Aloha! Cluster Pays is brought to you by Net Entertainment and has 6 reels and 5 rows – playable from 10p to £200 a spin, it’s available on desktop (i.e. laptop/PC), tablet and mobile devices. The game takes you to a tropical island as it has a Hawaiian theme with colourful graphics and innovative gameplay.
Rather than traditional paylines, it uses Cluster Pays (as the name suggests) whereby you can get winning combinations by forming clusters of the same symbol – you need 9 or more of the same symbol to form a cluster either vertically, horizontally or diagonally.
There are stacked symbols too which will help your winning potential – however, the 3 tiki symbols are the highest value ones so look out for these. Randomly, a cluster win can trigger the Sticky Win Re-Spins feature where the contributing winning symbols are held in place with all other symbols re-spinning.
If you add more symbols to the cluster, you will get another free re-spin – this continues as long as you keep adding to the cluster. There is also a Substitution Symbols which, when it appears, will transform into the adjacent symbol that gives you the best winning combination in a cluster.
Where things get interesting is in the Free Spins feature – this is played when 3 or more Hawaiian sunset free spin symbols appear fully or partially anywhere on the reels. 3 symbols give you 9 free spins whilst 4 gives you 10 free spins. 5 rewards you with 11 free spins and 6 gives you 12 free spins.
During the feature, there’s a Symbol Drop mechanic where the low value symbols are removed from the reels – this dramatically increases the chance of a bigger win naturally. If you don’t have a win on the last free spin, you will continue to get more free spins until you do.
More importantly, look out for 3 or more free spins symbols during the feature as you can add to your free spins tally – 3 will give you 1 more free spin, 4 will give you 2 more free spins, 5 will give you 3 more free spins whilst 6 gives you 4 more free spins. In total, there’s 60 free spins to be won!
Aloha! Cluster Pays is definitely an innovative game which both looks superb and has the potential for big wins in both the base game and free spins feature. I found it to be a medium variance title with up to 2,000 times your bet to be won. NetEnt’s Starburst has a superb Starburst Wild feature which gives you free re-spins with expanding wilds held in place.
