Star Dust Pokie
Nothing to do with the fantasy film of 2006, Star Dust is an online pokie set in outer space that has gemstones across its 5 reels and 40paylines, which line up to sprinkle winnings upon lucky players, while bonus features like free spins with extra winning chances and wild substitutions are there to add some sparkle to proceedings.
Developed by Microgaming, it’s perhaps not the most visually exciting pokie ever released onto the market, but it plays out a little differently from most others, so at least that’s something to attract people to it.
Wishing Upon A Star
There’s a backdrop of stars, planets and even the odd galaxy or two behind the reels, which covers the whole game leading to the effect that symbols are floating in space. To the side of the reels, there’s a win meter that triggers a bonus round, while to the left of the reels, players will see that this game comes with 40 lines.
All of these lines are permanently activated, so the least that can be staked per spin is 0.40, while the number of coins can be raised from just 1 to 10, and the amount of each coin can be adjusted up to a maximum of 0.50. When all of this is added up, the most that can be staked per spin is 200.00, which should be enough for most.
Clicking the ‘Pays’ tab to the right of the game, takes players to information about how the bonus features work, as well as details about what they can win when 3 or more of the same symbol come to a stop across a line, on sequential reels running from the left side.
Anyone who has played a Microgamingpokie before will be very familiar with the playing card 10, J, Q, K and A symbols that make up the lower value icons of Star Dust. Some people may prefer to see unique images across the game and it’s a pity they haven’t at least made some effort to customise them to fit in with the theme.
Thankfully the higher value symbols are all unique and come in the form of blue, green, orange and red gems. Even these aren’t exactly stunning to look at, but some of the payouts that come from landing them across the reels are impressive, so who’s complaining?
Star Dust
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Bonus Features
The Star Dust logo acts as a wild symbol, with a couple of jobs to do, starting with paying out some of the highest wins of the game when it lands across a line. It will also substitute for all except the scatter if needed to complete winning lines and to help in this duty, it will appear stacked several high on a reel, potentially making up multiple wins in a single spin.
There’s a free spins round that’s guaranteed to be triggered if the game is played for long enough and the galaxy symbol is the way to unlock it. When this symbol lands on reel 3 it will take a gem off each reel, but only if one has stopped on the reel following a spin, and move it over to the Star Dust Meter to the right of the game.
Once all 10 section of this are filled up, the free spins begin, with players getting the same number of spins as the number in the meter. The minimum number of spins is 10, but if all reels had a gem on them at the point where the meter was filled, it’s possible to get 13 free spins.
To help this to be a more rewarding round, they play out on a new set of reels with 1024 paylines which is a fancy way of saying that any time symbols appear on adjacent reels running form the left, players will win something.
Radiant Respins are also in effect here and any time players land a winning row of 3 symbols, reels 4 and 5 will spin again to potentially turn it into a line of 5 for a bigger prize, while just the fifth reel will spin again if a line of 4 is landed.
The Verdict
Despite a somewhat retro appearance, Star Dust has a couple of up to date features which manage to overcome a dated design. It can take a while to fill the Star Dust Meter but it’s well worth the wait, as the free spins with extra lines and Respins should deliver some nice payouts.
If there’s any real criticism of this pokie then it’s to do with the same old playing card symbols being used, with no attempt to give them any real style.