Sonic Links

Sonic Links: Slot Overview

Players! Are you in the market for a game so outrageous it transcends the label 'online slot' and is closer to high art with a gambling element? If so, you might want to take a wide step around Sonic Links from software provider Just For The Win. Sonic Links is a game so generic it comes across as a parody of itself. Actually, it's unlikely that Just For The Win was thinking of parody when they came up with Sonic Links, as it's closer to effort-free development than fourth-dimensional pranking. Come see what we mean.

Let's start with graphics, and visually, Sonic Links is a plain-looking fruit-themed game with a so-so patterned background and five-reel game panel. Next to the grid is a quartet of prize values, while the colour palette as a whole is heavy on the purples. Now, we have nothing against fruit machine style slots - Pragmatic Play did an absolute number on one around the same time as this called Fire Strike 2, so this category of slot can definitely work if a studio puts in a modicum of effort. Sadly, it doesn't seem like a whole lot of effort went into Sonic Links, which is about as bog-standard as it gets. At least, we hope Just For The Win didn't put in a lot of effort. If they did, it'd be a worry.

Perhaps the team went for a function over form approach and stacked the game with trailblazing features? We'll see in mo. For now, let's take a browse over the numbers, starting with RTP. Sonic Link has three possible return values, topping out at 96.06%, where the volatility is high, and wins occur at a rate of 29.45%. Getting a sonic hit can be achieved on any device and allows stakes of 20 p/c to $/€50 per spin can be selected.

Across this 5-reel, 3-row game panel are 25 fixed paylines for landing winning combinations of three or more of a kind. Normal paying symbols in the game include cherries, lemons, grapes, plums, Bars, stars, 7s, and diamonds. Should a five of a kind winning line hit, players collect payouts worth 1.5 to 15 times the stake, or 40x the bet for a line if five wilds. Wilds can appear in any size from 1x1 to 1x3 and are most often used to substitute any normal pay symbol.

Sonic Links: Slot Features

The four prizes displayed on screen can be won during the Link & Win bonus round, while Sonic Links' other extra is a round of free spins.

Sonic Free Spins

Landing 3 scatter symbols in view on reels 1, 3, and 5 triggers a spin of the Sonic Free Spins wheels. The first wheel spins to award 10 to 25 free spins; then the second wheel spins to award a win multiplier of x2, x3, or x5. All line wins during free spins are subject to the activated win multiplier. If 3 scatter symbols land during the feature, players win the same number of free spins as was originally awarded.

Link & Win

Landing 3, 4, or 5 Coins anywhere on the reels in the main game triggers the Echo Chance. With the Echo Chance, players have a chance of triggering the Link & Win feature. However, if at least 6 Coins hit, then the Link & Win feature is guaranteed to trigger. Link & Win starts with 3 spins, and when new Coin symbols land, they reset the spin counter. Coins lock in view and award either a cash value or the Big, Major, or Mega prize, worth 25x, 80x, or 300x the bet, respectively. Otherwise, if all positions on the grid are filled with Coins during the feature, players win the Sonic prize, worth 5,000x the bet.

Sonic Links: Slot Verdict

After the test run was done and dusted, we sat there, waiting for the punchline, staring blankly at the screen, 'like a dog that's just been shown a card trick', as Bill Hicks put it. Sonic Links started out dull, then slid downhill from there. There's nothing especially bad about it from a technical or numerical perspective, as such, It's just the theme, features, and gameplay combination is completely devoid of creativity or any kind of spark.

We dug deep to find a compliment to pad out the feedback section with, but nothing came to mind. There is little noteworthy about Sonic Links, with the exception of a fairly banging tune. From the tiresome fruit theme use to the equally tiresome features, the conclusion is best summed up by a question - what was the point? Sonic Links is like the opposite of a passion project. It's the type of game a development team cobbles together on a Friday afternoon, so they've got something to hand in on Monday morning. Where the only condition management put in place was that the game had to have a Link & Win feature and pack a 5,000x top prize. Besides those stipulations, the crew were free to fill in the blanks with their imagination.

Except not really, because there is nothing imaginative to be found in Sonic Links. It's similar to the sort of mediocrity Just For The Win was occasionally mired in during the early days before pulling away to make more playable slots. Well, that mediocrity appears to have dragged them back for a reunion. There may well be players into this predictable style of gaming, and we could not be happier for them. For us, though, Sonic Links was so uninspiring; playing it was like teetering on the event horizon of a creative black hole that was busy sucking the passion, innovation, and joy out of game design.