Electric Burst Slots
Electric Burst is a 5-reel video slot operated by Merkur. The easy-to-play casino game dispenses with anything so trifling as a “theme”, preferring to supply players with a gambling experience more or less mimicking those freely available in the pre-digital age.
Bonus games? Nah, nothing to see here. Electric Burst features 3 rows and 10 fixed win lines, with stakes ranging from 0.5 to 10 credits per spin. The game’s expected return-to-player stat is 96%; this figure represents the long-term theoretical pay-out for the game.
No Cards but Loadsa Gems!
There are pros and cons to every slot game. One of the pros of Electric Burst is that there are no playing card icons on the board. Such symbols almost always detract from the gaming experience, as they appear on so many slots.
However, the con of this title – from a visual point of view – is that every single icon – bar one – is a different coloured gemstone. The symbols are unique enough for the player to quickly get up to speed on what each represents; but there’s not a whole lot of differentiation.
The icons comprise a combination of round, square or oblong gems, in various colours. There are blue stones, pink stones, aqua-blue stones, teal stones, red stones, yellow stones, purple stones… Stones everywhere, in other words.
Playing the Game
In Electric Burst, wins are made by sourcing stones in matching combinations of three, four or five. All pay-outs associated with winning combinations are shown in the pay-table, and wins must be formed from left to right, starting from the leftmost reel. Only the highest win is paid per line, and coinciding wins on alternate lines are added together to supply the final result.
As stated, the game is easy to play and exceedingly simple. You’ll find buttons for Max Bet and Spin at the bottom of the screen, alongside + and - icons to regulate your bet. There’s also a Paytable tab, allowing you to quickly get acquainted with the pay structure in the game. As for the 5x3 reel grid, it appears on a simple blue backdrop. The gems twinkle and sparkle on the reels, before sliding downwards as the reels spin. While you play, a rhythmic dance track plays. In the interests of saving your ears from further punishment, just hit mute.
Oh, if you want to play auto spins, you can. You can set the machine to play 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 75 or 100 auto spins using the keys in the lower left-hand corner of the screen.
When you’ve decided how much you wish to bet, just hit Spin and off you go. You’ll find that the pay-outs aren’t exceptional unless you’re playing at max bet, or 10 credits per spin. With this stake, you can win 20 for three of the low-value gems, 30 for four or 50 for five. The low-value gems include the aqua-blue, yellow, teal and purple stones. Higher up the chain is the pink ruby, which pays 20 for three, 40 for four and 100 for five. The best-paying symbol of all is the huge diamond, which grants 40 for three, 150 for four and 500 credits for five.
The lone bonus feature of Electric Burst is the expanding wild, represented by the Electric Burst logo. The wild stands in for others to help form wins, and it can also expand to cover entire reels. If the Electric Burst logo covers the whole board, appearing on all 15 squares, you’ll scoop 10,000 credits.
Ladder Gamble
As is the case with many Merkur titles, Electric Burst has a gamble mode. To play the risk ladder gamble, all you need to do is click on the GAMBLE button (with ladder symbol) after a win, whereafter you’ll either progress up the ladder or land on a lower-value rung. The corresponding steps flash intermittently, and one can continue gambling until he has reached a maximum of 140 credits.
Partial Collect
It isn’t always possible in casino slots to collect half your winnings; but helpfully, it is in this game. By clicking the COLLECT HALF button, the stake for the card gamble will be halved or, in the case of the ladder gamble, lowered by one step – and the saved stake will be booked as winnings.
Verdict
Electric Burst is about as simple as it gets. Not even the expanding wild can save this bog-standard game from utter ignominy.
