Cricket Star Pokie Machine
There are several online pokies themed around Soccer, Tennis and even Ice Hockey, but Cricket Star seems to be unique in its field which considering how popular the sport is around much of the world is something of a surprise.
It’s been released by Microgaming, who have quite a bit of experience in producing games like this, and anyone who has played their Football Star pokie will feel like they are experiencing a bit of Déjà Vu, as this is pretty much a copy, but as the original was a high quality game anyway, we’re willing to overlook this.
Cricket Star comes with 5 reels and 243 Ways To Win across them, while bonuses like free spins with the potential for several wins in a row, multipliers, random extra wilds and stacked reels should bowl over even players who aren’t fans of the sport.
Cricket Star
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Approaching the Crease
There’s not much doubt about the theme of this game, as every symbol is made up of cricket-related images, with none of the playing card icons that are so popular across many pokies. A nicely depicted background of Cricket ground with an evening game in progress off-sets the reels and the game title completes the picture.
It’s very well presented, with realistic images of the players in their national colours, umpires and the crowd in a celebratory mood, giving it a high quality appearance. It could have been even better if images of real players had been used, but then Microgaming would have had to pay a fortune in licensing fees and that would have resulted in a reduced Return To Player ratio.
One of the first things to note about Cricket Star is that there are no paylines in the conventional sense. Instead, there are 243 different ways that symbols can line up to create winning combinations, as any time the same symbol lands on any positions on adjacent reels, starting from the one on the left, it will result in a payout. The more reels the symbol is on, the bigger the win will be, with a paytable outlining the number of times the value of a coin will be won for each combination.
Wagering options go from 0.30 to 30.00 per spin which is OK, but high-stakes players may be looking for games with a higher maximum bet.
From the lowest-value images of the crowd, to the most rewarding symbol of the batsman, 3, 4 or 5 of the same symbol are enough to win, while a useful Cricket Star logo wild symbol can substitute for all the base icons to boost things even further.
In this game, wilds will appear stacked on the middle reels, which can complete several winning combinations at once, and there is a Wild Wickets feature that randomly occurs, with a nice animation of a ball being bowled toward 3 wickets that appear above the reels turning the one that it hits wild for a guaranteed win.
A cricket ball flying towards the stumps does the job of a scatter symbol, meaning that it doesn’t need to be in any particular position to equal a win. Any time 3 of them stop anywhere on the reels, players will win 5x the total amount bet per spin, while 4 scatters equals a prize of 50x and 5 scatters at once will reward 250x the bet amount.
The scatter also triggers a free spins round with 3, 4 or 5 of them being worth 15, 20 or 25 spins that start once the scatter win has been paid out.
Cricket Star features Rolling Reels, which have appeared on several Microgaming pokies and are a great way to earn extra wins for no extra outlay. Any symbols that are part of a winning combination will initially pay out a prize, and then disappear from the reels, which leaves empty spaces for the symbols above to drop down into. This in turn allows symbols to drop down from above the reels and can often lead to a second winning combination which will again disappear allowing the whole process to repeat itself.
In the free spins game this is further enhanced by a multiplier kicking in each time it happens and in the (pretty unlikely) event that players get 10 consecutive Rolling Reels after a spin, the win multiplier will reach a maximum of 10x.
Hit for Six, or Bowled Out?
Thankfully, the Cricket Star pokie is a lot easier to understand than the sport itself, with everything being fairly straightforward and easily grasped once play commences. It’s filled with extra features, with Rolling Reels and the stacked wilds being a particular highlights.