Stars n’ Sweets Hold & Win

Stars n' Sweets Hold & Win: Slot Overview

There are plenty of reasons why intrepid people might want to step off planet and explore the universe. Motivations range from extracting resources from other planetary bodies, seeing stuff no one else has seen before, to taking a wicked selfie in front of a nebula to make social media followers jelly. Another possible reason, according to developer iSoftBet, is to enjoy cosmic candy in some sort of giant Halloween grab. At least it is in Stars n' Sweets Hold & Win, an online slot full of stars, sweets, Sweet Sticky Wild Free Spins, and a Hold & Win feature.

Judging by Stars n' Sweets Hold & Win's background image, players appear to be parked by Saturn, or some other ringed heavenly body, out in the cosmos, where shooting stars fly by. Despite the celestial theme choice, Stars n' Sweets Hold & Win feels closer to a jazzy fruit slot, in part thanks to the banging tune, in other parts due to the tastefully simplistic visuals. In place of fruit, though, we've got tooth-busting comfort foods landing all over a 5-reel, 3-row gaming area. Stars n' Sweets Hold & Win doesn't present the most cosmically inspiring sight ever seen, but it's got an amiable look, which encourages a hit on the spin button to see what it'll serve up next.

Before leaping into this sugary solar system with reckless abandon, take a moment to pick a suitable stake from 20 p/c to $/€20 per paid game round. Low to medium volatile, the RTP was officially 'to be confirmed' at the time of writing, though players can generally count on a return value of around 96% from an iSoftBet game.

With a number of ways to potentially collect a few coins, the most common is hitting combinations of three to five matching symbols across one of the 20 fixed paylines. Combos must start from the left-hand side of the grid and fall on consecutive reels. The lower value four pay symbols are hard candies, while the four higher paying tiles are jellies, doughnuts, ice creams, and cupcakes. Hitting a five of a kind winning line pays 1.5-5x for the low pays, rising to 7.5-25x the bet for five high pays. One final treat for now is the star-shaped wild symbol, substituting for anything except Stars or free spins symbols.

Stars n' Sweets Hold & Win: Slot Features

Features in Stars n' Sweets Hold & Win include a couple of base game modifiers, Sweet Sticky Wild Free Spins, and a Hold & Win feature.

Sweet Rocket Wilds

At the end of any base game spin, the Sweet Rocket Wild feature may randomly trigger. If it does, then a rocket drops up to 5 Smartie Bombs onto the reels, which explode and replace symbols with wild symbols. Smartie Bombs do not replace scatters or Star Symbols.

Sweet-eor Shower

If a paid spin ends and there are 2 free spins scatters in view, there is a chance the Sweet-eor Shower feature triggers. This one respins one of the reels in hope to land a third scatter, thereby triggering free spins.

Sweet Sticky Wild Free Spins

Getting 3 free spins scatter symbols triggers 8 Sweet Sticky Wild Free Spins. At the end of a free spin, a wild symbol can be added to reels 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5, and remains in position until the end of the round. When wilds are added like this, they also come with a multiplier of 2x, 3x, or 5x. Multipliers are applied to any win the wild is part of, and if there is more than one wild multiplier involved, the values are added together. Free spins cannot be retriggered.

Hold & Win Feature

Landing 5 or more Star Symbols triggers the Hold & Win feature. In this round, 3 respins are awarded and any new stars landing in view reset the number of respins back to 3. When respins are used, the round ends, and all values on the reels are awarded. As well as normal Star symbols bearing bet multipliers, it is possible to land Minor, Major or Grand prizes worth 30x, 50x, or 200x the bet, respectively.

Moreover, special UFO symbols may appear during this feature, as well. One is the UFO Collector, which collects the values of all Stars in view. The sum is stored in the UFO Collector, and the collected symbols are removed. The other one is the UFO Payer. When this one appears, it multiplies all Star symbols by 2x, 3x, or 5x before flying away. The UFO can multiply anything except UFO Collectors.

Stars n' Sweets Hold & Win: Slot Verdict

Stars n' Sweets Hold & Win is a bit like a mass-produced chocolate bar, which might not be super inspiring but can still hit the spot if you're after a sugary hit. It feels like the sweets in space concept should have felt stranger than it did, yet in practice, Stars n' Sweets Hold & Win kind of made sense and coupled with the pumping tunes, it might be a convincing alternative for a regular fruit slot. That is, players looking for a funky, food-related slot but have a hankering for comfort food instead of healthy snacks; then Stars n' Sweets might fit the bill. Sweet Bonanza fans might be tempted, too.

In form as well as function, Stars n' Sweets Hold & Win is a pretty basic game, though not in a negative way, as such. Like smashing back a generic chocolate bar on a break, Stars n' Sweets Hold & Win gets the job done without doing so in a hugely memorable way. The base game has a couple of modifiers going for it; pretty simple, though, amounting to added wilds and a third scatter generator. The bonus rounds are simplistic, albeit potentially fun, as well. On the one hand, you've got free spins with sticky wild multipliers; on the other, a fairly basic respin round. The Hold & Win round isn't completely rudimentary since iSoftBet has tossed in a UFO Collector and UFO Payer element, yet Money Train 3, this certainly is not.

But hey, Stars n' Sweets Hold & Win is gunning for a different crowd than the roughriders hanging out to take on the 'Train'. This one's a lighter, breezier quick snack rather than a lifestyle choice. Like doing a bit of pantry grazing, there's something comforting about Stars n' Sweets Hold & Win that makes it easy to bang away on the spin button in an attempt to line up sweets. Don't expect anything phenomenal in terms of overall theme and gameplay, though what's here packs enough calories to provide a certain level of satisfaction.