Aah a play-on-words. You can’t help but love them.
So when IGT say that you can “propel yourself beyond the stratosphere for payouts that soar to new heights!” on the new Apollo Rising slot machine, you can start to guess the theme, right?
And with 8 rows high and 100 paylines, it is certainly something a little special, though not as cutting edge as IGT might have you believe.
The question is, considering that NetEnt’s new Stickers slot is coming out online on the same day, can Apollo Rising compete?
Probably not, and here’s why
We’ve actually almost reviewed both these mobile slots.
Stickers is available to play at Leo Vegas mobile casino one full week prior to it’s release online. So if you follow the link above you can see that we gave it’s review the full five stars.
Pretty controversial of us, but we think it works.
A wolf rising in sheep’s clothes
The Apollo Rising mobile and online slot, on the other hand is actually very similar to another already popular game; Wolf Rising.
Which, seeing as it’s both an online and mobile IGT slot game, we know, by our accounts, that it’s a 4 star game.
If you don’t believe us you can simply read the Wolf Rising review.
Still, if Apollo Rising is anything close to it’s cousin slot, 4 stars means that it’s better than average.
And if there is one thing we all know; never underestimate International Gaming Technologies. They usually have a trick or two up their sleeves.
An unfair comparison?
Actually… Yes. Because whilst it may seem like Wolf Rising / Apollo Rising are two of the same with their 100 paylines, actually there is a subtle difference that could make one soar above the other.
And it actually has more in common with Stickers game than you might think. Sure, NetEnt’s is a simple 5×3 reels fruit machine, with simple mechanics.
The Apollo Rising slot, on the other hand, is a 5 reels by 8 symbols high mammoth of a game. It has blazing graphics and animations, an in-depth theme… How could it be anything like Stickers?
NextCasino are giving away £€$8 free to try all their games till 31st of May. Hurry up!
Sticky Wilds and Free Re-spins
What are the odds that IGT and NetEntertainment both coordinated to release a slot with exactly the same feature on the same day?
Pretty damn slim, that’s what.
Still here we are, with two mobile slot machines that both have wilds that give you a free re-spin and remain sticky until no more wilds show up.
And if we loved the feature in one, why wouldn’t we love it in the much larger Apollo Rising slot?
Tell me more about the rising re-spin feature
This is unique to this IGT game (that we know) and we can see the potential for some truly out of this world wins.
Basically, this is how the Apollo Rising free spins work:
- You get 1 free respin for each Wild symbol that appears on a spin
- During the respin, the Wild symbol expands to fill the entire reel
- You get an extra respin for each additional Wild symbol that appears on a respin
A world away from Wolf Rising standard 5 free bonus game.
Why it could be better than all the others
The bit to focus on here is the fact that the slots wild symbols expands to cover the whole reel. And stay sticky.
And when we say expand, we mean across 8 symbols high worth of reels, and 100 paylines, rather than Stickers 25.
IGT have never been shy about creating slot games that can bring the sort of bold wins that most other software companies try to avoid.
After all, it’s the mobile and tablet casino that have to risk paying big wins like that, not IGT. It’s called gambling not just because players do it.
A fun space exploration theme
Plus, we have to give them this; the theme works well.
With lots of little colourful astronauts floating on the reels, taking up 2 or 3 symbol symbols worth of space, this casino game will at least have you smiling.
And with all this set in the depth of the galaxy, the rocket wilds expanding over the 8 reels, and the promise of fast paced action, it brings us high hopes that we might just fall in love with a new IGT slot.
We will just have to wait and see if the wins are worth blasting off about.
Where will you be able to play?
On the 21st of May at IGT casino.
We are quite fond of Leo Vegas, but only because you get 200% bonus and 200 free spins. Plus you can also play Stickers ahead of time, so you can see what we mean for yourself.
However, if you want to know who will be the first out with Apollo Rising, it will almost certainly be Mr Green casino. They love the IGT slots. And they also give you 350 in bonus plus 110 free spins, so that helps.
But if we have to say, right now, where we’ve been playing IGT games, we’d probably say Vera&John casino. But only because you’d get an exclusive 10 free spins + 100% up to £€$500 bonus.
Which with IGT, having a good amount of extra cash helps you play for the free spins, and the big wins.
And hey, you might as well have fun on Wolf Rising whilst you wait for Apollo Rising to be released.
