of the Big Time Gaming team. Games like Bonanza, White Rabbit and Monopoly combine the basic Megaways™ format with stunning themes, artwork and features. They are also highly volatile and appeal to a particular type of thrill-seeking slot player who enjoys the taste of high-risk gambling.
What Other Features Do Megaways™ Slots Have?
It’s not just this unique reel system that has made Megaways™ games so popular. Big Time Gaming have combined this new game engine with a set of features that make for thrilling gameplay when they combine to full affect. You will often find Megaways™ slots use these game features:
- Cascading Wins – After every spin the winning symbols on the reels are removed and new ones dropped into their place. If another win occurs then the process repeats, and again until no more wins are created.
- Free Spins – A bonus round of free spins is set up by landing special scatter symbols in the base game. With enough you’ll set up free spins with additional reel enhancements.
- Progressive Multipliers – In classic Megaways™ slots like Bonanza, a win multiplier comes into play during each sequence of cascades. With each cascade the multiplier increases by 1x. In the free spins round it does not re-set between spins. That means it can increase without limit and drive spectacular payouts.
- High Variance – Without question Megaways™ games are some of the most volatile slots you can play online. That means the payouts will be infrequent, but when they hit they can are potentially big.
