Reel Rush Slot Review
Reel Rush is one of the rare slots where the game gets bigger the better you’re doing. Wins here don’t just pay; they peel covers off the reels and widen the board, so a lucky streak physically grows the play area underneath that sunny candy-coloured meadow. The sweet 2013 artwork is the first thing anyone notices, but the growing grid is the reason anyone stays.
The headline numbers are a 96.96% RTP, a 28% hit frequency, stakes from 0.5 to 100, and a maximum win of 1,000x the bet across up to 3,125 bet ways. It sits in NetEnt‘s brightest period, not far from Starburst and Berryburst, and it later grew a family of its own.
The original is still the gentlest of the bunch, and the meadow hasn’t aged a day. Whether the mechanics underneath have held up as well as the artwork is the real question here.
The Reel Pattern and Bet Ways
The reels aren’t a rectangle. Reels 1 and 5 are a single row high, reels 2 and 4 are three rows, and the middle reel stands five rows tall. Most of each reel starts covered by blocked cells, so a fresh spin plays on a small cluster of visible positions squeezed around the tall centre.
Wins pay left to right. Matching symbols on three or more adjacent reels, with no gaps, form a bet way, and every extra instance of the symbol on those reels multiplies the count of winning ways. Only the longest combination per symbol is paid.
That multiplication matters more here than in a fixed-line game, because the rows stack. Take three pineapples across reels 1 to 3 as the longest combination, with one on reel 1, one on reel 2 and three on reel 3. Multiplying the counts on each reel gives 1 x 1 x 3, so three separate winning ways pay at once.
The wild appears on reels 2, 3, 4 and 5, in the main game and in free spins, and substitutes for everything. A wild substitution pays the highest possible combination available in its bet way. It has no paytable row of its own.
All symbol values are multiples of the total bet, and they scale with whatever stake you’ve chosen:
- Strawberry: 0.2x for three, 5x for four, 20x for five
- Pineapple: 0.2x for three, 3x for four, 10x for five
- Yellow candy: 0.2x for three, 2x for four, 5x for five
- Green candy: 0.2x for three, 1.5x for four, 4x for five
- Purple candy: 0.2x for three, 1.2x for four, 3x for five
- Blue candy: 0.2x for three, 1x for four, 2x for five
- Any of the five coloured ovals: 0.1x for three, 0.3x for four, 1x for five
The ladder is shallow. A three-of-a-kind pays the same 0.2x across every fruit and candy, so the symbol you land barely matters until you reach four or five, where the strawberry pulls ahead of the pineapple and everything below it.
The five ovals are the filler tier, worth a tenth of the bet for three. Fruits and candies each occupy a single step of the ladder, and the gap between the top and bottom of the paytable is narrow by the standards of any era. Symbol values shown in the paytable are dynamic, changing with the selected bet, but the multiples stay fixed.
Re-Spins and the Growing Grid
A win in the main game doesn’t just pay: it sets off one Re-Spin, up to a maximum of five in a chain. Each re-spin uncovers two more blocked positions on the reels at the same time, and with them the number of possible bet ways climbs:
- First re-spin: 45 bet ways
- Second: 135 bet ways
- Third: 405 bet ways
- Fourth: 675 bet ways
- Fifth: 1,125 bet ways
- All positions uncovered: 1,875, then the full 3,125
The chain keeps going as long as each re-spin produces another win. It stops the moment a re-spin comes up empty, or when every position on the reels has been uncovered. Re-spins run at the same bet as the round that started them.
At the end of the chain, the total win from the re-spins is added to the win that triggered them, so a full run pays as one combined figure. Nothing is staked on the re-spins themselves; the cost of the whole chain is the single bet that started it.
Because the ways multiply rather than add, the later steps of the chain are where the money is. The jump from the fifth re-spin to the fully open grid nearly triples the ways again. The difference between a chain that dies on re-spin two and one that runs the full distance is enormous, even at identical symbol values.
Free Spins on the Full Grid
Uncover every position on the reels in the main game and 8 Free Spins begin. The round is played on the complete 5-reel, 5-row play area, all 3,125 bet ways live, at the same bet that activated it.
Free spins run until the counter reaches zero. There’s no retrigger inside the round and no multiplier on top; the payoff is the grid itself, fully open for 8 spins. When the round ends, its total win is added to everything already won from the triggering chain.
Once the round ends, the game returns to the round that activated it. The round can’t be extended once it’s running.
8 spins on the full grid is the entire reward for a maximum-length winning chain. What that means in practice: every free spin runs with the widest possible set of ways already open, so the round starts at peak coverage and simply plays itself out from there. The game returns to the round that activated it once the counter hits zero.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.6/10
An hour with Reel Rush feels less like gambling and more like tending a garden. Small wins open the meadow a little at a time, and every so often the whole field blooms at once. That visible, growing progress is the reason to sit down with it rather than any of its louder descendants, and it’s a genuinely rare pleasure in a slot this gentle.
The pacing is its best quality: with a 28% hit frequency, something is always opening up, so the shallow paytable never quite gets the chance to feel thin. What lets it down is the ceiling. 1,000x is everything this game can pay, the covers snap straight back afterwards, and its own sequels left that figure far behind.
So this one belongs to the slow evenings: a modest bankroll, a fondness for the candy-coloured 2013 school of design, and no great hunger for a life-changing hit. Chasers of big ceilings will find the meadow charming and small. Everyone else will find it still blooming.
Reel Rush FAQs
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What is the RTP of Reel Rush?
96.96%. That’s the total theoretical return, and it’s a healthy figure for a slot of this type. -
How do Re-Spins work in Reel Rush?
Every winning combination in the main game awards one Re-Spin, to a limit of five consecutive ones. Each re-spin opens up two additional blocked positions on the reels, raising the number of possible bet ways. The chain ends when a re-spin produces no win or when all positions are uncovered. -
How do you trigger Free Spins in Reel Rush?
You need to uncover every position on the reels in the main game through the Re-Spin chain. Once all positions are open, 8 Free Spins begin on the full 5-reel, 5-row play area with all 3,125 bet ways active. -
What does the wild symbol do in Reel Rush?
Wilds can appear on reels 2, 3, 4 and 5 in both the main game and free spins. They substitute for all symbols and always pay the highest possible winning combination in a bet way. -
What is the maximum win on Reel Rush?
1,000x your bet. It’s a modest ceiling by modern standards, in keeping with the game’s low-pressure style. -
What are the minimum and maximum bets on Reel Rush?
Stakes run from 0.5 to 100 per spin, and the selected bet applies to every spin, including Re-Spins and Free Spins. -
Can you retrigger Free Spins in Reel Rush?
No. The round runs for exactly 8 spins and ends when the counter reaches zero; there’s no retrigger and no multiplier inside it. The game returns to the round that activated Free Spins. -
How are bet way wins calculated in Reel Rush?
Matching symbols on three or more adjacent reels from left to right, with no gaps, form a win. The number of winning ways is the count of that symbol on each participating reel multiplied together, and only the longest combination per symbol is paid.
