With around 80% of consumers playing video games in 2024, it’s self-evident that a lot of people are going to be looking for more information about gaming and trying to understand different mechanics that they haven’t encountered before.
If you’ve ever clicked on the “slots” category at your favorite online casino, you’ll have noticed that there are games upon games upon games upon games. You might think, yes, but a slot game is a slot game. How different can they be from each other?
Well, the basic mechanics certainly stay the same for most of these titles across the board. You’ll be hitting “spin,” watching the reels whirl around, and waiting to see how the symbols line up in pretty much every game, with the wide variety of themes adding flavor and freshness without changing the core mechanics.
However, there are things that create a lot of differences in today’s world of slot machines, and it’s worth understanding the features and bonuses you might come across!
Learning How To Spot Features
Open any modern list of slots games and you’ll notice something about them: there are different features associated with different titles. Things like Hold & Win, Expanding Reels, Wilds – these can seem a little daunting to someone not familiar with slots titles. You’ve got a few different options for getting into this world and finding your feet.
Firstly, you can look up guides related to the genre you want to play. Maybe specific categories of slots grab your eye. You might decide to look up how to play fruit slots. You’ll find all sorts of high-quality guidance online that tells you everything from how fruit slots work to what the different symbols may mean. This genre is phenomenally popular in the slots world, thanks to a combination of classic imagery (lemons and cherries, anybody?) and modern takes on the same vibe, and lots of people want to learn how to play these games.
In most cases, you’ll just need to pick your game, run over the rules briefly, set your bet amount, and get spinning. It’s that simple!
And of course, this category is very well-loved. There’s something especially compelling about bright, juicy-looking fruits that taps into the brain and encourages us to try these games out. Watermelons, grapes, cherries, and lemons are a great example of this, as you’ll see in the post about Fruity x125 below.
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Is it because they look healthy? Is it because they’re such familiar images? Is it just because they’re light-hearted, vibrant, fun? The answer to why these slots are so attractive probably does differ from one person to the next, but whatever it might be, there’s no question that fruity slots have captivated us, and learning to play them is often very easy.
But what about things like bonus features and additional mechanics? As mentioned, there are quite a few, so let’s figure out what these are and how they affect gameplay on a deeper level than the theme.
Features To Watch For
What are the top features you’re likely to see in slots games in 2025? Here’s a breakdown.
Wilds
Here, the basic premise is that you can form a winning combination by substituting a wild symbol for a winning one. You’ll need to read the help section on the game to get to grips with how it functions for each unique title, but this can be a great way to make your gameplay more flexible and more fun.
Multipliers
Simply named, multipliers let you multiply your wager by a specific number shown on the screen. This can be a great way to turn a small prize into a big one, which makes this kind of slot particularly attractive and engaging.
Hold & Win
Hold & Win offers a fun new approach: if you get a reel that has some winning symbols but not enough, you may be able to “hold” them in place while you respin the rest. This increases your chances of winning because you only need to land the lucky symbols in a small number of places – the rest are already filled.
Scatter Symbols
If your game has Scatter symbols, you might have the chance to get to an exciting bonus round. In most cases, Scatters can appear anywhere on the game’s reel, and when you get enough, you’ll unlock a bonus or extra feature, sometimes consisting of free spins to keep the gameplay fresh and exciting.
Cascading Reels
With this kind of game, new symbols cascade in from above after your spin has finished, replacing others and increasing your chances of winning. It can result in you winning multiple times on a single spin because any winning symbols will be removed – giving more space for new ones to take their place and hopefully trigger another win.
Progressive Jackpot Slots
An attractive option for those who live by go-big-or-go-home, Progressive Jackpot Slots have a jackpot that grows larger with every wager placed. This might be on a single machine or across a network, so it can get very big indeed. These slots tend not to pay out very often, but the prizes are unquestionably appealing!
Wrap-Up
Hopefully, that’s given you a better sense of what might be going on in the world of slots, and how you can make the most of the different features when you play. These subtly change the mechanics of the game, boosting your win chances in a variety of ways, or introducing fun new features – so it’s well worth trying them out and seeing which ones suit your playing preferences.
You may even be able to search by feature, so if you find one that you especially love, you don’t have to hunt through hundreds of titles every time you want to enjoy it! Humans enjoy introducing variety into their lives, and these features take an already winning setup (slot machines) and turn it into something that’s fresh every time.
