Rio Stars Online Slot Machine – Free Play & Review

Do you hear the beat of the drums? Do you sense the excitement in the air? The famous Brazilian carnival is almost here! It’s time to loosen up and get ready for the party of a lifetime! We’re not the only ones who are excited, either. Red Tiger decided to get in the mood with their latest slots, Rio Stars! Can the game live up to its festive promises?

We really like how the developers handled the theme. The background image is filled to the brim with colourful, animated details. You’ll see all kinds of decorations, usually reserves for floats and dancers, now attached to each side of the reel. They even shake and bob in time with the rhythm of the drums!

If you hear the ramped up round of carnival drums, then Red Tiger’s release might drop a bonus. It’s not guaranteed, but the odds of one popping are increased. Special features which can appear include Rio Multiplier, Mega Wild, Rio Dancers, Carnival Reels and Free Spins. Except for free spins, all of these bonuses are triggered randomly.

Developer

Red Tiger Gaming are a relatively new studio. They were founded in 2014 by a team of industry veterans, and quickly took the casino world by storm!

It took them a year or two to find their footing, but after that, their slots were everywhere! Their success earned them several awards, all of which served to catch the eye of NetEnt. In late 2019, they bought Red Tiger, and brought it under their fold.

How to Play it

Rio Stars is played on a 5×4 board with 20 fixed paylines. Players can adjust their wager by tapping or clicking on the Stake button. This opens a dropdown menu, where you can choose your total bet. Punters can stake between $0.20 and 40 on each spin. A rather average betting spread, neither good nor bad.

The layout has remained more or less the same. It’s a bit too minimalistic on desktop, but we have no major gripes. It’s easy to use, and everything is labelled cleanly. Even if you’re brand new to online games,        you’ll be able to find your way around this user interface.

Autoplay has been handled quite nicely by the developer. Standard settings allow the player to pick the number of total spins and to set a loss limit.

If you want, you can open additional settings. Here, you can choose whether or not you want auto spins to stop on each bonus activation. You can also set a single win cap, which will stop Autoplay if you get a particularly juicy prize!

Eagle eyed punters will notice a very obvious distinction between low class playing card royals and every other symbol in this release. Usually, we wouldn’t be big fans of this. However, it has an actual gameplay purpose here, so we won’t complain about it.

Special Features

When you hear the background drums pick up the pace, you have a chance to score one of four random special features. These bonuses include:

• Rio Multiplier: A multiplier up to 20x can be added to your next win. Yes, not next spin; next win! You can hold on to the boost until you get a win. Additionally, if you score another multiplier while the first one is active, your existing multiplier is increased.
• Mega Wild: A large 3×3 Wild appears on the board. It can land in any position.
• Rio Dancers: This special feature adds a random number of Wilds to the reels, increasing your odds of winning.
• Carnival Reels: All low value playing card royals are removed from the reels for a single spin. High value icons take their place, and will form a guaranteed win.

Another bonus to look out for is the free spins round. You unlock it by catching three Scatters on the first, third and fifth reel. The number of extra turns you receive from this special feature is random. During each free spins, one of the four bonuses we mentioned above will be activated!

Maximum Payouts

Rio Stars has a high variance, with a jackpot worth 2000x your total stake. The slot’s RTP is 95.73%, which is slightly below the current industry average.

Summary

It’s not the best game we’ve ever played. But it was an entertaining release to occupy you for a few hours. The interplay between the bonuses is the most fun thing about Rio Stars. And when everything lines up perfectly, you get some fantastic prizes for your troubles.