Multiplayer slots are an interesting concept that work rather differently to normal slot games. Multi Balls has another interesting aspect to it, in that doesn’t follow the usual X-reels, Y-lines format of the majority of slots out there. Instead the balls drop into a pattern, with players required to get consecutive Balls lined up. Read our full review to get more of an idea of what we’re talking about.
Special Features
We’re treating the Multiplayer aspect of Multi Balls as a special feature, so we’ll explain how it works here. We’ll also tell you about the game’s other special feature, so read on to find out what to expect when you play the game:
Exploding Balls
This is a feature that you’ll have encountered numerous times before if you’ve played a few different slot games on the Virtue Fusion network. What happens is that you’ll hit a winning line and your winnings will be added to your account. Then, once the calculations have been done, the winning symbols will explode and any other symbols that were sat above them will fall into replace them in the line-up.
Once all the Balls have shifted position, new Balls will drop in from above the reels, filling up the remaining spaces. If this movement of the Balls creates new winning lines then they will also explode, with the entire exercise repeating itself until there are no more winning lines to be found.
Multiplayer Community Jackpot
There are two ways of thinking about Multi Balls, with the first being that it’s an ordinary slot game that plays out exactly as you’d expect. Then there’s the Multiplayer aspect of it, which plays out almost as if it’s entirely different game that just so happens to be tangentially linked to the main game. When it comes to that side of things in Multi Balls, it involves a Community Jackpot that gets added to every time you play the game. As you play you get a chance to earn Points, with Points being awarded if five or more Balls explode after being part of your winning line.
On the righthand side of the screen you’ll see the Community Jackpot amount as well as the number of Points you’ve earned from your game play, which are displayed in a cartoon beehive. Within said beehive you’ll see the number of players that are going to be paid out when the Community Reels spin, with the leaderboard located underneath the beehive. That will let you know whether or not you’re likely to be on the receiving end of a payout, with the amount dictated by the result of the Community Reels spinning.
The Community Reels
The Community Reels aspect of Multi Balls it what dictates how much all of the players involved will be paid out. There are three jars that are filled with liquid, which we’re going to generously suggest is honey, and more liquid fills the jars as the game goes on. Next to the jars you’ll see a cartoon sun with beams shooting off it, with each beam representing a certain amount of time and that time remaining displayed within the sun. When it gets to the point that there’s ten seconds left on the clock the reels will stop spinning and the leadership board’s places will be locked in.
Inside each of the jars is a Ball of a certain colour and character. Once the time has run out the Balls will spin in a manner similar to that of a traditional slot game. When they come to rest, the combination that they form will dictate how much of the Community Jackpot will be won. If there’s a random combination of three Balls then it will be 15% of the pot being split between those high enough up on the leaderboard to get some of it. Three White Balls will mean 30%; Three Bronze Balls will result in a 45% share of the jackpot; 60% of the jackpot will be awarded for three Silver Balls; finally, 100% of the Community Jackpot will be given out for three Gold Balls.
The top fifteen players will be seen on the leaderboard, but it won’t be that many people who are paid out each time. That’s decidedly randomly, with anything from the top one to the top ten players getting a payout, depending on the line-up of Balls in the jars at the end of the spin. As well as who is where on the leaderboard, you’ll also be able to see the maximum win that they’ll receive if the Balls line up in a way that triggers the jackpot. This amount diminishes the further down the leaderboard you find yourself, with the top player getting the most and the amount getting less as you go.
Gameplay & RTP
The Return To Player average of this game is probably the place to start, given that it’s quite complicated to understand. We mentioned before that this game is best split into two parts: the base slot that you play to earn Points and the Multiplayer game that you play every few minutes when the Community Reels become active. If we talk about that Multiplayer side of the slot, the RTP average seems entirely fair, sitting at 95%. We think anything around or above 94% is decent, so this definitely falls into that bracket. The problem is that the base game’s Return To Player average is 75%, which is genuinely quite terrible. Now the reason that you’ll have to think long and hard about that is that the majority of the slot is taken up playing the base game, attempting to earn Points enough to put yourself on the leaderboard. It’s all well and good the Multiplayer part of the game paying out a decent amount of the time, but there’s no guarantee that you’ll be on the receiving end of it. For starters, you’ll need to be close to the top of the leaderboard when the game ends to get any sort of payout, regardless of how generous the Return To Player average is. On top of that, you’ll need the Balls to land favourably when the Community Reels end their spin.
With that in mind, the RTP average isn’t very good when you weigh it all up. The majority of the time you’ll be playing a game with a Return To Player average of 75%, with the 95% only kicking in in a very specific set of circumstances. Of course, if enough players play the game at the same time the Community Jackpot can reach impressive heights, but you’re still going to have to get lucky to get a share of it. Which means that the gameplay needs to be particularly spectacular if it’s going to be good enough to capture your attention and encourage you to play the slot regularly. If we’re being honest, it probably doesn’t hit those heights. If you’ve played Bouncy Balls then you know how the game works, with Balls dropping in from a height and settling to form a pattern. The Exploding Balls part of the game does make it a little bit more entertaining and it’s good fun to see them disappear and new balls drop in place. You can feel as though you’re winning loads of money if it happens several times in a row, even if the reality is that you’re only winning a little bit. When you look at the Multiplayer side of the slot then things are a little bit more exciting, feeling as though you’re racing against others to be at the top of the leaderboard when the game’s over.
It’s still lacking in genuine excitement though, given that the Exploding Balls feature is the only one that occurs during the playing of the base game. The theming adds a little bit of joy to proceedings, even if it does feel a little bit confusing. It seems as though everything takes place in a woodland environment, even though there’s no particularly obvious reason why. Still, given that that is the theme they’ve gone for, they do it well. There are two trees either side of the reels, with one of them featuring a hole that a small bird sticks its head out of at random intervals. There’s a small ladybird that runs around the jackpot sign throughout the game and we’ve already told you about the beehive that contains information on both the number of Points you’ve earned and how many players will be paid out each game. The reels sit in front of a green meadow with a winding dirt path, plus there’s a sun symbol that contains the game clock and turns into a moon when the Community Reels are about to spin. Weirdly the actual Balls themselves don’t follow the woodland theme, despite the fact that each of them has its own personality. From a Green one with bucked-teeth and a dodgy set of facial hair through to the fiery Red Ball. Then again, no amount of theming is going to make up for a base RTP average that just isn’t good enough.