Introduction
Aloha! Cluster Pays is a colorful and fun slot with a summery Hawaiian theme. The machine is made by the big game developer NetEnt, and with that it has everything we expect from a quality machine. NetEnt is also good at challenging the traditional, which they have also done with Aloha! Here you don’t spin in the usual way and win on paylines, instead clusters of symbols apply – hence the name Cluster Pays. This makes the slot extra fun as it brings with it a new and slightly unfamiliar element. With free spin rounds and sticky wilds, this is a slot machine that is easy to fall in love with. The summery theme is perhaps a little extra delightful for us Norwegians who, after all, struggle with a dark and cold winter that lasts far too long.
Paylines and stakes
As mentioned in the introduction, Aloha! Cluster Pays the usual layout with paylines spread across the reels. Firstly, the slot machine has more of both reels and rows than you might be used to, with its six reels and five rows. Usually, the paylines criss-cross these reels, in set patterns that can bring a win. In Aloha! Cluster Pays, on the other hand, you get a profit if you get the right symbols in a cluster. The bet variation is large, and you can bet on anything from 0.1 to 200 euros. This is done by choosing a bet level between 1 and 10, and a coin value from 0.1 to 2.
Theme and design
NetEnt is without a doubt one of the best developers when it comes to setting the mood, and they’ve really done that with Aloha! Cluster Pays. Here, all you have to do is dress up in your Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts and sit back in the armchair to dream away. The Hawaiian theme is implemented in everything from the background and symbols to the fresh and summery mood music that buzzes in the background. The symbols are everything from coconuts and pineapples, to Hawaiian flowers and masks. The Tiki man in the background will be extra happy if you win a really big cluster, and will celebrate with you. Each time you win, the winning cluster is set on fire, which quickly brings to mind Hawaii’s active volcanoes. In other words, the design is properly executed from start to finish.
Bonus features
The most attractive bonus feature in Aloha! Cluster Pays is the one that activates a round of free spins. Exactly how many spins you get will depend on how many symbols you manage to line up across the reels. Three symbols in a line give you nine free spins, while four symbols give you ten free spins. With five symbols, the number of free spins increases to eleven, and you also get twelve free spins for six symbols in a row. However, this is not the end, because you also have the option of activating even more free spins when you play on the first free spins you have won!
Another fun feature is the one called “sticky win re-spins”. This is one random feature that can be triggered anytime after a cluster win outside of the free spins rounds. The way this works is that the winning symbols in the cluster remain fixed on the wheel, while the rest of the symbols are spun away. If you get other winning symbols linked to the cluster, spinning will continue until no more winning symbols are added. This means that one can come up in quite impressively large clusters!
Aloha! Cluster Pays also has a kind of wild feature which means that interchangeable symbols that can appear anywhere take over the value of the symbol next to them. This means that you can get much bigger prizes due to larger clusters. Aloha! Does not have its own bonus rounds that are played outside the original game, but as the slot machine itself is so innovative in execution, this is not a great loss.
Benefits
- Great and fresh design
- Cluster gains
- Free spin rounds
Disadvantages
- No additional bonus games outside of normal gameplay
Summary
Aloha! Cluster Pay is a machine that lets you dream away to exotic Hawaii. Here, the colors, symbols and music are perfectly coordinated – exactly what we expect from a NetEnt slot. The non-traditional set-up with cluster pays makes the whole machine more exciting than it might have been as a regular machine with a 5-3 design. Cluster payment also means potentially larger prizes, and not least more of them. With free spin rounds that are not difficult to get hold of, it is also not difficult to keep the tension up during the game. On top of all of that, you also get “sticky wilds” which give you the opportunity to continue spinning on winning combinations. This is arguably one of the best features of Aloha! – reason enough on its own to test out this machine if you haven’t already.
