Electric Avenue: Overview

Yet another release from All41Studios, and the immediate thought is, “which game have they borrowed from this time?” It’s not a pleasant thing to say, but given their history of lifting mechanics and features from established slots, it’s difficult to ignore.

Working alongside Microgaming, All41Studios appears to have hit a creative slump. Several of their recent titles have leaned on elements that feel oddly familiar, and Electric Avenue keeps that pattern going. It’s a neon-soaked ride back to the 80s that takes more than a little “inspiration” from another well-known neon-themed slot. We’ll come back to that soon—first, throw on the pastel tones and get ready for another unapologetic case of imitation from one of the industry’s most hard-up studios.

To be fair, the theme is a strong start: it channels Miami’s South Beach with Art Deco touches and palm-lined scenery. It’s late afternoon sliding into evening, and the city is waking up as the party crowd hits the streets. It’s a tempting backdrop and sets the tone nicely.

Built on a 6-reel, 4-row setup, the slot uses the familiar 4,096 win-all-ways format, so there’s no need to follow traditional paylines. Neon dominates the presentation, lighting up the low symbols—spades, hearts, clubs, and diamonds. The rest of the paytable stays firmly in the 80s lane with a soda can, pink shutter shades, a Rubik’s cube, hi-top shoes, and a polaroid camera. Sitting at the top is the ghetto blaster, paying 50 times the stake for six of a kind.

On the numbers side, the bet selector runs from 20 p/c at the minimum up to $/€30 at the top end. The RTP is comfortably above average at 96.37%, and volatility is set to high. The hit rate is also fairly healthy at 25.7%. So far, so solid.

As noted, there aren’t paylines in the usual sense. Symbols can land on any row, creating 4,096 ways to win. Wilds help out by appearing on the middle four reels, substituting for any other paying symbol. These wilds expand to cover the entire reel and can arrive with a 2x, 3x, 4x, or 5x multiplier.

It’s worth remembering that even though the wild covers a full reel, an expanded wild still counts as a single symbol. Multiple wilds can land in the same spin, but only up to 2 of them can carry multipliers at once. That’s the base game covered—now onto the features that feel a little too recognizable.

Electric Avenue: Features

According to the studio, the action ramps up with the free spins choice. The DeLorean acts as the scatter, and landing 3, 4, 5, or 6 awards 2x, 5x, 10x, and 20x the stake. It also activates the Free Spins selection, where you choose between two modes—Electric Free Spins or Neon Free Spins.

Electric Free Spins begin with 7 spins and feature Power Wilds. Before the round starts, one symbol is picked at random. If it appears on the central four reels, it turns into a Power Wild and stays locked for the entire feature. If a reel ends up completely filled with Power Wilds, 3 extra free spins are added.

Neon Free Spins instead start with 10 free spins and revolve around the Wild Wheel. The Wild Wheel can show up on reels 2, 3, 4 or 5. When it lands, it spins and awards a random multiplier of 11x, 22x, 33x, 44x, or 55x. On average, the Wild Wheel is expected to appear roughly once every 2 free spins. Scatters also apply in this mode, and seeing 3 or more retriggers the feature.

Electric Avenue: Verdict

All41Studios has once again dipped into someone else’s toolkit, pulling out the features they wanted to bolster their own slot. This time, the target is Big Time Gaming’s well-known Danger! High Voltage. To be fair, borrowing ideas isn’t rare in slot design; it happens often, sometimes subtly and sometimes not.

What stands out with All41Studios is the frequency and the sheer lack of subtlety. If it happened once or twice, you might shrug it off. But when it feels like every new release follows the same pattern, it stops being amusing and starts looking worrying.

So, even with the copying, is it worth a spin? It does have positives. The features are enjoyable—unsurprisingly, since they’re lifted from a proven formula. That said, the Neon Free Spins choice offers 5 fewer spins than the High Voltage option, and the multiplier tops out at 55x instead of 66x. Both volatility and potential are reduced compared to the original. And that’s the odd contradiction at the core of Electric Avenue: if you’re going to mirror another slot, wouldn’t you want to deliver more rather than less?

Still, Electric Avenue is a good-looking game with a strong 80s vibe and competent production values. Once again, All41Studios show they have the technical and artistic ability to build something appealing—so the ongoing need to repeatedly recycle other people’s ideas remains a mystery.