Extra Stars
Ten paylines, not forty — and that single design choice is worth roughly twenty times more ceiling. Amusnet quotes a top payout of 5,000× the line bet here, and because your stake is divided across only ten lines rather than forty, that works out at about 500× your total bet. The same studio’s forty-line machines top out near 25×. Add a Star wild that expands to fill its reel and hands back a free respin every time it lands, and you have the most interesting thing Amusnet shipped in its December 2014 wave. The one number working against it is the return: 95.78%, below average, and 0.59 points under a sibling with an identical spec sheet.
- Free Demo
- At a Glance
- How It Plays
- Paytable
- Features
- Compare
- RTP
- Bets & Bankroll
- Tips
- Where to Play
- FAQ
- Verdict
Play Extra Stars Free
The demo below runs the real Amusnet client in play-money mode with the same certified maths as real play, so the expanding wild and its respin behave exactly as they would for money. The only thing free play cannot show you is the Jackpot Cards meters, which carry live values only at casinos running the progressive. This demo is part of our collection of free EGT slot demos.
Extra Stars at a Glance
How Extra Stars Plays
Five reels, three rows, ten paylines. There is a small disagreement worth knowing about: Amusnet’s sheet lists the lines as fixed, while SlotCatalog describes them as adjustable. We cannot resolve that from outside the client, and it changes how you should set your stake, so check the interface before you start rather than assuming either way.
The Star is the wild, and it is effectively the entire game. It lands only on the middle three reels — reels 2, 3 and 4 — and when it does, it expands to cover that reel completely and grants a free respin with the expanded wild held in place. Amusnet corroborates the mechanic on its own page by listing “Respin” as a special feature and describing a “Bonus Spin Mode”; SlotCatalog and an independent source both describe the expansion and the reel restriction the same way. For a 2014 classic, that is unusually well documented.
Everything else is deliberately plain. Stars, sevens and fruit over ten lines, a gamble on qualifying wins, and the Jackpot Cards draw arriving at random. There is no scatter and no free-spins round — SlotCatalog says so outright, and the studio’s “Bonus Spin Mode” phrasing refers to the wild’s respin, not to a separate bonus. Do not choose this game expecting a feature round; choose it for the respin loop.
The Story Behind Extra Stars
Extra Stars was released on 3 December 2014, and it did not arrive alone. Amusnet put out five machines that day — Burning Hot, 20 Super Hot, 40 Super Hot, Egypt Sky and this one — with Flaming Hot following twenty-four hours later. Six games in two days. What separates Extra Stars from most of that batch is that it shipped with an actual mechanic rather than just a different payline count.
The date is contested, as it is across this whole wave: SlotCatalog gives 1 July 2014 against Amusnet’s own 2014-12-03. We go with the studio, and note that the same publisher disagrees with Amusnet on Egypt Sky and Flaming Hot too — so a mid-2014 date on any of these games is probably that one source rather than a real second opinion.
The design idea behind it — a symbol that grows to fill a reel — is one Amusnet returned to repeatedly, in Versailles Gold and Grace of Cleopatra, where a randomly chosen symbol expands during free spins. Extra Stars is the leaner version of that thought: no free-spins wrapper, no random selection, just a wild that expands and buys you another spin whenever it turns up. It is the same trick, available constantly instead of occasionally.
Symbols and Paytable
Amusnet publishes the top line payout for the game and does not name or value a single symbol. What follows describes function, with sourcing noted wherever the detail came from somewhere other than the studio.
| Star (Wild) | The reason to play. It substitutes for the paying symbols, expands to cover its whole reel, and grants a free respin with the expansion held. It appears only on reels 2, 3 and 4 — two independent sources agree on that restriction, and it matters: a wild that cannot reach reel 1 or reel 5 changes which combinations it can actually complete. |
|---|---|
| The premium symbols | Where the 5,000× line payout lives. Amusnet quotes that ceiling for the game without saying which symbol earns it and without breaking out the rest of the ladder, which is standard practice across the studio’s 2014 titles. |
| The fruit and sevens | The mid and lower table, doing what they do on every Amusnet classic. Over ten lines they land less often than on the forty-line machines, and individually they pay more relative to your total stake — the direct consequence of dividing the same bet across a quarter as many lines. |
| No scatter | There is no scatter symbol in this game. SlotCatalog lists none and the official sheet names none, which is consistent with there being no free-spins round to trigger. Every win here comes from the paylines or from the wild’s respin. |
One claim we could not verify: a single secondary source states that the ten lines pay in both directions, right-to-left as well as left-to-right. Neither Amusnet nor SlotCatalog mentions it. That would materially change the value of every combination, so we are flagging it as unconfirmed rather than repeating it — and the in-game paytable will tell you in seconds.
