Slot of the Week: Twistar

Take a tour of this week’s Slot of the Week, Twistar, which can best be described as Starburst with a twist, both figurative and literal!

Newly released at several of New Jersey’s top online casinos, Twistar is a colorful gem-filled creation that one could argue was inspired by NetEnt’s hugely popular slot Starburst. However, this game has plenty of its own magic waiting to bedazzle players, as you’ll soon discover!

In Short:

• Twistar is a 6-reel, 40-payline online slot by Inspired Gaming.
• It is available to play at 6 New Jersey online casinos including Golden Nugget, SugarHouse, Borgata Casino, and 888casino.
• The main features of this slot are transforming symbols, stacked wilds, respins, and wild multipliers.
• The maximum payout of a single line in Twistar is $200.

The Basics

Twistar is a 6-reel, 40-payline slot that was launched by Inspired Gaming back in October of 2021. Filled with gems and set in space, the slot is somewhat reminiscent of another popular slot, Starburst, with a few aspects of the game seemingly “inspired” by those of NetEnt’s hit creation.

However, far from being a cheap copy, Twistar introduces innovation with a unique respins feature, a progressive mystery symbol, and overlaid wild multipliers, giving it plenty of appeal in its own right.

First Impressions

Twistar opens with a pink and purple swirl placed over a sparsely starred space background, hinting at one of the game’s biggest attractions. When the reel set appears, you’ll notice it feels somewhat similar to the Starburst setup and it’s true that much of the gameplay is at least inspired by the hit slot. However, once you start spinning those reels, you’ll realize that Twistar has its own unique appeal.

Lots of colors adorn this slot, from the multicolored frame of the reel set to the individual symbols themselves, giving the game an air of excitement and energy. Adding to the atmosphere is an anticipatory soundtrack that beats and claps quietly in the background until you spin the reels, which results in a series of excited synth tones. Wins are accompanied by a celebratory outburst and the Twistar logo at the top of the screen will twist and dance at your success!

Symbols

Wins in Twistar are triggered by landing three or more matching symbols along one of the game’s 40 paylines. Most of these symbols are colorful gems, with a few different ones awarded special status either as higher paying symbols or those unlocking specific features or effects.

The highest paying gem in the game is yellow, with the two top payers being the red 7 and the twisted Bar symbol.

A little lower down the pay scale are the orange, blue, red, and green gems.

One of the most important symbols in the game is the attractive iridescent star, which only appears on reels 3, 4, and 5 and serves as the wild, standing in for all other symbols except the mystery symbol to help you make up those winning lines. These wilds also trigger one of the game’s features, which we’ll look at in the next section.

The mystery symbol comes in various forms depending on how many appear on the reels at once, from completely unlit to all six outer segments being lit. This special symbol, which you’ll only find on reels 2 to 5, also brings its own win-boosting effect to the game, as we’ll see next.

Twistar Features

For all its similarities to Starburst, Twistar has two unique features that make it very different. These haven’t been given the most descriptive names, being entitled based on their triggering symbol, but they are sure to impress nonetheless. Let’s check them out.

Mystery Symbols

The multicolored mystery symbols appearing on reels 2 to 5 are only activated to their full potential when six or more of them appear on the reels at once, which is indicated by all six sections of the symbol lighting up. When this happens, all mystery symbols will turn into another symbol chosen at random, which could result in a big payout for you!

Expanding Wilds

The star of this slot show is undoubtedly the wild symbol, which only appears as single symbols on reels 3, 4, and 5. When it does, the wild symbol expands to cover the entire reel, then the stack migrates over to its mirror reel (ie. reels 4, 5, and 6 move to reels 3, 2, and 1, respectively) as if picked up by a tornado (or twister, hence the game’s name). Once in its new position, the wild stack is held in place and a respin is triggered for a shot at additional wins at no extra cost.

As if that wasn’t exciting enough, these stacked wilds have more in store. If, on your respin, another wild symbol appears on reels 3, 4, or 5, that wild will again expand, migrate to its mirror reel, and trigger another respin, but this time the existing stacked wilds will be held in place again, giving you even more chances of scoring a win.

If you happen to land a wild on the same reel again, resulting in a stack of wilds twisting over to a reel that already holds a stack of wilds, the overlay will result in wild multipliers of 2x!

Twistar Payouts

So how much can you expect to win playing Twistar? The answer to that depends on several factors, namely, how much you bet per spin, how many matching symbols you’ve managed to line up along one of the game’s 40 paylines, and the value of those symbols.

Here’s a breakdown of Twistar’s payouts:

Symbol	x3	x4	x5	x6
Bar	0.5x bet	1x bet	2.5x bet	10x bet
7	0.35x bet	0.7x bet	1.75x bet	5.25x bet
Yellow gem	0.25x bet	0.5x bet	1.25x bet	3.75x bet
Orange/blue gem	0.1x bet	0.2x bet	0.5x bet	1.5x bet
Red gem	0.15x bet	0.3x bet	0.75x bet	2.25x bet
Green gem	0.2x bet	0.4x bet	1x bet	3x bet

As you can see, the most you can win from a single line in this slot game is 10x your bet. Since the bet values in Twistar range from $0.20 to $20, that means you could win a maximum of $200 from a single line.

Of course, that doesn’t take into account multiple wins from a single spin, the added wins from the activated mystery symbols, and the win-boosting potential of those twisting wilds and their triggered respins.

The developer, Inspired Gaming, states that Twistar has a maximum payout of $250,000!

Twistar RTP and Volatility

Many players like to know how the payouts of one slot compare to those of others as a way to decide which games are worth playing. This is where the commonly used metrics of Return to Player and Volatility (or Variance) come into play.

The RTP of a game is defined as the percentage of played funds that is paid out to players over the long term (i.e. millions of rounds). You can think of this as the opposite of the house edge, which is the cut the casino keeps. Twistar has an RTP of 95.08%, which is just below the industry average for slots of 96%.

The volatility of a slot is the balance between small, frequent wins and larger, less frequent wins and where on that scale the payouts of the game lie. Low volatility games tend to offer small, frequent payouts on a fairly stable basis, whereas high volatility game payouts tend to be much more unpredictable and variable, with more potential for larger wins. Twistar is rated as a medium volatility slot, which means you can expect a decent amount of variability in terms of both the size and frequency of payouts. That makes for an exciting experience!

Cosmic Wins With A Twist!

Twistar is at risk of being labeled a cheap copy of Starburst and while there are some similarities between the two, this slot has plenty of unique features that make it appealing and very much worth playing.

The transference of stacked wilds across to another reel is something you’ve most likely never seen and the way in which this happens lends the game its unusual (if not slightly awkward!) name. Add to that the mystery symbol transformation effect, the respins, and the potential for wild multipliers and you’ve got a really fun and rewarding experience in store.

Twistar has just been released at several New Jersey online casinos including Golden Nugget, SugarHouse, Borgata Casino, and 888casino.

Ready for some twisted wild payouts? Have a read of our detailed reviews of the New Jersey online casinos linked above and join the one you like best. Claim the site’s welcome bonus for some extra funds to play with, then open Twistar and spin to win!