Emoji Planet Slot
Whether you’re on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or just sending a text on your iPhone or Android device, at this point it’s almost certain that you’ve used plenty of emojis in written conversation. Once numbering under 80, there are now well over 1,000 different icons that fit under this umbrella. The concept may have started with mobile phones in Japan back in the 1990s, but today, these pictographs are in use everywhere, and an understanding of them is almost a prerequisite for online communication.
It’s this ubiquitous nature that has prompted numerous media projects based on these smileys, including Emojiplanet by NetEnt, a new slot machine released by the online casino software provider in the summer of 2017. It’s filled with all of the characters and drawings you’ve seen a million times while texting with your friends and reading your Twitter feed – only this time, you’ll be able to score wins by clumping groups of these emojis together into big enough groups.
An Internet Culture Explosion
Take one look at the Emojiplanet video slot, and you’ll immediately feel like you’ve walked into a living representation of today’s Internet. The cartoonish graphics of emoji culture are all over this game, not just on the reels themselves but also in the many animated moving parts that are constantly flying about the background. Since this comes as a part of software by Netflix, this is all created using bright colors and excellent graphics, of course, and despite all the noise, the game is still extremely easy to navigate.
NetEnt games are always mobile-optimized as well, and this machine is no exception. Touchscreen functionality means that this is a game that’s very easy to play on your tablet or smartphone, with no download needed to enjoy the action on any device. Meanwhile, a wide range of betting options means that while this might be the type of game that appeals to a more general, low limit audience, high roller gamblers will also have the ability to get in on the action. In addition, a play for free version is available from the developer.
Grab a Handful
The Emojiplanet video slot doesn’t use the same format that you may be used to from most casino slot machines. Instead, this is a cluster pays game that is played over a 5x6 grid. That means that there aren’t any paylines or reels in the standard sense of the words, and wins can come from anywhere on the screen. Instead, what you’re hoping to do is to clump together identical symbols. If you have five or more connected to each other – which means that each one is touching at least one other vertically or horizontally – then you’ll score a win, with bigger clusters making for larger payouts.
All of the symbols in this game are emojis, of course, and there are essentially two different groups of icons. The lower-paying characters includes hearts, bombs, pizza, lips, and a rocket, all of which offer more modest prizes but have secondary functions that we’ll talk about below. The high-paying symbols include the pile of poo, the alien face, and the face with tears of joy. You’ll share in that joy if you can find a lot of these together on screen: just five in a row will earn you 2x your spin bet (40 coins at the minimum betting level), or up to 500x that bet should you manage to fill all 30 positions with this icon at once. Wild symbols are also available, which can fill in for any other icon in order to complete winning groups.
This game also uses a cascading reels feature. Each time you score one or more wins, those symbols will leave the screen, allowing new ones to fall in and take their place. If you score more wins, this process will repeat itself again. You’ll continue collecting wins and getting new icons until you hit a screen with no winning combinations available to you.
Powering Up
However, a single loss doesn’t necessarily mean your fun has to be over in this game. Each time you win with a combination of one of the five lower-value icons, you’ll help fill an associated meter on the right-hand side of the screen. Each time you collect 12 of a particular icon in total during a spin (and its associated cascading wins), you’ll completely fill the meter, allowing that special power to be activated once. A number next to each meter will show you how many uses you’ve stored up so far.
Each time it appears that your spin has come to an end, one of your stored powers will be used. These will usually result in wins that can keep the action going for a while longer. Here’s a look at each of the five potential bonus features you can trigger:
- Bomb: This feature will cause eight random symbols to be destroyed, with players earning an instant prize for each destroyed icon.
- Pizza: This feature will cause a 3x3 overlay of a randomly-chosen symbol to appear somewhere on the reels, instantly triggering a win.
- Kiss Mark: This will cause three sticky wilds to appear on the screen. Each of these can be used three times before being destroyed and disappearing from the reels.
- Rocket: This will cause a stack of 10 wilds to be added on and above one of the columns on the screen.
- Hearts: Your total win so far will be multiplied by the number of times you’ve filled the hearts meter, plus one. For example, filling the hearts meter once will end the round with a 2x multiplier, doing it twice will give you a 3x multiplier, and so on.
Texting for Fun and Profit
When you play Emojiplanet, you’ll immediately realize that this isn’t meant to be a typical online slot. The whole flavor and atmosphere of the game is lighthearted and silly, more reminiscent of a social game you might play on Facebook than a serious gambling machine. That’s by design, of course: this is a title that’s really trying to market itself to a mass audience, one that is more familiar with smileys and emojis than progressive jackpots and second screen bonuses. In the end, the casual play style is actually a lot of fun, making this feel a lot like a true game rather than just a way to place bets. If that’s enough to bring in some non-traditional gamblers, NetEnt will definitely consider this creation a success.