Bonus Features
Expanding Star wild with a free respin
The signature mechanic. The Star lands on reels 2, 3 or 4, expands to fill the reel, and the game hands back a respin with that wild reel held. Two or three stars across the middle can turn an ordinary spin into a very good one, and the respin means every expansion is worth more than the win it just created.
Ten lines, not forty
The most consequential number on the sheet. Concentrating the same stake across ten lines instead of forty is what turns a 5,000× line payout into roughly 500× your total bet — about twenty times the effective ceiling of Flaming Hot or 40 Super Hot, which pay 1,000× a line across forty of them.
Jackpot Cards, named by the studio
Amusnet states it on this game’s own page rather than leaving it to the operator: a four-level mystery progressive on card suits, triggered at random after a paid spin and resolved by picking face-down cards until three suits match.
Volatility rated 3 out of 5
Published by Amusnet and independently confirmed as “Medium” by SlotCatalog. That is a genuine middle setting — more movement than the Super Hot line at 1 out of 5, considerably calmer than Rise of Ra at 4.
No free spins, no scatter
Stated plainly by SlotCatalog and consistent with the official feature list. The studio’s “Bonus Spin Mode” wording describes the wild’s respin, not a scatter-triggered round. Worth knowing before you sit down looking for one.
Gamble on wins
Listed officially alongside Autoplay and Respin. The studio does not describe the form; across this catalogue it is a card-colour guess that doubles a win or takes it.
Jackpot Cards — and here the studio actually admits to it
Amusnet names the feature directly on this game’s page: a “Jackpot Cards game made available at random throughout the gameplay”. That is worth pointing out because the studio stays silent about it on plenty of other titles, leaving reviewers to infer it from the range. Here it is documented.
The structure is the studio’s standard four-level mystery progressive, built on card suits — Clubs at the bottom, then Diamonds, Hearts and Spades. It can fire at the end of any paid spin regardless of what the reels did, and once it does you pick from twelve face-down cards until three of one suit appear. The suit you complete is the level you take.
Two caveats that always apply. The progressive sits outside the published 95.78% — that figure describes the reels, and jackpot contributions are funded separately, so it is not a reason to treat the return as better than stated. And whether it is running at all is your casino’s decision. Unlike some of the studio’s thinner games, though, Extra Stars does not depend on it: with a 500× effective ceiling and a respin mechanic, the base game can produce a real result on its own.
The Gamble Feature, Properly Explained
The gamble is confirmed on Amusnet’s official sheet, listed alongside Autoplay and Respin, so it is definitely present. The studio does not describe how it works. SlotCatalog gives the form that runs across this whole catalogue — a face-down card whose colour you guess, correct doubles the win and wrong forfeits it — usually with a cap on which wins qualify and a limit on consecutive attempts. Those specific limits are not published for this title.
The maths is the same as it always is: an even-money guess moves your expected return by nothing and only widens the spread. There is a particular reason to leave it alone here, though. The wins worth having on Extra Stars are the ones that come out of an expanded wild and its respin — those are the payouts the whole game is built to produce, and they are exactly the ones you should be banking rather than flipping a coin over. Gamble the small line wins if you must; never gamble a respin result.
- Expanding Star wild grants a free respin — a real mechanic, available on any spin
- About 500× your total stake at the top, roughly twenty times the forty-line machines
- Volatility rated 3 out of 5 officially and confirmed independently as medium
- Jackpot Cards named on Amusnet’s own page rather than left to the operator
- 95.78% is below the online average, and 0.59 points under Shining Crown’s identical spec sheet
- The wild reaches only reels 2, 3 and 4, so reels 1 and 5 never carry it
- No scatter and no free-spins round — the respin is the whole feature set
How Extra Stars Compares
This table exists to make one point, and it is the most useful thing we can tell you about Amusnet’s classics: the top line payout on its own means very little until you divide it by the line count. Every RTP and top pay below is taken from the studio’s own pages.
| Game | RTP | Layout & lines | Top line pay | Effective ceiling |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extra Stars | 95.78% | 5 × 3, 10 lines | 5,000× | ≈500× total bet |
| Shining Crown | 96.37% | 5 × 3, 10 fixed | 5,000× | ≈500× total bet |
| Burning Hot | 96.45% | 5 × 3, 5 fixed | 3,000× | ≈600× total bet |
| 40 Super Hot | 95.81% | 5 × 4, 40 fixed | 1,000× | ≈25× total bet |
Look at the last column. 40 Super Hot and Extra Stars are made by the same studio in the same month, and one of them can return twenty times more from its best line than the other. Then look at the first two rows: Shining Crown matches Extra Stars on layout, line count and top pay exactly — and returns 0.59 points more. If the expanding wild and its respin do not appeal to you, that is the machine to play instead, and it is not a close decision on the numbers alone.
