Early slots were all about matching three symbols for a pay-out of sorts. However, even back in 1894 when slots were first invented, symbols did not have the same monetary values as each other – play at Slotzo casino today.
Matching three of the highest valued symbols would win a punter the highest possible pay-out, and back then, this was seen as winning the jackpot.
Modern Slots
Today’s world of video slots is a hi-tech one full of games that boast sophisticated imagery that utilizes animation and even 3D graphics. Despite the advancements in slot symbols, the one thing all punters still crave to see is the scatter symbol, which is also known as the bonus symbol. It was given the name scatter because it does not matter if these symbols land scattered around the reels, it is the numbers of these symbols that matter more than whether they land together or not. In general, three or more of these need to land on the reels to trigger a bonus round.
However, with the introduction of Megaways games, many such slots require four scatter symbols to drop instead of three. Despite this, it still remains the main function of scatter symbols directly trigger a bonus, but they have evolved to hold more than just this purpose in some modern-day slot games.
Book-Based Slots
Book-themed slots are still going strong and new titles are being released regularly. These games are interesting because, for the most part, they follow the same format as each other. Here the book of the title, such as Book of Dead, or Book of Christmas, is not only the scatter symbol that triggers a ten free spins bonus round, where a symbol is randomly picked to expand, but the book also acts as the wild symbol as well. It is also the joint most valuable symbol of them all. The books of the slot title also retrigger the bonus rounds over and over.
Landing the bonus or scatter symbol in book-based games pays out and if you get five in a row you win 500x your original stake. However, many games do not pay anything for landing scatters and instead take you straight to the bonus game.
Scatter Symbols and Bonus Wheels
With some slots, landing the required amounts of scatters needed, is only a first step in the bonus round hunt. Games like King Kong Cash and Koi Princess allow you to spin a wheel that contains several different types of bonuses if you get three or more scatters in the base game.
Some bonuses are admittedly not up to scratch, such as money trails. Interestingly, with games like King Kong Cash, you can gamble away your chosen bonus round for a far superior one, but you do lose the risk of losing a bonus altogether and having to settle for a mystery cash prize, which nine out of ten times is a complete disappointment.
Koi Princess does not have this gamble feature, instead, if you land three scatters, you are taken to a wheel that contains four bonus rounds. This is just a small example of how the scatter symbol has dual functionality in some slots.