Starburst Slot Review: Where Simplicity Becomes Timeless Magic in the Cosmic Void

Starburst isn’t trying to blow your mind with feature-stuffed complexity—it’s NetEnt’s cosmic love letter to clarity, simplicity, and the kind of hypnotic gameplay that keeps you spinning long after you meant to stop. Released in June 2012, this space-themed slot became the most played NetEnt game of all time not through gimmicks, but by perfecting the fundamentals: expanding wilds that lock and re-spin up to three times, wins that pay both ways across 10 paylines, and a low-volatility rhythm that delivers frequent hits rather than soul-crushing droughts. With a 22.6% hit frequency and a maximum 500x win potential, Starburst prioritizes consistent entertainment over lottery-style jackpots—and somehow, that’s exactly what made it iconic.

Key Highlights

• Cosmic-themed slot from NetEnt (released June 2012) featuring expanding Starburst Wilds on reels 2, 3, and 4 that lock in place and trigger re-spins—up to 3 consecutive re-spins possible.
• Win Both Ways mechanic pays winning combinations left-to-right and right-to-left across 10 fixed paylines, effectively doubling your win potential on every spin.
• Low volatility with 22.6% hit frequency (roughly 1 in 4.4 spins wins)—designed for frequent small-to-medium wins rather than high-risk jackpot chasing.
• 5×3 grid with 10 fixed paylines, 96.09% RTP (default, but operators can adjust from 90.05%-99.06%), and €0.10-€100 bet range.
• Maximum win of 500x your bet (or 50,000 coins at max bet level)—BAR symbols pay 250x naturally, doubled to 500x through Win Both Ways.
• No traditional free spins bonus round—the entire gameplay revolves around the expanding wild re-spin mechanic in the base game.

Theme and Visuals

NetEnt took the cosmic theme seriously when designing Starburst—this isn’t a cheap star-field backdrop hastily pasted behind generic symbols. The 5×3 grid floats against a deep space panorama where nebulas swirl in vivid purples and blues, distant galaxies glow with ethereal light, and the occasional comet streaks silently across the void. It’s the visual equivalent of what you’d see if you pressed your face against the window of a spacecraft cruising through interstellar space—hypnotic, serene, and genuinely beautiful in a way that still holds up over a decade after release. You can try it yourself in our slot demos section.

The symbols commit to the aesthetic: five vibrant gemstones (purple amethyst, blue sapphire, orange garnet, green emerald, yellow topaz) sparkle like treasures from alien worlds, rendered with the kind of crystalline detail that makes them feel tactile. The classic BAR symbol gleams in polished gold, while the Lucky 7 glows with cosmic energy. And then there’s the star of the show—the multicolored Starburst Wild itself, an eight-pointed explosion of rainbow light that pulses and expands like a supernova caught mid-detonation. When wilds land and expand, they don’t just grow—they erupt with prismatic brilliance, accompanied by sound effects that feel like you’ve just unlocked something important. It’s arcade-style visual design at its finest: simple, bold, and utterly mesmerizing.

How to Play Starburst

Starburst’s genius is its simplicity—there’s no labyrinth of bonus rounds or cascading features to memorize. Here’s your complete mission briefing:

1. Launch the game and watch the cosmic backdrop materialize around the reels.
2. Set your bet using the coin value (€0.01-€1.00) and bet level (1-10 coins per line). Minimum bet: €0.10 (coin value €0.01 × 10 lines). Maximum bet: €100 (coin value €1.00 × bet level 10 × 10 lines).
3. Understand the paylines: The 5×3 grid uses 10 fixed paylines. Crucially, wins pay BOTH WAYS—left-to-right and right-to-left. This effectively gives you 20 win directions.
4. Hit spin or enable autoplay for continuous spins (up to 1,000 auto-spins available).
5. Watch for Starburst Wilds: These multicolored stars appear only on reels 2, 3, and 4. When one lands, it expands to cover the entire reel, locks in place, and triggers a re-spin.
6. Chain re-spins: If another wild lands during a re-spin, it also expands and locks, awarding another re-spin. You can get up to 3 consecutive re-spins if wilds land on all three central reels.
7. Collect your winnings: After re-spins conclude (or if no additional wilds land), the game evaluates all paylines in both directions and awards your total win.

