Megaclusters Slots

Who Created Megaclusters?

Big Time Gaming created a revolution in the online casino world with the invention of the Megaways slot mechanic. Some critics feared that Dragon Born Megaways, the original Megaways slot, would be too complicated for slots players given all the unusual gameplay and moving parts.

How wrong those critics proved to be. BTG released Bonanza Megaways which went on to become a smash hit and spawned a whole industry of Megaways slots. Players now have over 200 Megaways slots to choose from which have been created by approximately 50 different software providers.

Now Big Time Gaming is trying to repeat the trick with its Megaclusters game engine. It’s certainly a little different from your common or garden fruit machine. It takes elements of the classic cluster plays game engine but has added extra layers of gameplay to deliver an innovative and potentially exciting new slot format. Let’s take a closer look at just what a Megaclusters slot involves.

What is Megaclusters?

At first glance, slots that uses the Megaclusters mechanic look very similar to standard cluster plays slot. In this standard cluster pays games, you create a winning combination by landing a cluster of matching symbols. These cluster can usually be made up of matching symbols that appear adjacent to each other vertically, horizontally and sometimes diagonally. The bigger the cluster of matching symbols, the better the potential rewards.

Big Time Gaming has taken that basic formula but added an extra level for its Megaclusters slots. In Star Clusters Megaclusters, the action begins on a 4×4 grid which offers 16 Megaclusters.

When a winning cluster is created, a ‘reaction’ takes place and the successful symbols are removed from the game grid. It’s here that things are a little different and have the potential to become a lot more exciting.

Instead of a being replaced by a single symbol that drops down, each winning symbol is instead replaced by 4 smaller symbols. This offers even more ways for you to create an enlarged winning combination.

If these new symbols create a winner, more small symbols drop down from the top of the reels and the process is repeated. The ‘reactions’ continue until no new winner is formed. The format is super simple but the shape-shifting game grid can deliver some spectacular action.

Best Megaclusters Slots

With the Megaclusters engine in its infancy, there are a few slots using the mechanic. The first was Star Clusters Megaclusters with the second Cyberslot Megaclusters. Find out what each of these games offer including details on their bonus features, RTP, theme and win potential.

Star Clusters Megaclusters

The slot that got the Megaclusters ball rolling was the Star Clusters Megaclusters slot which was released in Spring 2020. We’ve already briefly looked at the gameplay and bonus rounds on offer in Star Clusters Megaclusters. Let’s look at what else you can expect from this pioneering slot in terms of design, RTP and volatility.

Visually, Big Time Gaming has kept Star Clusters Megaclusters nice and simple. The main attraction here is the gameplay, not the design. That’s not to say that the imagery on offer here is bad. It’s not. It’s just not overly flashy.

The reel grid is made up of brightly coloured gemstone symbols. They’re clear and crisp against the plain, dark backdrop. The gold multiplier wilds are bright and bold and you can keep track of any active multipliers in the meter at the top of the reels. You can see how many Megaclusters are currently active in the meter below the reels. You’ll see flashing lights as more and more Megaclusters come into play.

Accompanying the visuals is a hi-energy, techno style backing track. This electro soundtrack fits the up-tempo gameplay perfectly. A sweeping, orchestral score or something bland and generic really wouldn’t have fit the gameplay. Instead, Big Time Gaming has created a design aesthetic that’s delivers plenty of atmosphere.

Once again, expect developers to build on this base framework to bring in more and more themes and styles in the future. The Star Clusters Megaclusters RTP is 96.53%. That number compares favourably with most slot releases, many of which hover around the 96% mark.

Like many Megaways slots, there’s the prospect for extremely high variance play with the Megaclusters game mechanic. That’s certainly the case with Star Clusters Megaclusters. The volatility is extremely high. The potential payouts are too though. Awards of 23,960 x your stake are possible here.

Cyberslot Megaclusters

The second release to use this innovative engine is the Cyberslot Megaclusters slot. Released in late 2020, this 80s inspired game has a space feel. With a superb soundtrack, you begin on a 3×3 grid which displays 9 symbols. Each of those symbols represent planets.

A win is formed by landing 5 or more matching symbols in a cluster. The more symbols in the cluster, the bigger the payout. When you do get a win, the winning symbols split and react. Each winning symbol will give you 9 symbols increasing the number of ways to win. Reactions continue until no more new wins occur.

To help you, there’s a Golden Roaming Wild symbol that moves around randomly on each spin. Beginning with a 1x multiplier, the multiplier increases by 1 when part of a winning cluster. The multiplier continues to grow until no more wins are created.

When you land 12 or more reactions in the base game, you will trigger the Free Spins feature with 6 free spins. The grid expands to 9×9 in size giving you more ways to win. The Roaming Wild multiplier carries over from the triggering spin too. In increases when part of a win.

Each time the Golden Roaming Wild Multiplier reaches a multiple of 10, 2 more free spins are won. When you do this for the first time, the Rainbow Roaming Wild symbol is added for the duration of the feature. This increases by 1 when part of a win on the first reaction and every 2^nd reaction thereafter.

With some similarities to the first Megaclusters game, Cyberslot Megaclusters offers you up to 321 ways to win, as opposed to 256. With an RTP of 96.54%, the max win is 23,960 x your total stake per spin.

Kluster Krystals Megaclusters

Powered by Relax Gaming, Kluster Krystals Megaclusters is the first licensed slot to use the Megaclusters engine. Played on a 5×5 grid from 10p per spin, it’s available on desktop, mobile and tablet devices. To form a win, you need to land a cluster of 8 or more symbols.

