Five Star Power Reels (Red Tiger): Review

It’s worth noting that, instead of using its newly obtained Megaways license to revive one of its older classics, Red Tiger chose to introduce an original mechanic called “Power Reels”. As the first of several upcoming slots to receive this treatment, Five Star originally launched in 2016 and was promoted as “a slot that looks and feels like a classic fruit slot with the exception of the Five Star symbol“.

In the remake, the main change is that everything has been scaled up by enlarging the grid and, with it, greatly boosting the game’s potential. In essence, that’s also what the Megaways idea is about, but here it’s delivered in a more polished and user-friendly format. In Five Star Power Reels, you get a somewhat unusual layout of 8 reels, 5 rows and 5 paylines that pays both ways. The payline count might look surprisingly low for such a large grid, but the added reels allow longer line hits of up to 8 symbols on a line.

Feature-wise, things remain the same as in the original. There’s the Repeat Spin feature, which replays your winning spin a random number of times, essentially paying the same win again up to a maximum of 10 times the original amount. You also have the Five Star Instant Win feature, which can award cash prizes of up to 1000 times your stake. The slot is playable on any device, including mobiles and tablets, with stakes ranging from 10 cents to 10€ per spin.

Styled to resemble a traditional fruit slot machine, Five Star Power Reels pairs its gameplay with an electro synth-driven soundtrack that only kicks in when the reels are spinning. The setting resembles a land-based casino, and the symbols include cherries, lemons, oranges, plums, grapes, and watermelons. The top-paying symbol is the flaming lucky 7, awarding 200 times your stake for 8 across a full payline.

Five Star Power Reels (Red Tiger): Features

When it comes to bonus content, Five Star Power Reels is fairly straightforward and doesn’t include a standard free spins round. Instead, most of the attention is on the Repeat Spin feature, which can (but won’t always) activate after any winning result. If it triggers, the winning spin is replayed and paid again a random number of times, up to a maximum of 10 repeats of the initial win value.

Also watch for the Five Star logo symbol, as it can award a Five Star Instant Win cash prize – landing 3, 4 or 5 on the screen pays 25, 100 or 1000 times your stake respectively. On top of that, a Repeat Spin can also occur here, meaning the game holds potential for wins of up to 10,000 times your stake.

Five Star Power Reels (Red Tiger): Verdict

Although Five Star Power Reels is a solid remake and includes enough to make it feel more in line with modern slots, it still carries over the same shortcomings as the original. The visual presentation remains painfully generic and dated, and the features aren’t strong enough to fully support the experience. On top of that, the Repeat Spin mechanic can become irritating, as it triggers or teases on virtually every win, even the tiniest ones. Still, it can be valuable. The best way to tap into the game’s upside is to land 4 or 5 Five Star symbols and then hope for as many Repeat Spins as possible. As noted, that combination can produce huge payouts worth several thousand times your stake.

Even so, Five Star Power Reels isn’t a slot we’d plan to revisit. With gameplay that feels dry and a reel setup that looks cluttered, it’s difficult to see many players coming back to grind it purely for entertainment. And while the higher win potential certainly keeps this remake from being a complete write-off, there’s still too much missing to recommend it wholeheartedly.