You have to wonder if King, the developers of the Candy Crush mobile game, had any idea what they were about to unleash when they first published their record-breaking product around a decade ago. Candy Crush gave birth to a slew of clones and also inspired many full-on console video games, as well as, of course – online slots. The latest such game is Candy Stars, a beautifully presented new game which is the work of our ever-reliable friends over at Pragmatic Play. The game features 576 pay ways, a 5,000x bet maximum win, and a 96.47% RTP.
As far as the feature set is concerned, this is a rolling reels game – known as “tumbling reels” in Pragmatic Play’s language, meaning that you can win several times from a single paid spin. There is also a special top row, the only place on the reel set where the star-shaped wild symbols can land. How is that a feature, exactly? Ah, glad you asked! Those star-shaped wilds are rare because they are also sticky symbols that will remain in place for all subsequent tumbles, only disappearing at the start of the following paid spin. The main bonus round is a free spins feature which is triggered by hitting three diamond scatter symbols or by using the bonus buy facility at the cost of 80x the regular bet.
Do you love a candy-themed game? Or do they make you feel hungry? If you aren’t sure, you could try our free demo slot of Candy Stars, available to play below, and see how it goes!
| Provider | Pragmatic Play |
| Reels | 5 |
| Rows | 3 |
| Paylines | 576 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.20 - 100 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 5,000x |
| Bonus Buy | Yes |
| RTP | 96.47% |
| Our Rating | 7.1 |
Candy Stars Slot Casino Bonuses
Candy Stars Slot Free Play
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Candy Stars Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
Remember I asked in the opening paragraph if the developers of Candy Crush had any idea just what kind of sensation they were about to unleash when they published their game? How about this for a test… let’s look at how many online slots there now are with “candy” in the title. Perhaps you fancy Candy Cashcades? Or a trip to Candy Village? What about a Candy Burst or a Candy Bonanza? I think you may be starting to get the idea now, yes? There are pages and pages of such games listed here at demoslot and dozens more candy-themed games that don’t have the word in the title, too. It’s pretty crazy if I’m honest!
Of course, it doesn’t matter how great a slot game looks if the payouts are poor, so how does Pragmatic Play’s new release stack up in that regard? We’ll start with the purple sweet, worth 7.5x your bet for a full pay way of five-of-a-kind, followed by the red jelly at 3x, the green sweet at 2.5x, and finally the blue one, which will pay you 2x your bet for every completed pay way of five-of-a-kind. There are four lower-paying royal symbols on the reels, and that’s your lot – just eight different symbols. Well, there are the aforementioned star-shaped wilds, and the diamond scatter symbols, too, of course, but neither of these has a paytable value of its own, unfortunately.
The betting range will be familiar to players of other Pragmatic Play slots – a minimum per round of €0.20 and a maximum bet per spin of €100.00 are familiar figures to see in games published by this developer. The usual three-control wager selection system is implemented, too, meaning you can change the value of your bet by altering the number of coins, the coin value, or the total bet directly.
Base Game & Modifiers
The base game takes place on an unusually shaped playfield but take a closer look, and you will see that, in reality, what we have here is a typical 5×3 reel setup that features an additional three spots above the second, third, and fourth reels. Those additional spots are the only locations where the sticky wilds can land – more on that later – and also serve to increase the number of payways to 576 instead of the 243, which results from a standard 5×3 layout.
Sticky Wild Symbols
The sticky wild symbols can only land on the top row, but when they do, they will remain in place for the duration of all subsequent tumbles. The wild has a multiplier of 1x when it first lands on the screen, increasing by 1x each time the wild is used as part of a winning combination.
There is a limit of 128x on this, which seems sensible because I realised that if you were to hit a wild on all three of these spots at once, wouldn’t that automatically mean that you were guaranteed to keep on winning indefinitely? Sadly, I couldn’t test the theory, as I never hit more than one wild symbol at a time, but I’d love to find out at some stage!
Candy Stars Slot Bonus Features
The main bonus round is a free spin feature that is triggered when the three diamond scatter symbols appear on reels one, three, and five. Let’s take a look at it in more detail below.
Free Spins
During this mode, one sticky wild is guaranteed to appear on each of your free spins. Just as in the base game, the wild will remain in its position until all tumbles have been completed. The wilds will also start with a 2x multiplier in this mode, increasing by a factor of two with each subsequent winning combination (IE, 4x, 8x, 16x, etc.).
Hitting three scatter symbols during this mode will add five free spins to your remaining counter. I hit a couple of these retriggers during my game testing, suggesting that they could be relatively frequent.
Bonus Buy
If permitted within your jurisdiction, you can purchase the free spins feature at the cost of 80x the regular bet. That seems like quite the bargain to me, as I made a profit on most occasions whilst I was testing the game. Unfortunately, I cannot use bonus buy features in real money mode, but if you are, I would recommend doing so in this case.
Candy Stars Slot Review Final Thoughts
This is a straightforward online slot which is a little thin on features, but that does not make it any less fun. I suspect that we will see quite a few players achieve the maximum win of 5,000x on YouTube during the following year, as it always felt tantalisingly possible each time I hit a bonus round in this game.
In fact, I fancy testing a few more bonus buys right now… thanks for reading; I’m off to spin some more!
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