Video slot features like scatter symbols, extra spins, wilds, bonus rounds and multipliers not only keep players engaged in the slot game, but also often let them win build a small fortune for themselves; wouldn’t you agree? While it gets harder and harder to make informed choices about which slots are the most beneficial (and fun at the same time), an ability to classify slots based on various themes and features makes the job easier for players, and that’s why we are on a massive theme / feature ranking mission this year! We’ve set our eyes on the ‘wilds’ this season. Last month, we spoke about the best Sticky Wilds in the UK mobile slot market; let’s check the top 10 Stacked Wilds in town today.
What are Stacked Wilds?
Before we move on to the specific implementation of stacked wilds on video slots, it is worth defining them first. On a typical 5 reel video slot with Wild Symbols, one or more reels may contain a sequence (or a ‘stack’) of wild symbols. When players land on one or more reels containing stacked wilds, the slot pays out much more than a regular game simply because all the wilds would substitute for regular symbols and make loads of winning paylines. In some slots, Stacked Wilds are algorithmically set to occur synchronously or asynchronously, whereas in most cases it is random.
Stacked wilds often roll along with the other symbols on the reels, but in some cases, one or more reels with the stacked wilds might be held stationary (ie. sticky or locked). Way too cryptic for your taste, you’d think? Not at all! We’ve also included handy video previews and reviews from fellow YouTubers below, so prepare to be blown away by what you see.
Now, moving on to the Top 10 Video Slots with Stacked Wilds…
1. Immortal Romance by Microgaming (Wild Desire™)
Immortal Romance is a lustful, mystical romantic saga that takes the form of a slot game. Wild Desire™ is a special bonus round in which you are rewarded with multiple stacked wilds. These wilds don’t roll away with the other symbols on the reels, so it is really a Sticky Stacked Wild in function, if you will. You can get stacked wilds on any 2 to 4 reels (out of five).
Well, did you just count in your head how many winning paylines could be possible out of 4 Stacked Wild Reels?
» Play Immortal Romance at Platinum Play casino.
2. Football Star by Microgaming (Striking Wilds™)
Penalty kick on a video slot game — can it get any cooler than this? Released during the FIFA World Cup season in 2014, this game has been a huge success at many online casinos. In a particular bonus round, you kick the football towards one of the five reels on your slot, and guess what happens next? Your Midas touch (or should I say ‘strike’?) turns that reel into gold — ie. a full-blown stacked wild reel in this case. A very clever implementation of stacked wilds indeed, and aptly named as “Striking Wilds™”.
Striking Wilds is high on our list! Football Star also has regular wild symbols stacked on its reels 3, 4 and 5 throughout the game, and you can get stacked wilds on your reels at any time during the game.
» Play Football Star slot at Spin Palace casino.
3. Playboy by Microgaming (Running Wilds™)
This adult online slot game from Microgaming is loaded with exciting features. The four ‘Playboy’ babes have one feature each on offer — they are all lucrative, mind you. If you select the seductive Sofia to play her version of the game, you’ll be awarded a extra spins round with Running Wilds™, a very special implementation of stacked wilds. With every passing extra spin, the number of wild symbols on the reels is incremented by 1, and each reel starts to build a long chain of stacked wilds (known as Running Wilds). Towards the end of the extra spin, you’ll invariably accrue Running Wilds on almost all the reels, thus benefitting from a payout you would have imagined only in your dreams!
We wonder why slot makers don’t do more of Running Wilds these days — we’ve hardly seen anything quite like this on any other video slot.
» Spin your luck on Playboy online slot at Roxy Palace casino.
4. Jurassic Park by Microgaming
Another Microgaming slot on our ‘Top 10 Stacked Wild Slots’ list! Are we biased? You’d think?!
Jurassic Park is a recently released video slot with almost all the interesting features you might have seen in slot history; so many that stacked wilds are just a minor feature on the game! When you land on the extra spins bonus, one of the pre-historic Jurassic-era ‘—saurs’ becomes your wild symbol and is found to appear stacked on the reels. The beauty of this game is that you’d get a different symbol to play your ‘Stacked Wild’ each time, so the game never gets predictable or boring.
Check out this 9-minute YouTube video by fellow review site slotjunkies.com, demonstrating how different symbols turn into stacked wilds.
» Play Jurassic Park at Guts casino!
5. Medusa II by NetEnt
Medusa II is a refreshing NetEnt sequel to the original Medusa video slot. The slot features a Greek mythological character named Medusa, a strikingly beautiful female form but with a head full of serpents.