Pro Tip: Because wins pay both ways, you don’t need symbols to line up from the leftmost reel. A combination of 3 BAR symbols on reels 3-4-5 pays exactly the same as the same symbols on reels 1-2-3. This dramatically increases your chances of hitting wins on every spin.

Symbols and Paytable

Starburst uses a straightforward 8-symbol paytable split between premium and low-value symbols. Remember: all payouts work in both directions, so the values below apply whether symbols line up left-to-right or right-to-left.

Symbol	3 OAK	4 OAK	5 OAK
BAR (Gold Bar)	25x	50x	250x
Lucky 7	20x	25x	120x
Yellow Topaz	12x	15x	60x
Green Emerald	10x	12x	50x
Orange Garnet	8x	10x	40x
Blue Sapphire	5x	6x	25x
Purple Amethyst	5x	6x	25x
Starburst Wild	Expands on reels 2-4, substitutes for all symbols, triggers re-spin

Payout Examples

• Betting €1 and landing 5 BAR symbols awards €250 (250x multiplier).
• The same 5 BAR symbols can pay from either direction—left-to-right OR right-to-left—meaning you can win 250x twice on different paylines in a single spin for a theoretical 500x total (the maximum win).
• Landing three Lucky 7s on a €5 bet pays €100 (20x × €5).
• The low-value gemstones (sapphire, amethyst) pay just 25x for five-of-a-kind, but they hit frequently enough to keep your balance ticking upward during regular play.

Wild Symbols

The Starburst Wild is the centerpiece of the entire game. This rainbow-colored eight-pointed star appears exclusively on reels 2, 3, and 4—never on the outer reels. When it lands, it doesn’t just substitute for other symbols—it expands vertically to fill the entire reel, locks into position, and triggers a re-spin with the wild held in place. If another wild lands during that re-spin, the process repeats: expand, lock, re-spin. You can chain up to 3 consecutive re-spins if you’re lucky enough to fill all three central reels with expanding wilds. When that happens, you’re essentially spinning with 60% of the grid locked as wilds, creating massive win potential across both directions.

Slot Features

Expanding Wild Re-Spin Mechanic

This is the sole feature in Starburst—and it’s all the game needs. Unlike the multi-stage bonus systems in Gonzo’s Quest Megaways, Starburst keeps it beautifully simple: when a Starburst Wild lands on reel 2, 3, or 4, it expands to cover all three positions on that reel, substitutes for every other symbol, and awards a re-spin with the wild locked in place.

The real magic happens when you chain multiple wilds. Land a wild on reel 3 during your initial spin—it expands and you get a re-spin. During that re-spin, another wild lands on reel 2—it also expands, locking both reels 2 and 3 as full wilds, and you get another re-spin. If a third wild hits reel 4 during that second re-spin, you’ve achieved the maximum: all three central reels are locked as wilds for one final spin. With 6 out of 15 positions locked as wilds and paylines paying both ways, you’re almost guaranteed multiple big wins.

The frequency isn’t astronomical—you’ll see expanding wilds regularly (roughly every 10-15 spins), but getting all three reels to lock is rare enough to feel genuinely exciting when it happens. And because of the low volatility, even single expanding wilds often create enough wins to keep your session alive.

Pro Tip: The expanding wilds don’t pay out themselves—they function purely as substitutes. Your wins come from the combinations they help complete across the 10 paylines in both directions. A single expanding wild on reel 3 can simultaneously help form multiple 5-of-a-kind wins going both left and right.

Win Both Ways

Starburst introduced Win Both Ways mechanics to the mainstream slot market back in 2012, and it fundamentally changes how the game feels. Traditional slots require winning combinations to start from the leftmost reel—Starburst throws that out and pays for valid combinations starting from either the left OR the right.

From a mathematical perspective, this doubles your effective number of ways to win. With 10 fixed paylines, you’re essentially playing with 20 win directions. A five-BAR combination on reels 1-2-3-4-5 pays 250x going left-to-right. But if you have BAR symbols only on reels 3-4-5, you still win—the payline evaluates from right-to-left and awards the 3-of-a-kind payout (25x). This creates constant action and frequent wins even when the grid isn’t perfectly aligned.

The Win Both Ways system also amplifies the expanding wild mechanic. When wilds lock on reels 2-3-4, they can help complete combinations radiating outward in both directions simultaneously, creating overlapping wins that stack up quickly.

