Starburst Galaxy Slot (NetEnt)

The Starburst Galaxy slot is played on a 5x5 grid. winning combinations are formed when 3 or more matching symbols appear in a vertical or horizontal line, without gaps, anywhere on the grid. Known as Win Matches, each win triggers the Avalanche feature.

Winning symbols disappear with the remaining symbols dropping down to fill the vacated positions. New symbols then drop in to give you a chance of forming another win. This continues until no more new wins are formed.

Playable from 20p to £28 per spin, use the plus and/or minus buttons under the grid to change your bet. Non-UK players have an Autoplay function (5 to 100 auto spins) as well as 2 Turbo Mode settings for quicker spin speed.

The Starburst Galaxy RTP rate is 96% which is bang on the online slot game average. NetEnt has also produced a 94% RTP alternative version which will more than likely be used at most slot sites in the UK. Check by opening the game’s Paytable. For context, all demo slots at OLBG use the highest RTP setting.

Medium to high volatility, there is no hit frequency rate information at the time of writing. When it comes to win potential, the Starburst Galaxy slot game comes with 25,000 times bet max wins. The max win probability (i.e. the chances of achieving the max payout) is 1 in 50 million spins (for the 96% RTP version).

Chris Taylor

The king of slots

Chris Taylor is an industry veteran originally from Gibraltar. Having worked in the online gambling industry since 2004, Chris loves slots and has reviewed over 10,000 online slot games. Running a slots-focused website for 13 years, Chris is the go-to guy for everything slots-related.

With an outer space theme, the Starburst Galaxy slot is visually very similar to the iconic Starburst game. This cosmic sequel looks familiar but also adds a fresh twist to proceedings. With the same purple backdrop, the game dazzles and is just as mesmerising as the initial game.

Using electric/arcade style sounds, the soundtrack practically remains untouched which will please fans of the original game. On the reels though, it’s a similar story with the same symbols used.

There are purple, blue, orange, green and yellow gems, a 7 and BAR. The BAR symbol is the highest-paying awarding 250 times your total bet for 7 in combination. As mentioned, any winning combination triggers the Avalanche feature.

Starburst Galaxy also comes with several special symbols. There is the Starburst Wild which substitutes for all paying symbols and will appear after a win without a wild involved. The other symbol of note is the scatter which triggers the Mega Star feature (more details below). Below is a list of all symbol payouts and functions:

• Purple Gem/Blue Gem: 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 = 0.25, 0.5, 2, 4 or 10 x bet
• Orange Gem: 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 = 0.5, 1, 2.5, 5 or 20 x bet
• Green Gem: 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 = 0.5, 1.5, 5, 10 or 30 x bet
• Yellow Gem: 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 = 0.75, 2.25, 10, 20 or 40 x bet
• 7: 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 = 0.75, 3, 15, 30 or 50 x bet
• BAR: 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 = 1, 4, 20, 100 or 250 x bet
• Starburst Wild: Substitutes for all paying symbols
• Scatter: 3+ triggers Mega Scatter feature

Starburst Galaxy Mobile

Created using HTML5 technology, Starburst Galaxy is compatible with desktop, mobile and tablet devices. With a special Portrait Mode for smartphones, it’s available when using an Android or iOS mobile device.

Starburst Galaxy has 9 bonus features. With Avalanches that leave Starburst Wilds behind, all wins contribute to the Feature Generator: they award various extras including symbol removals, wild replacements, expanding Starburst Wilds, line transformations and symbol upgrades. With the Galaxy Star, you get a 3x3 Starburst Wild on a 7x7 grid with wins seeing symbols replacing with up to 8 Starburst Wilds. This can fill the Galaxy Metre for another Galaxy Star. 3 Scatters will activate the Mega Star which adds a 2x2 Starburst Wild to the grid with Starburst Wilds created from symbol blasts. Importantly, scatters may contain multipliers up to 25x which are collected in the Multiplier Collect Metre and apply to all subsequent wins.

Avalanche

When you land a winning combination, the Avalanche feature is triggered. The winning symbols are blasted off the reels with a Starburst Wild placed in the centre area of the removed combination.

If the combination has an even number of symbols (i.e. 4), the Starburst Wild will move to the central left for horizontal wins and the central higher position for vertical wins.

If 2 winning combinations intersect on the 5x5 grid, at least 1 Starburst Wild will be placed in their central position. Starburst Wilds substitute for all paying symbols.

Finally, if 3, 4 or 5 Starburst Wilds line up but don’t form a winning combination, the highest prize based on the Paytable is awarded.

Feature Generator

When winning combinations land, they are collected in the Feature Generator. Every 5-win combinations won in succession randomly award 1 of the 5 following bonus features, in order:

• Destroy feature: removes 1 or more random types of symbols from the reels.
• Random Wilds feature: replaces 3 to 9 paying symbols on the reels with Starburst Wilds.
• Expanding Wilds feature: this transforms all Starburst Wilds on the reels into 3 Starburst Wilds (stacked vertically).
• Line Transform feature: fills a row or reel with a randomly chosen paying symbol.
• Upgrade feature: this upgrades 1 or more random symbols of the same type on the reels to a symbol type with a higher payout value.