The Locked Reels™ extra spins bonus round of Medusa II is a beauty to watch (see the YouTube video below). The Medusa emerges and locks one, two or more reels at the start of each extra spin. In this context, the locked reels roll synchronously with similar symbols in them. So where are the stacked wilds? Are the Locked Reels stacked wilds in disguise? Not quite! The stacked wilds are actually in the background. These can appear on any reel, locked or unlocked. With each progressing spin, the stacked wilds seem to switch from reel to reel in a random fashion. It is easy to see that if stacked wilds appear on the Locked Reels™, you might benefit from a BIG payout!
» Play Medusa II at Mr Green casino.
6. Merlin’s Millions by NextGen Gaming
NextGen Gaming’s magical video slot Merlin’s Millions has an implicit stacked wilds feature. The wild symbol of the game, Merlin, appears stacked on reels 2, 3 and 4 in a regular game and in the extra spins rounds. The slot, however, is non-standard for various reasons — firstly, there are 4 symbols on the reels (most slots have 3 symbols on their reels), and secondly, the “stacked wild symbols” are not uniformly stacked to cover the entire reel; thus, the reels may stop spinning midway such that you don’t always get the entire chunk of stacked wilds. This makes the slot more real, unlike other slots in which either you land on stacked wilds that cover the entire reel, or you simply don’t land on any at all.
Fellow casino and game reviewer, Lucky Mobile Slots has Merlin’s Millions covered in this actual game video (below).
» Play Merlin’s Millions at Leo Vegas casino!
NextGen Gaming has recently launched a sequel to Merlin’s Millions. The slot is called ‘Merlin’s Magic – Respins’, which is available at a number of NextGen casinos like Guts.
7. Riches of Ra by Play’n GO
To be honest, I haven’t seen much of Play’n GO games as a game reviewer at Mobile Slots 4U! ‘Riches of Ra’ is an Egyptian-themed slot game with several features including a gamble feature! The half bird – half human character ‘Ra’ plays the wild symbol. Throughout the game, Ra appears stacked on random reels. If you manage to get stacked Ra symbols on the reels 1 and 5, you’ll enter the Extra Spins round. You’ll see that the reels 1 and 5 are locked in place throughout the extra spins round, ie. they function like a “Sticky Stacked Wild”!
Interesting! Watch the video below to see what we mean.
» Play Riches of Ra at Vera & John casino.
8. South Park™ – Reel Chaos by NetEnt
South Park – Reel Chaos is yet to be launched (at the time of writing). However, we’re already mesmerised by the exquisite Cartman’s Stacked Wilds bonus round among other features of the slot. South Park – Reel Chaos is a sequel to the NetEnt slot game by the name South Park, and will be available at many NetEnt casinos shortly.
We’ve recently heard that NetEnt and Bwin.Party have teamed up to host NetEnt’s slot products. Will South Park – Reel Chaos be launched there? We don’t know yet, but we’ve got an official trailer from NetEnt demonstrating the features of the slot anyway.
9. Cashapillar by Microgaming
Cashapillar by Microgaming is a rare 5 x 5 reel slot with 100 paylines. You’ll find stacked wilds appearing on the reels through the regular gameplay and during the extra spin games. Like Merlin’s Millions, Cashapillar too has a non-standard variant of stacked wilds in that the stacked wilds can occur on the entire reel, or partially on a reel. It is worth mentioning that the game has a ‘Spin-Stop’ feature, so you have a chance to stop the reels right on time, but only if you manage to catch a glimpse of the stacked wilds with the reels still spinning! Tough task to accomplish, but certainly not impossible.
Check Cashapillar’s review and a gameplay video (below) by peer casino reviewer, GamingSlots.com.
» Catch Cashapillar at Red Flush Casino!
10. Wolf Run by IGT
Finally moving on to an old video slot by IGT — Wolf Run is probably one of the first slots to popularise the Stacked Wilds feature, so we don’t want to leave it far behind in this list. Here’s our news announcing the launch of Wolf Run on Virgin Games. The feature DOES work in a standard (expected) manner, so we may as well skip the details and jump to the video instead.
» Play Wolf Run slot at Virgin Games casino.
In a nutshell…
Microgaming, the best video slot provider in town rules the roost with handsome stacked wild features on their slots! And did we say these (stacked wilds) are the best features we’ve found on any UK video slot? We really like how game makers are thinking of innovative variations to the original stacked wilds. Let us know in the comments below which slot games you enjoyed playing the most.
I’ll leave you with a little brain teaser for today: On a 5 reel 3 rows video slot, which two stacked wild reels will help in triggering the maximum payout and why? Consider that the slot pays from left to right, and wild symbols substitute for regular symbols to complete paylines.
Let us know in the comments below!