How to Max Win on Starburst

Starburst’s maximum win is 500x your bet—or 50,000 coins at maximum bet level. Unlike high-volatility slots with 10,000x+ potential, Starburst’s ceiling is deliberately modest. Here’s how you actually reach it:

Base Game Max Win Path

The entire game operates in the base game—there’s no separate bonus round. The maximum 500x win comes from the Win Both Ways mechanic doubling your highest single-direction payout. Here’s the math:

• Five BAR symbols on a payline pay 250x in one direction.
• Because paylines evaluate in both directions, you can theoretically land 250x going left-to-right on one payline AND 250x going right-to-left on another payline in the same spin.
• 250x + 250x = 500x maximum win.

This isn’t common, but it’s achievable—especially when you have all three central reels locked as expanding wilds, giving you maximum substitution power to complete multiple high-value combinations simultaneously.

Typical Max Win Script

1. Initial spin lands a Starburst Wild on reel 3—it expands to cover the entire reel and locks in place for a re-spin.
2. Re-spin 1 lands another wild on reel 2—both reels 2 and 3 are now locked as full wilds, triggering a second re-spin.
3. Re-spin 2 lands a third wild on reel 4—all three central reels (2-3-4) are now locked as wilds for one final re-spin.
4. Final re-spin populates reels 1 and 5 with BAR symbols—creating multiple five-of-a-kind BAR combinations across different paylines.
5. Win Both Ways evaluates paylines in both directions—you collect 250x for left-to-right BAR wins on one or more paylines, plus additional 250x for any right-to-left BAR wins on separate paylines.
6. Total payout caps at 500x (or 50,000 coins at max bet level)—you’ve hit the maximum possible win in Starburst.

Reality Check: Getting all three wilds to lock is rare (maybe once every 150-300 spins), and even when it happens, you need the outer reels to cooperate with matching high-value symbols. Most of your big wins will come from single or double expanding wilds creating 50x-150x hits—still satisfying, but nowhere near the 500x cap.

RTP & Volatility

RTP (Return to Player)

Starburst has a default RTP of 96.09%, sitting just above the industry average of 96%. However—and this is critical—NetEnt offers flexible RTP configurations ranging from 90.05% to 99.06% depending on the operator and jurisdiction. The gap between 96.09% and 90.05% is over 6 percentage points, meaning you could be giving the casino an extra €6 per €100 wagered on the lowest version. Always check the game’s information screen (usually accessible via the “i” button) before playing to verify which RTP version you’re actually spinning.

Volatility

This is a low volatility slot with a 22.6% hit frequency—roughly 1 in every 4.4 spins produces a win. This is significantly higher than medium or high-volatility slots, which often drop to 15-20% hit rates. Low volatility creates a distinct gameplay rhythm: you’ll see frequent small-to-medium wins that keep your balance relatively stable over time, with occasional bigger hits (50x-150x) when expanding wilds line up nicely.

The trade-off is the modest 500x max win ceiling. Unlike high-volatility monsters like Wanted Dead or a Wild (12,500x max win) that swing wildly between dead spins and massive explosions, Starburst prioritizes consistency and longevity. You’re not going to turn €10 into €125,000 here—but you can reasonably expect your bankroll to last through hundreds of spins with regular entertainment value. For understanding how volatility impacts your bankroll, check out our variance survival calculator.

Pro Tip: Low volatility makes Starburst ideal for bonus wagering requirements. The high hit frequency means you’ll clear playthrough requirements without massive swings—but also means you’re unlikely to build a huge balance from bonus funds. Budget accordingly: 50-100x your bet size is reasonable for extended sessions.

Pros and Cons

Conclusion

Starburst became NetEnt’s most iconic slot not through feature overload, but by perfecting simplicity: expanding wilds that lock and re-spin, Win Both Ways paylines doubling every win opportunity, and low volatility delivering consistent 22.6% hit frequency. Over a decade after its 2012 release, the cosmic visuals still mesmerize and the expanding wild mechanic still satisfies—even with a modest 500x max win ceiling that feels quaint compared to modern 10,000x+ monsters.

The RTP variance (90.05%-99.06%) requires vigilance—always verify your version before spinning. Best suited for players who value longevity over lottery-style jackpots, appreciate clean mechanics without bonus-round complexity, and want a slot that respects their time with frequent wins. Try it free in our slot demos or check our bankroll calculator to plan your session budget.

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