Galaxy Star & Galaxy Metre

When the fifth and final feature in the Feature Generator is triggered, you will activate the Galaxy Star feature. With the grid expand to be 7x7 in size, a 3x3 Starburst Wild symbol is randomly added to the reels.

After wins have been awarded, all winning symbols disappear with 4 to 8 standard Starburst Wilds appearing. Once this happens, any remaining bonus features in the Feature Generator will activate.

When the 3x3 Starburst Wild appears, the Galaxy Metre comes into play and is activated. Every winning combination is added to the Galaxy Metre. When it reaches 50, the Galaxy Star feature is retriggered and the process repeats itself.

Mega Star & Multiplier Collect Metre

The Starburst Galaxy slot game comes with Scatter symbols. When 3 of them appear on the same base game spin, the Mega Star feature is triggered. A 2x2 Starburst Wild symbol is randomly placed on the reels after the current wins have been awarded. All winning symbols will disappear with 2 to 5 regular Starburst Wilds appearing.

Additionally, some Scatter symbols may contain multipliers of 2x, 3x, 5x, 10x or 25x randomly. These multipliers are collected in the Multiplier Collect Metre which apply to all wins until the end of the spin and subsequent avalanches.

Elevate

Finally, Starburst Galaxy comes with an Elevate feature which allows you to activate certain bonus features highlighted above. Choose from the following features that can be enabled per spin:

• Bonus Boost: This increases the chances of triggering the Galaxy Star feature for 3 times your total bet.
• Mega Star: For 10 times your total bet, this activates the Mega Star feature. You are guaranteed to land 3 Scatters.
• Boosted Mega Star: This activates the Mega Star feature and Multiplier Collect Metre for 50 times your total bet. You are guaranteed to land 3 Scatters that activate the Mega Star feature with at least 2 of them containing multipliers.
• Galaxy Star: For 100 times your total bet, you are guaranteed to trigger the Galaxy Star feature.
• Galaxy Star Bonanza: For 500 times your total bet, this triggers the Galaxy Star feature with 5 awarded features from the Feature Generator. A random multiplier between 2x and 75x also applies.

If you’re a fan of the original Starburst game, you will be pleased with what NetEnt has done with the Starburst Galaxy slot. The visuals are very similar but NetEnt has added a few more animations and sharpened the graphics ever so slightly.

When it comes to the gameplay, NetEnt has been more expressive. For starters, it’s played on a 5x5 grid with no number of set paylines as payouts as awarded by matching 3 or more symbols either vertically or horizontally.

With winning combinations awarding Avalanches for successive wins, Starburst Wilds are added to the grid when winning symbols are blasted off the grid. Every win contributes to the Feature Generator which will in turn award various bonus features.

They include symbols being destroyed (and being replaced), random Starburst Wilds, expanding Starburst Wilds, rows or reels being transformed or symbol upgrades. It does remind me a little of the Quantum Leap features from Play ‘n GO’s Reactoonz slot.

When the final Feature Generator modifier is triggered, the Galaxy Star feature comes into play. Played on a 7x7 grid, you’ll see a giant 3x3 Starburst Wild placed on the grid. Winning symbols from this will see up to 8 regular Starburst Wilds added to the grid for more wins hopefully. The Galaxy Metre is also filled with wins here which can see the Galaxy Star feature retrigger time and time again.

Landing 3 Scatters will award the Mega Star feature. With a 2x2 Starburst Wild in place, winning symbols from this will see up to 5 Starburst Wilds added which may come with multipliers up to 25x!

With a 96% RTP rate, the Starburst Galaxy slot comes with 25,000 times bet max wins. The multipliers resulting from the Mega Star feature are the key though. This dwarfs the 500 times bet max wins available in the original Starburst.

In summary, NetEnt has managed to keep true to the original game aesthetically but had added features found in slots like Reactoonz to offer a new galactic adventure that will surely pique interest. However, I do think that Starburst XXXtreme (released in July 2021) is a better sequel though with huge 200,000 times bet max win on offer.

The Starburst Galaxy slot review was written by Chris Taylor from our OLBG Expert team who has written over 10,000 slot game reviews in an iGaming career spanning over 2 decades. It was then verified/checked by Jenny Mason, our prime Slot reviewer who has 17+ years working in online gambling, top UK brands. 

Jenny Mason

Queen of bingo

Jenny Mason has more than 17 years of experience in the online gambling industry and has worked for some of the UK’s top betting brands. She started at OLBG in 2014 and her role involves creating great content and looking after the marketing activity. Jenny is knowledgeable in all areas of online sports betting and has an interest in slots and bingo.