One of the most exciting developments in Australian gambling over the past few years has to be the rise of Lightning Link pokies. Lightning Link is an entire group of pokies with unique themes and bonus features, but similar gameplay. They haven’t made the jump to being available to play online – you’ll need to play them for real money at a real-world casino – but they simply cannot be missed.
This is going to be a bit of a different kind of slot review than usual, since we’re going to cover the whole series instead of each game individually. With 16 Lightning Link games in total, is there enough variety here to keep punters hooked?
Lightning Link pokies have the following features:
One of the most unique parts of Lightning Link games is that you can choose the amount of money you’d like to play with. Depending on the amount, there will be a different amount of paylines. If you bet one or two cents, there will be 50 paylines, but a bet of one or two dollars shrinks that down to five paylines. No matter how much real money you want to spend, you can have a ripper time playing Lightning Link slots.
Since the Lightning Link series has been around for a while, and with so many pokie games included, it might seem a bit strange that they’re only available for real play. That said, there are heaps of slots that took years to become online pokies. As long as they stay popular, there’s likely a good chance that Aristocrat will bring the Lightning Link series to online casinos.
The 16 Lightning Link slots are:
Every Lightning Link slot features stunning animation that really brings the featured characters to life. With gorgeous backgrounds consisting of everything from a historic arena, a purple sunset reflecting off the water, and even the curve of the moon in space, there is heaps to enjoy looking at.
Since Lightning Link games follow a similar format, you can expect to see the same variety of symbols on the reels. Each pokie has Wild and Scatter symbols, plus a third themed bonus symbol we’ll talk about below. That said, because each of the pokies is differently themed, these symbols are unique as well.
We mentioned above that every Lightning Link slot has its own take on bonus play. Which machine you play dictates which feature is available. You might find that the second, third, and fourth reels combine to form a giant symbol during your free spins, or there might not be any playing card symbols on the reels, increasing your chances to get both higher-value and special symbols. While all of the Lightning Link games play similarly, these different bonus games offer heaps of variety.
Lightning Link games also do have a bonus game in common. Known as the Hold and Spin feature, every game features special symbols with numbers or words. If you can manage to get six or more of these on the reels, the feature activates.
The goal of the Hold and Spin feature is to fill the reels with these special symbols. You’ll have three free spins to do it, and every time you get even one symbol, your free spin counter will reset to three. When you run out of spins, you’ll win everything on the reels. If you can manage to fill all the reels, you’ll also win the Grand jackpot, which is shared among all of a casino’s Lightning Link games. The Grand jackpot is a progressive jackpot which starts at $10,000, and is one of the highlights of Lightning Link slot games.
There are also smaller jackpots – Mini, Minor, and Major – that can be won during the Hold and Spin feature, if you’re lucky enough to get them on the reels. Unlike the Grand jackpot, these can all be earned several times, so activating this bonus game improves your chances for a big real money win.
Since Lightning Link pokies aren’t available to play online at the moment, you aren’t able to use promotions like welcome bonuses or deposit bonuses on them. That said, there may be some casino games similar to Lightning Link titles that they can be used on.
All Lightning Link slot machines are created by Aristocrat, one of Australia’s biggest pokies developers. Since the 1950s, Aristocrat has been developing innovative real money pokies, with the Lightning Link series being just the latest example. While they have focused more on their digital games in recent years, Aristocrat remains one of the most well-known companies in the casino gaming space. They continue to develop fresh and exciting new pokies for both online and real-world casinos.