Explanation of a Feature on Pokies

One feature is a bonus game that gives you the chance to win (extra) prizes.

Until not so long ago, a pokie machine was a pokie machine. You had three real reels (very sometimes four) with symbols on them that came to a standstill after a few spins and then showed a winning combination. Or not.

After each spin, which lasted three to five seconds, you knew immediately if and how much you had won. Most pokies don’t run that old-fashioned anymore.

The vast majority of pokie machines nowadays are a bit more complicated, especially in online casinos. Every pokie machine has a ‘basic game’. If you click the start button, the reels will spin and depending on which combinations appear, you’ll win a prize.

But sometimes a combination appears that doesn’t immediately earn a prize, but a ‘feature’: a short extra bonus game. It is also possible that you get such a feature completely randomly – so you don’t have to have a certain winning combination to play the extra game.

Pokie Free Spins

So what does such a feature consist of? That is different in the final analysis. Often you get a number of free spins (spins). Sometimes there are extra jokers on the reels during those free spins. Or all prizes are tripled. Or you are guaranteed a prize for every spin. Or…

You may also be able to choose a number of treasure chests (or safes, or suitcases) with prices inside. Or you can turn a wheel of fortune and win the prize indicated by the wheel. Or…

The possibilities are endless and game designers are becoming increasingly creative. On the pokie Aliens, for example, you fight a fierce battle with all kinds of extraterrestrials during the feature. The more you defeat them, the higher your prize.

Such a feature can seem just as complicated at first. But don’t worry, in fact all features are self-explanatory. In principle, you can never make a mistake and therefore lose your prize! Even if you have no idea what is happening, you will still win the price that goes with the feature.

How often a Pokie Feature Occurs

How often does such a pokie feature occur? That also depends very much on each pokie machine. When we write a review of a pokie, we always play 1000 spins and count the number of times the feature appears.

Sometimes the right combination only falls once in the few hundred spins, as on Lights. Other features fall once every twenty spins.

There you go. We hope he’s explained it clearly and we’re going to muse a little, back in time, when one of the first pokie machines with a feature was set up in a Land-Based Casino. This was a pokie machine with (of course) real spinning reels – so no video pokie.

When a certain combination appeared, a merry-go-round with horses with different symbols on top of it started spinning. Some horses yielded almost nothing, but if you turned the racehorse, your price could go up to 128,000 dollars (a good 58,000 dollars).

What are Scatters on a Pokie?

Scatters are symbols that don’t need to be exactly on a win line to produce a winning combination.

Nowadays there is almost no pokie machine that doesn’t have so-called ‘scatters’ or ‘scattered symbols’ on the reels. There is actually no good English translation of the phenomenon of scatters. Or you could end up with this kind of drivel:

Scattered symbols are stand-alone, criss-cross symbols that don’t have to fall into a winline to score a cash prize.

The Very First Scatter

Is it unclear? Don’t worry. Let us start at the beginning. In the old days, in the very old days, pokie machines only had one winning line – because the Internet was still far away. When the pokie machine was just new, that wasn’t a problem (yet), but after a while, playing got a bit boring. After all, you always had to get two or three of the same symbols (a cherry, a lemon, a bell, an orange) on your only winning line before you won a prize.

Pokie machine developers saw through that problem pretty quickly. As a result, the cherries on the pokies machines were programmed differently. From now on, you’d also have a prize if you got two cherries in view, anywhere on the reels. This made the ‘cherry’ the first type of scatterer in history.

According to this principle, the scatters still work. However, the scatters are no longer a cherry (it still happens, seldom happens), but take on all kinds of forms. From flowers, crowns and treasure chests to dollar signs, gold bars and beehives(!), you name it.

Often three or more scattered symbols entitle you to a prize. These scattered symbols do not have to fall on a winline of a lock, but count crisscross-scratch as long as you see them in the picture. Sometimes they also act as a joker, but they don’t have to. Often the scatters also activate a bonus game, but that also differs from pokie to pokie.

In Short

There are innumerable offers for innumerable enjoyable pokies on the Internet. To see the trees through the forest we offer the most fun and generous! Have fun playing!