Popstar

The only way to truly fail is to give up. If you keep working hard at something, you’ll eventually get it down. That’s the lesson we took away from Erik Segerstedt. He almost won Sweden’s Idol 2006, and went on to have a successful musical career.

And today, we’re taking a look at the highest award he’s ever going to receive – starring in his own slot! Will Erik succeed in wooing the judges and winning first place this time around?

Popstar Slot Review

Popstar is played on a five reel board, where each reel is four symbols tall. Instead of using paylines, the game gives you 1024 ways to win. So, you only need to collect three or more identical icons in adjacent position, starting with the leftmost reel to score a win. We prefer this system over paylines, which lost their only advantage a long time ago. If we can’t turn them on or off to tweak our bet, then we might as well use Ways to Win.

GiG Games’ release has two special features, but one is used to enhance the other. There’s a familiar free spins round, that lets you play between six to fourteen rounds for free. Then, during those extra turns, players can find and collect golden tickets which come attached to judge symbols. Once one judge collects enough tickets, they become Eric’s fan and transform into his icon. You can transform all four judges this way.

Theme & Symbols

The idea of a talent show and the dream of becoming famous using one is nothing new. It’s been used by other developers before: Microgaming’s partner studio Just for the Win used it in their popular Reel Talent slot. That said, it feels weird to play Popstar when you know the singer is an actual person who ended up in second place. It comes across as an attempt to rewrite history, and we’re not sure how we feel about that.

One thing that did stand out to us is how visually simple the whole game feels. Don’t get us wrong, it still looks cool. We like the stage design and the way the screen behind the reels lights up after a win. Having a crowd and the four judges be visible as shadowed figures facing the stage was also a nice touch. But this does mean the reels are smaller than they should be.

Which then creates a problem for online gamblers who choose to manually zoom in. The symbols become a bit blurry, and trust us, they don’t need to look worse. Everyone just feels a little lifeless looking at their static portraits. Animations help this out a little bit, but that’s a separate can of worms. The animations are fine and fluid for the most part, but some of them feel incomplete. Like the developer forgot to loop them properly.

How to Play Popstar

Popstar is played on a 5×4 board with 1024 ways to win. It has a very high volatility, and a jackpot worth 500x on each spin. Now, we know what you’re thinking. Isn’t that super low for such a high variance game? You’d be right, if not for how the special features are structured. Thanks to transforming icons, getting a full screen win of Erik’s isn’t as difficult as it is in other releases. Landing multiple is more than possible!

As you’d imagine, special features are quite tightly tuned. While they trigger semi-frequently, you usually don’t get any substantial wins from them. You’ll spin and spin, feeling fed-up with the slot – up until it springs a series of big wins on you! It’s not gameplay that suits everyone, but we like it. It does a good job of blending luck and strategic gameplay. Wagering low, and then increasing when you think a win is coming.

Click the stack of coins on the user interface to open a dropdown menu. From here, you can pick your total bet, which ranges from €0.20 to €10.00 on each spin. We can already see casual players celebrating in the distance. Though, we can’t imagine high rollers being too happy with such a low maximum bet.

Bonus Features

Special features can seem a bit weird at first, but they’ll immediately make sense when you trigger them. They’re the peanut butter to this slot’s jelly: allowing for satisfying, big wins to fill gambler pockets.

• Free Spins

Collect three, four or five Scatters to win between six to fourteen extra turns. Once the bonus has been triggered, you only need two or more Scatters to add extra free spins.

• Point Collection

While free spins are being played, players will notice golden tickets appearing with judge symbols. They’ll also notice said judges appear on each corner of the screen, with six empty tabs in their meter. Each time you collect a golden ticket, it fills the meter by one. And once the meter fills completely, that judge icon turns into Erik, and grants two more free spins.

Popstar Payouts

Popstar has a high volatility, and a jackpot worth 500x your total stake on each spin. The game’s RTP is 96.70%, which is above the current industry average.