With a crystal theme and set against a Northern Lights backdrop, it comes with a Tumble feature where winning clusters explode and to replaced with new symbols. This allows for continuous wins. With symbols appearing as singles, doubles, triples or quads, symbols next to a winning cluster will be updated to the next size.

With wild multipliers up to 10x, multiplies next to winning clusters are also upgraded. There are also 3 randomly triggered mini features which come into play after 6 avalanches. They remove symbol drops from the grid, upgrade visible symbols and remove single symbols.

Then you have the Free Spins feature where you begin with 7 free spins. With unlimited retriggers available, you can benefit from the above-mentioned extras including wild multipliers up to 10x.

Kluster Krystals Megaclusters is high variance and has an RTP of 96.49%. It comes with a 21.39% hit frequency rate meaning over a fifth of spins will result in a win. Finally, the max win is 9,921.7 x your total stake per spin.

Bonus Features

The Megaclusters format on its own can deliver some pretty exciting action given the potentially massive number of symbols in play. Big Time Gaming hasn’t just left it at that though. There are other bonuses and extras to get stuck into here too.

Take the Star Clusters Megaclusters slot for example, which is the first release from BTG to use the Megaclusters mechanic. This comes with 2 wilds rather than the usual one. The normal wild performs all the usual functions, replacing all the standard symbols in winning combinations.

Potentially far more interesting are the gold multiplier wilds. These also substitute for all the standard symbols when they make up part of a winning cluster. As their name suggests, they also come with a multiplier attached. Each time a gold wild forms part of a winning combination in a single set of reactions, a multiplier increases by 1x. It’s possible to land 2 gold wilds on any reaction. Get on a run here and the coins can really start to fly.

Free Spins

Free spins are one of the most popular features with slots players. Hey, who doesn’t like a freebie? BTG has factored that into the Megaclusters game mechanic too.

The free spins in Star Clusters Megaclusters are activated by landing 5 or more ‘reaction’ wins in succession. On offer are 2 free spins with 1 more free spin added for each extra successive ‘reaction’ from the triggering spin, above the minimum 5 ‘reactions’. For example, if you landed 7 successive ‘reactions’ your reward would be 4 free spins (2 plus an extra 2).

The action in the Free Spins feature takes place on an expanded 8×8 reel grid which offers even more opportunities to form a winning cluster than in the base game.

An 8×8 free spins grid means you’ll have 64 symbols in play to start with. Each of these symbols can turn into 4 smaller symbols. That means a potential maximum of 256 symbols which means there are opportunities to land some enormous Megaclusters with payouts to match.

Any multipliers that are live on the triggering spin are transferred into the free spins. The multipliers don’t reset in the free spins round following an unsuccessful cascade either. There are ample chances to add more free spins to your tally too. If the win multiplier reaches 10x, 20x, 30x or any further multiple of 10, 2 more free spins are added to your total.

Of course, the bonuses and features described here relate to the Star Clusters Megaclusters slot. As Big Time Gaming showed with their Megaways releases, there are ample ways for developers to show off their flair and creativity in terms of features and gameplay. Expect the same from Megaclusters slots where slot developers will take the basic mechanic and deliver some funky twists to deliver plenty of innovation.

Mobile Slots

One area where we had a slight concern about Megaclusters slots was playing on a mobile device. With a potential 256 symbols in play, would the design be sharp enough for play on a smaller screen device?

Thankfully, first impressions are that mobile play will be fine. The symbols are small but the technology in most mobile devices is now so good that they’re more than up to the job. That’s the case if you play in landscape mode.

If you’re playing on a tablet, the Megaclusters mechanic should work just fine. We expect there will be tweaks to the mobile games in the future as far as design is concerned. It’s started well enough with Star Clusters Megaclusters though.

Megaclusters vs Cluster Pays Slots

Standard cluster pays slots have become increasingly popular. We’re looking at the likes of Jammin’ Jars 2 (Push Gaming), Sweet Bonanza (Pragmatic Play) and Reactoonz (Play ‘n GO). For more options, check out our Grid Slots page.

The shape-shifting element to the game mechanic that made Megaways slots so popular is present and correct in Megaclusters slots.  With each symbol transforming into 4 new symbols following a cascade in the base game, that means potential clusters of 64 symbols. In the free spins, the 8×8 grid means enormous 256 symbol clusters.

The standard cluster pays game engine delivers plenty of action. The Megaclusters engine up that ante even further.

Future of Megaclusters

Megaways started with a single release and turned into a slots behemoth. We’re not saying that Megaclusters slots will do the same but we have high hopes for this exciting new mechanic.

Big Time Gaming has announced that a new Megaclusters slot is in the pipeline and should hit the online casinos shelves in late 2020. BTG has also confirmed that it has licensing deals agreed with a number of game developers. The likes of Blueprint Gaming, Fantasma Games and iSoftBet took BTG’s base Megaways mechanic and ran with it adding extra features, themes and styles.

We don’t know yet just who has signed the licensing deals for the Megaclusters slots but you can expect plenty of innovation and extras when they do eventually see the light of day.

Megaclusters Casinos

If all that has whetted your appetite, you probably want to know where you can play Star Clusters Megaclusters and future Megaclusters slots. Pretty much every online casino that offers games from Big Time Gaming will have Megaclusters slots available.

All slot sites are regulated by the UK Gambling Commission and aimed at players in the UK. You’ll find some tasty sign up bonuses there too. Casumo tends to release Big Time Gaming slots exclusively early so that’s a good place to start: