Aloha

Aloha Slot Review

A smoking green volcano backs onto a still blue lagoon, a carved tiki head grins from beside the reels with a purple gem set in its brow, and oversized pink hibiscus blooms crowd the corner of the grid. Aloha is NetEnt‘s Hawaiian postcard, and it’s a rare slot that’s more fun to play before the bonus than during it. The base game keeps the best ideas.

That’s an unusual arrangement, and it comes from the build. Aloha runs on a 6×5 grid with no paylines at all – nine or more matching symbols in a connected cluster pay the win – and any cluster win can randomly lock in place and grow through re-spins. It returns 96.42% over the long run, with bets from 0.10 to 200. Cluster mechanics feel everywhere now, but this was an early answer to the payline. Sister titles Butterfly Staxx and Twin Spin Megaways show the softer and louder ends of the studio’s range; Aloha sits between them, gentler than it looks and smarter than it needs to be.

Base Game & Features

Every symbol on the grid is part of the same simple test. If nine or more of a kind sit touching – side by side or stacked vertically – the cluster pays. Symbols that only touch diagonally don’t count. A win can assemble itself in any corner of the six-by-five layout, which makes the whole grid worth watching rather than just a handful of lines.

There’s no direction to a cluster, either. A block of nine can snake along a row or bunch into a rough square, and the pay is the same each way. That single rule replaces everything a payline game spends its rulebook on:

• A symbol is part of a cluster if it’s horizontally or vertically adjacent to the same symbol
• Nine or more of the same symbol in a cluster awards a win
• Diagonal adjacency doesn’t connect symbols
• Cluster shape doesn’t matter, only the count of connected symbols

Cash and Coin Betting

The game can be played with cash or coins, and not every operator offers both modes. Switching between them happens in the Game Settings. In coin mode, the stake is set through two controls: a coin value and a bet level, multiplied together into the final bet.

In cash mode, the stake is a single figure chosen directly, which is the simpler route for anyone who just wants to pick a number and spin. Whichever mode is on offer, the range runs from 0.10 to 200 per spin, and the balance display follows the mode too, showing cash in one and coins in the other.

Substitution Symbol

The wild here is the Substitution Symbol, and it gets one job: it transforms into whichever adjacent symbol creates the best possible cluster, wherever it lands on the reels. The single exception is the Free Spin symbol, which it won’t substitute for. Simple, and quietly powerful when it drops next to a near-miss.

Because the choice is made for the highest possible combination rather than the nearest match, a single Substitution Symbol can complete a cluster you hadn’t spotted. On a six-by-five grid with clusters forming in every direction, that’s more room to work with than a wild on a fixed payline ever gets.

Sticky Win Re-Spins

Any cluster win can randomly set off the Sticky Win Re-Spin. It isn’t guaranteed, and there’s no symbol to watch for – a win either holds or it doesn’t. When it does, the sequence runs like this:

1. The winning symbols lock in place on the grid
2. All other symbols spin again
3. If the cluster grows, the new symbols stick too
4. The remaining positions re-spin, and the loop repeats while the cluster keeps growing

The loop only stops when a re-spin fails to add to the cluster. That’s the whole tension of the mechanic: every extra re-spin is a free chance to grow the win, and every non-matching symbol that lands is one position that can no longer help.

A modest nine-symbol win can build itself into something much larger across consecutive re-spins. Base wins that would be throwaway on a payline game get a second life here. The Substitution Symbol pulls extra weight during these sequences, converting into whatever the stuck cluster needs next.

Aloha Free Spins & Bonus Features

The bonus round is the quieter half of the game’s personality. Landing the trigger takes three or more Free Spin symbols anywhere on the reels in the main game – and they don’t need to be whole. A symbol peeling in partially on a single reel position counts towards the total, which makes the round noticeably easier to reach than a full-visibility requirement would.

That partial-visibility rule is worth pausing on, because it’s unusual. Most scatter-based rounds demand symbols fully in view on their reels before they count. Here, a Free Spin symbol straddling the edge of the grid still does its job, so near-misses that would be dead air elsewhere stay live until the reels settle.

Symbol Drop

Inside the round, the Symbol Drop mechanic comes into play alongside the base rules. The free spins carry their own name for a reason – the round isn’t simply the main game with a counter attached, and Symbol Drop is what marks the difference between the two halves of the game.

Retriggers

Retriggers are in. Additional Free Spins can be won during the round itself, so a good run in the bonus can extend well past what it started with. It’s the same lever the Sticky Win Re-Spins pull in the base game, applied to the whole round instead of a single win.

The main game asks whether one cluster can grow; the bonus asks how long a run of clusters can last. Everything in this game is built around wins that keep growing rather than wins that arrive finished.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.6/10

Aloha plays like an island that keeps its best beach away from the tourists. Most of a session is spent in the base game, and that’s the honest reason to choose it: clusters lock, the rest of the grid re-spins, and a nine-symbol win quietly talks itself into something bigger. No other slot from this era made the ordinary spin feel this much like the feature.

The Sticky Win Re-Spins are the best thing here, because they make even the smallest win worth watching to the last symbol. The free spins round is the disappointment: it’s generous to trigger and it retriggers, but it never builds on the hold-and-grow idea, so the bonus lands as a change of scenery rather than a step up.

This one’s for players who enjoy the build more than the arrival, and who like a pace you can settle into rather than chase. The bonus alone won’t carry a session here; the spins will. Easy like the lagoon, with just enough fire in the volcano.

Aloha FAQs

• What is the RTP of Aloha?

  The theoretical return to player for Aloha is 96.42%.
• How many paylines does Aloha have?

  None. Aloha uses the Cluster Pays mechanic instead of paylines: nine or more of the same symbol appearing in a connected cluster, horizontally or vertically adjacent, award a win.
• What is the grid size of Aloha?

  Aloha plays on a 6×5 grid – six reels across and five rows high.
• What is the minimum and maximum bet on Aloha?

  Bets run from 0.10 to 200.00 per spin, and the game can be played with cash or coin mode depending on the operator.
• How does the Substitution Symbol work in Aloha?

  The Substitution Symbol transforms into whichever adjacent symbol creates the highest possible winning cluster. It can appear anywhere on the reels, but it cannot substitute for Free Spin symbols.
• How do Sticky Win Re-Spins work?

  After a cluster win, the game may randomly hold the winning symbols in place and re-spin everything else. Any symbols that extend the cluster then stick as well, and the remaining positions re-spin again for as long as the cluster keeps growing.
• How do you trigger free spins in Aloha?

  You need three or more Free Spin symbols anywhere on the reels in the main game – partial visibility on a reel counts. Additional free spins can be won during the round.
• Can free spins be retriggered in Aloha?

  Yes. Additional Free Spins can be won during the Free Spins round itself.
• Who makes Aloha?

  Aloha is made by NetEnt. Its release date is 2016.