Giga Blast

Giga Blast: Slot Overview

Hey all, anyone out there ready for 'The Big Wild Bang'? If the answer is yes, then you might be interested in Giga Blast since those four words constitute the game's tagline. Developed by Red Tiger, Giga Blast is a space slot following a trail laid down by the likes of Starburst but with a bunch of extra components involved. You'd hope there'd be extras since NetEnt's classic was released many moons before Giga Blast hit the scene. Despite a similar vibe, Giga Blast comes with Star Wilds, three Star Wild modifiers, and free spins.

The universe is a mind-bender, isn't it? It manages to evoke thoughts of the future - high-power telescopes peering into the depths, spacecraft fast enough to transport humans to other galaxies within their lifetimes, alien societies that are so far advanced beyond our own they make us seem like tardigrades. At the same time, look up at the sky, and you're literally looking at the past on account of how long it took the beams of starlight to reach us. The furthest patches of the sky send us light, which is billions of years old. Giga Blast doesn't feel quite so aged, but it has a retro streak that's a bit Starburst, which some may appreciate.

When hitting the ignition button, Giga Blast spins a gaming grid made up of 6 reels, holding 4 rows each. To the top and left of the main reels is an extra row and reel where only special modifier indicator symbols may land. On each spin, players may wager 10 c to $/€6 and can expect a highly volatile math model producing a default RTP of 95.72%. Regular pay symbols award wins when they land left to right from the first reel onwards with 50 paylines in place for their evaluation.

Ten pay symbols are used in Giga Blast, all with a futuristic touch to them. The lows are gleaming metal 10 to A card ranks paying 0.4 to 1 times the bet for a 6-of-a-kind win, and the high pays are 5 planetary objects worth 1.2 to 5 times the bet for a 6 OAK hit. Star Wilds may appear on all reels. They substitute for all paying symbols and have a value of 25x the bet when they produce a 6 Star Wild symbol win.

Giga Blast: Slot Features

Wilds are linked to the Wild Blast feature, too. This is available in the base game and technically in greater numbers when the free spins round has activated.

Wild Blast

To the top and left of the grid is where random modifier indicators may appear on each spin. More than one reel or row may activate on a spin. The indicator above each reel applies the modifier to all Star Wilds on the applicable reel. The indicator on the side applies to all Star Wilds on the applicable row. Star Wilds with modifiers above and to the left of them receive both modifiers. Modifiers disappear once they have been applied to any Star Wilds, and the possible modifiers are:

• Horizontal Explosion – affected Star Wilds turn 1 adjacent symbol on both the left and right into Star Wilds. If a Star Wild lands on a position where a horizontal explosion is active above the reel and on the side of the row, it triggers a double explosion, turning two adjacent symbols on both the left and right into Wilds. If an explosion creates a Star Wild where a Star Wild is already present, it increases the affected Star Wild's multiplier by 1.
• Vertical Explosion - affected Star Wilds turn 1 adjacent symbol above and 1 below into Star Wilds. If a Star Wild lands on a position where a horizontal explosion is active above the reel and on the side of the row, it triggers a double explosion, turning 2 adjacent symbols above and 2 below into Wilds. If an explosion creates a Star Wild where a Star Wild is already present, it increases the affected Star Wild's multiplier by 1.
• Multiplier – affected Star Wilds get a multiplier of x2, x3, or x5. The multiplier is applied to all wins the Star Wild is part of. If a Star Wild lands in a position where a multiplier is above the reel and on the side of the row, the multipliers are added before being applied to the Star Wild. If a Star Wild is affected by an explosion and a multiplier, the multiplier is applied first. Star Wilds spawned by an explosion of a Star Wild with a multiplier they also get the multiplier. When more than one Star Wild multiplier is part of a win, the values are added up.

The sequence of explosions is all Star Wilds which land on the reels receive their modifier explosions at the same time, then all new Star Wilds created by explosions which receive a modifier explode together at the same time, and so on. Star Wild explosions do not affect scatters.

Free Spins

Hitting 3, 4, 5, or 6 scatters anywhere triggers 10, 15, 20, or 25 free spins, respectively. During free spins, Wild Blast modifiers have a much higher chance of activating. Moreover, landing 3 scatters retriggers the feature with +5 spins.

Giga Blast: Slot Verdict

Quite a lot of words were spent just there on what is, in effect, a pretty straightforward space slot. Giga Blast isn't as rudimentary as some are, but it certainly ain't rocket science. Sorry, bad joke, or a bad attempt at a joke, at least. It is more complex than first supposed, though. At a glance, before reading the rules, the supposition was that the modifier indicator would simply turn the whole reel or row into wilds/multiplier wilds. However, Giga Blast has a few extra technicalities than that, though it shouldn't take much longer than a 10-second countdown to figure out what they are.

After reading through the paytable and help page, there was a feeling Giga Blast might have been more exciting if it had taken the full reel/row symbol transformation approach. What it's got has possibility, but it wasn't a slot with a colossal wow factor. Much of Giga Blast's enjoyment, or lack thereof, may have a lot to do with how the galaxy theme has been presented. As mentioned, it seems as though Red Tiger went the retro route, and the end result brought back memories of ReelPlay's Hypernova range of slots, for better or for worse. Something was lacking. Charm or charisma, some sort of x-factor, or that mystical quality found in a space game like iSoftBet's Euphoria Megaways, for example.

Ah well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and classically-minded gamblers may dig Giga Blast's retrogressive tendencies. It also boasts surprising winning potential to the tune of 13,409.2 times the bet, which may be just the enticement some spacefarers require. To wrap up, let's call Giga Blast the Gemini Program of the Space Race - it took human beings into space and achieved impressive things, but it didn't get humanity all the way to the moon's surface.