Head to any online casino, and you will an unbelievable amount of slot games, usually as far as the eye can in the game lobby. When online casinos first started, the only act in town was the classic three-reel slots with a single pay line. But thanks to several massive technological leaps, the world of online slot categories seemingly knows no bounds at today’s impressive online casinos. But it was in the early 2010s where one game category was first introduced – cascading slots. Some might know them as a megaways, or tumble reel, all of these various cascading games continue to be worth the attention and opening your wallet in mega ways.
The Rise of Mega and Cascading-Themed Online Slots
In the early 2010s, NetEnt, one of the most popular casino game developers, released Gonzo’s Quest, a seemingly ordinary five-reel game at land-based casinos. However, building upon the new video slot genre, Gonzo’s Quest first introduced the avalanche feature. Besides featuring amazing themes from everything from Greek to Egyptian mythology to action and adventure, cascading and mega reel slots have exciting game themes for every slot player.
Fundamentally, there are really no differences between “mega,” “cascading,” “tumble,” and “avalanche” reel slots other than the maximum winning multiplier or the number of triggered cascading reels. No matter the term, cascading slot games call on getting a certain group of the same symbol to land horizontally on the reels or in a cluster to trigger the “megaways,” “avalanche,” or “tumble reel” feature. In this case, the winning symbols that caused the avalanche to “tumble” off the reels to make way for new symbols to land onto the reels.
The reels “expand by one,” better known as “avalanche” or “megaways,” and the winning multiplier grows by one. Thus, the terminology for cascading slots can continue increasing automatic wins from one win and growing the value. The megaways slots have become so precise that a seemingly ordinary five-reel game with 20 pay lines can magically grow to 4,096 or well over 100,000 pay lines from one regular win. Also, the winning multiplier can often shoot up to 1,000x as the tumble reel feature continues.
Egyptian-themed Megaway Slots
Egyptian-themed slots have truly come a long way from the basic graphics from early video slots like Cleopatra’s Gold by Real Time Gaming. Egyptian-style slots feature some of the most amazing graphics, usually from the latest HTML5 technology. They are also highly interactive and immersive, with soundtracks that are meant to take you back into that era.
Some of the most popular Egyptian megaway slots include Cleopatra and Eye of Horus. Both of these popular megaways slots actually have regular video slots that came out first, but due to popular demand, megaway versions were made. Cleopatra Megaways is based on IGT’s insanely popular video slot where Queen Cleopatra is the sticky wild, and wins can cascade up to 117,649 ways to win.
Gods of Egypt is one of the latest megaways slot releases by Red Tiger Gaming. In recent years, Red Tiger Gaming was acquired by NetEnt, so fans of megaway slots can now find more Red Tiger Gaming options at more real money and new sweepstakes casinos.
Gods of Egypt features some of the most jaw-dropping graphics of any current slot game available online today. For those who can’t get enough of the Egyptian Gods like Anubis and Horus, you will be happy to know that they are available as high-paying gods. Like Cleopatra Megaways, Gods of Egypt has a tumble reel feature where one win can trigger up to 117,649 new pay lines.
Journeying to the Virtual Candy Store
Of course, some of the most popular cascading slots today don’t even include people or even gods. They involve nothing but candy and sugar! Sugar Rush, Sugar Rush 1000, and Sweet Bonanza are seven-reel games that are available at both traditional and social casinos. As the title implies, all of these games are based on nothing with chocolate, swirls, and other sugar icons. The gameplay takes place over candy backgrounds with vanilla clouds and chocolate mountains.
The great thing about Sugar Rush and Sweet Bonanza is that they are seven-reel games that also offer free spins round. Both of these candy-themed games feature a cascading reel feature that can be triggered from all directions on the reels.
Conclusion
Even as we wrap up this article about cascading slots, they continue to evolve. If you thought that seven-reels was the pinnacle, new games like Bow of Artemis continue to push the envelope with eight-reels and amazing cascading reels opportunity. Elite developers like Microgaming are increasing their efforts to develop cascading slots that are mobile-friendly.
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