Barb’s Best Bets: Snowflakes In Spring? With This Slot’s Payouts, Why Not!
Wednesday, March 21 was supposed to be the beginning of spring, yet all over New Jersey, it was snowing.
With frigid temperatures and blustery winds, schools and businesses were closed and bus and train service suspended. Also, as tempting as a getaway to someplace warm and sunny would have been, that was equally impossible, as hundreds of flights were canceled.
Only a week ago, we were hoping to have seen the last snowflakes of the first quarter of 2018, but Mother Nature had other plans. One productive thing that came out of my time being snowed in, however, was that I uncovered a lucrative new slot game called Snowflakes at NJ online casinos to recommend as my Best Bet of the Week.
My first thought was that what players might really want might be a slot game with a theme that would be a delightful reprieve from the frightful wintry weather outside, specifically a slot filled with flowers and other signs of spring. However, the pickings were slim and I couldn’t find any that not only met my hard-to-meet criteria of potential best bet worthiness, but I actually enjoyed playing.
So I started looking at other titles, with no particular theme in mind until suddenly, quite by accident, I stumbled on Snowflakes by NextGen Gaming.
As soon as I saw that this NJ gambling website game has a Return to Player (RTP) of 96.58 percent, I knew right away that this was no ordinary slot game. Then I started playing (in demo mode) and was immediately riveted to the screen. I had a small win on the first spin, which was nice, but certainly nothing out of the ordinary. However, only a few spins into the game, I stared at the screen in disbelief as over and over again, the reels kept spinning and I kept winning, doing absolutely nothing! I had triggered and retriggered the 10 Free Games bonus feature.
When it was finally all over, my imaginary $6 bet had multiplied to almost $400!
An NJ online casino slot for all seasons
Snowflakes is a video slot with five reels, 25 lines, and three rows and medium volatility. The minimum bet is 30 cents and the maximum bet is $120. The wide bet range makes it an excellent choice for virtually any player.
Another standout feature is that even though snow obviously brings up thoughts of winter, this is a slot game you can enjoy playing any time of the year. The picturesque setting of tiny snowflakes falling from a starlit sky over a half frozen lake provides the perfect backdrop for the action of the game and is positively enchanting. Meanwhile, the soothing soundtrack won’t distract you at all from the part of the screen of most interest — the dazzling snowflakes and other potentially high-paying symbols on the reels.
There is no storyline, nor does the game have the player facing any challenges or making any decisions such as choosing between different bonuses or playing a pick ‘em mini-game. But Snowflakes doesn’t need any of those extras. Seeing your winnings soar in this simple, but visually stunning slot game is more than sufficient.
Snowflakes symbols
The symbols on the reels include 10 different types of snowflakes. You can tell them apart by their variations in shape, size (although none of them are small), and even color. Unlike the falling snowflakes outside the reels, none of the snowflakes in the game are white. Instead, they are blue, green, pink, purple, or multicolored. The highest paying snowflake has eight points with a little pink star in the center. Five of them across the reels pay 400x your bet.
In addition, the game has a wild symbol and a scatter symbol.
The wild symbol is a block of ice. It substitutes for all other symbols in the game except the scatter symbol to help form winning combinations. Five wild symbols on a payline is an unlikely but beautiful sight that will send shivers down your spine. The payout is 500x your bet.
The scatter symbol is a huge ice ball. Whenever one lands on the reels, the soundtrack intensifies in anticipation of what you hope will be more symbols exactly like it. However, one or two scatter symbols won’t do anything for you, as you need three or more to trigger the lucrative Free Spins Game.
Snowflakes special features
The Snowflakes slot game includes three special features, all of which can go a long way toward making this game not only more exciting, but also more profitable.
Icy Wild feature
This feature can be randomly triggered after any spin. One symbol on one or more reels changes into a wild symbol. Altogether, there could be up to five more wild symbols than there were before.
Wild Wind feature
This feature can also be randomly triggered after any spin. Up to five wild symbols (one on each reel) are added to the reels.
Frozen Wild Free Games feature
In addition, to make the Free Games feature even more profitable if a wild symbol shows up anytime during the free spins, it stays frozen for all of the remaining free spins.
The Free Games feature is played with the same bet as the player’s last bet in the base game. And you could be playing for free and winning for quite a while because the Free Games feature is capable of being retriggered.
The verdict
If your tired of looking at snowflakes outside, especially when winter is supposed to be over, I don’t blame you. But you won’t ever tire of looking at Snowflakes online or on your mobile device and the big winnings that could be falling into your online account from playing this slot game.
Snowflakes is currently available at the following NJ gambling websites: Caesars NJ, Golden Nugget NJ, Mohegan Sun, and Resorts. But keep in mind that this is a relatively new slot game, first released in 2017, so hopefully, other NJ online casinos will start offering it soon, too.