As in Vegas, ‘what occurs in a black hole remains in a black hole’. Internet, thank you for that hilarious opening to my review of Pragmatic Play’s Gravity Bonanza online slot. Pragmatic Play previously explored space with Spaceman, but Gravity Bonanza is a more traditional online slot. It uses a tumble mechanic and a Black Hole symbol feature to hoover up symbols for a Gravity Bonus, maybe with a multiplier in free spins. If flirting with one of the universe’s most intriguing things seems appealing, join Gravity Bonanza.
A suitably attired spaceman hovers next to the reels on the right before a planetoid-filled sky over an extraterrestrial world’s fascinating terrain. The setting seems otherworldly, but Gravity Bonanza’s music is questionable. Personal taste, but the songs fit better at Café Del Mar at sunset than Earthrise over the moon. Not an awful music, simply out of place, but it doesn’t affect Gravity Bonanza’s gameplay.
Gravity Bonanza employs cluster payouts to win on a 7×7 grid. When 5 matching symbols land horizontally or vertically, wins are paid. Gravity Bonanza’s extremely volatile math model has a default RTP of 96.09% when betting 20 p/c to £/€240 per spin and 95.99% while buying the bonus round.
Gravity Bonanza’s pay symbols are all planets looking. Something like that. The 7 of them offer 0.2 to 1 times the stake for a 5-matching symbols cluster or 1,000 to 10,000x for a 31+ winning cluster. Gravity Bonanza has scatter, Black Hole, and no wild symbols. Tumble eliminates all winning symbols from reels when they hit. A fresh win may result from reel symbols falling to fill the gaps. With no new wins, tumbles stop.
Gravity Bonanza Slot Features
Gravity Bonanza has a Black Hole symbol, the Gravity Bonus, free spins, and a bonus purchase, despite its spacey theme.
Black Hold, Gravity Bonus
Only one Black Hole symbol can land during a spin and its tumbles. The Gravity Bonus indicator collects all instances of a random symbol in view and on subsequent tumbles after a Black Hole Symbol strikes. The pay table pays the total amount of symbols gathered when tumbles stop.
Free Spins
Hit 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 scatter symbols in the base game for 10, 15, 20, 30, or 50 free spins. In the free spins round, more spins are provided similarly. The Gravity Bonus payout is multiplied by x2, x3, x5, or x10 when the Black Hole symbol hits during the round.
Bonus Buy
Rapid entry into the bonus round costs 100x the wager. The feature activates when 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 scatter symbols land after purchase.
Gravity Bonanza Slot Review
Before Cygnus X-1 was discovered in 1971, black holes were just theoretical courtesy to Albert Einstein and Karl Schwarzschild. Interesting, black holes are formed when a massive star collapses in on itself, crushing its weight on all sides to compress it into a singularity, a point of infinite density and zero volume that attracts nearby objects. Using metaphors, Pragmatic Play is adept at incorporating all kinds of themes into its games. It must since the studio slings slots out the door so often. Pragmatic Play produces games at an alarming rate, and typically of good quality.
Some slots follow a similar template: choose a topic, create a base game feature, then extend it in a bonus round. Not because Pragmatic Play does this exclusively, but Gravity Bonanza usually goes this way, not terribly. Like true black holes, black hole symbols accumulate symbols to generate a Gravity Bonus and maybe a multiplier in free spins. Simple and enjoyable, intelligent but not game-changing, yet capable of 10,000x the stake.
Being ripped apart as you’re pulled over a black hole’s event horizon where gravity is so strong that even light can’t escape would be awful, right? In Gravity Bonanza, Pragmatic Play flips the premise so you want Black Hole symbols to hit as much as possible in an engaging, cosmic game.