About Solar Nova
They say that space is the final frontier and there is plenty to explore in Solar Nova, a cluster paying video slot from Iron Dog Studios that’s played on a nine reel, nine row grid. As you play, a synthesised space themed tune waves gently in and out, and behind the grid we can see some distant planets with shooting stars.
This game has a space theme a bit like Spaceman and because it’s a 9x9 sized grid, there are 81 symbols at any one time. In the middle of the grid, on the very centre unit, there is a fixed Solar wild that is beating like a heart. Solar Nova employs a cluster pays system to wins, paying out when at least six matching symbols connect with each other vertically or horizontally.
As well as paying in clusters, this game also has tumbling icons. This means that, every time a winning cluster lands, the tumble feature will remove the winning symbols from the grid to allow new symbols to drop into the gaps and replace them. If new clusters form, the process repeats until no new wins are made.
There are seven different gems used as the normal pay symbols and the most valuable clusters consist of 25+ symbols. At this size, payouts can vary in value from 10x to 80x your total bet. On top of that, Rocket wild symbols can land at random to substitute for any regular paying symbols and can even contribute to more than one cluster at a time.
Solar Nova Statistics
Reels: 9
Slot Provider: Iron Dog Studio
Paylines: Cluster pays
Slot Theme: Outer space
Main Bonus Round: Solar Flare
Free Spins?: Yes
How To Play Solar Nova
How to Set Your Stake
In order to set your stake in Solar Nova, you need to click on the button with the coin symbol on it. This can be found in the bottom right corner of the screen. When you select the button, a plus and minus option will be presented to you, and you will be able to set the appropriate bet size.
How to Spin the Reels
The reels will spin when you click on the larger of the two bottom right corner buttons. This is your spinner, and it has a picture of a broken white circle on it.
Solar Nova Bonus Features
The Solar Wild in the middle of the grid can trigger its own feature. This is called Solar Flare where, on any losing base game spin, the Solar wild symbol will randomly transform symbols into matching symbols. When in free spins, this feature can trigger on winning spins too. The Solar wild has a counter placed on top of it and, if it is used in eight winning tumbles, it will trigger the Solar Nova feature. This will increase in size to 3x3 for one tumble, returning to its regular size after it has occured.
The Rocket symbol is a wild and when it forms part of a win, it is not removed by the tumbling feature. Instead, it moves to any adjacent position before the new symbols drop. All Rocket symbols possess an uncapped win multiplier that goes up by one whenever it is used in a winning tumble. There is also the chance a Symbol Teleportation feature might trigger. When this happens, the Rocket wild switches places with a regular pay symbol to increase the chances of a win.
If and when three Rocket wilds land in the base game, the six free spins will be awarded to you.
21.co.uk Review of Solar Nova
There are a load of great features packed into this cluster paying tumbling game which is similar to some of those found in their other slot titles.
Other releases from this studio include; Astro Newts MEGAWAYS, Wai Kiki and Robbin Robin.