RTP, Volatility and Win Potential
Extra Stars returns 95.78%, verified from Amusnet’s official game sheet and confirmed exactly by SlotCatalog. That is below the roughly 96% online average, and it is the game’s clearest weakness. The comparison that stings is Shining Crown: same 5 × 3 grid, same ten lines, same 5,000× top line pay, and 96.37% — 0.59 points more, for what is on paper the same machine.
What Extra Stars buys with that deficit is the mechanic. The expanding wild with its free respin is available on any spin rather than locked behind a scatter trigger, and that changes the texture of a session considerably: you are never more than one middle-reel star away from something happening. Whether 0.59 points of return is a fair price for that is a genuine judgement call, and it is the decision this review comes down to.
On variance, Amusnet publishes 3 out of 5 and SlotCatalog independently agrees with “Medium”. Two sources concurring on volatility is rare for a 2014 game and it fits the design: ten lines pay less often than forty, the respin adds occasional bursts, and the 500× effective ceiling gives the distribution a real tail. In money, the theoretical cost of play is 4.22% of turnover — €1 a spin at 600 spins an hour is €600 through the machine for about €25 of expected cost.
Bets, Bankroll and Session Planning
Amusnet publishes no stake range and SlotCatalog’s 0.01 to 1000 comes without a currency or a per-line qualifier, so we will not quote it as fact. The arithmetic that does hold is the line-count effect, and on this game it is the thing to understand before you set a stake. Your total bet is divided across ten lines, so the line bet is a tenth of what you put in — and because Amusnet quotes the ceiling per line, that division is exactly why 5,000× becomes a meaningful 500× of your actual stake instead of the 25× you get on a forty-line machine.
The practical consequence is that this game rewards a steady stake more than a large one. With medium volatility and a real tail, the sessions that matter are the ones where several stars land across the middle reels and the respins chain — and those are a function of how many spins you take, not how much each one costs. Pick a level you can run for a few hundred spins. And if the line count does turn out to be adjustable in your client, leave all ten active: trimming lines narrows your coverage of a wild that already cannot reach two of the five reels.
Playing Extra Stars on Mobile
It runs in HTML5 in a mobile browser with no download, and Amusnet lists the game as available on desktop and mobile with Autoplay included. The 5 × 3 grid is the friendlier of the studio’s two standard boards on a phone — fifteen symbol positions rather than the twenty the forty-line games cram in — and the expanding wild is the easiest kind of feature to follow on a small screen, because a full reel of stars is unmistakable at any size.
Five Things to Know Before You Spin
- Check whether the ten lines are adjustable. Amusnet says fixed, SlotCatalog says adjustable, and we could not settle it from outside the client. If they are adjustable, keep all ten on — the wild already cannot reach reels 1 and 5, so narrowing coverage further works against you.
- Judge the ceiling per total bet, not per line. 5,000× a line across ten lines is about 500× your stake. The same 5,000× on a forty-line game would be 125×. The line count is doing more work than the headline number.
- Watch the middle three reels, not the whole grid. The Star only lands on reels 2, 3 and 4. Once you know that, the game reads much faster — and it explains why some near-misses on the outer reels were never going to complete.
- Do not sit down expecting free spins. There is no scatter and no free-spins round. The respin from the expanding wild is the entire feature set, and the studio’s “Bonus Spin Mode” wording refers to exactly that.
- Compare it against Shining Crown first. Identical board, identical line count, identical top pay, and 0.59 points more return. If you do not specifically want the respin mechanic, that is the better-value machine.
Where to Play Extra Stars for Real Money
Jackpot Cards is an operator-side feature, so whether this game arrives with a progressive attached depends on where you play it. These are the EGT and Amusnet casinos we rate highest, each assessed against the same criteria.
9.0 safety index and just 21 black points — by far the cleanest mid-pool record.
The highest safety index we list, 12,000+ games and the full Amusnet range.
9.6 safety rating and fast e-wallet payouts — a clean, quick place to play.
Compare all 27 operators on our EGT casinos page. 18+, terms apply — read the review before you deposit anywhere.
Who Extra Stars Is For
Play if you want a real mechanic without a bonus-round wrapper. The expanding Star and its free respin are available on any spin, which makes this a far more active game than most of the 2014 classics — you are not grinding toward a trigger, you are watching three reels for something that can happen at any moment. The ten-line structure gives it a genuine top end too, around 500× your total stake, which is something the forty-line machines simply cannot offer. If you found Burning Hot or 40 Super Hot too flat, this is the fix.
Skip if the return is what you optimise for. At 95.78% you are giving up 0.59 points against Shining Crown, which has the same board, the same ten lines and the same 5,000× ceiling — you are paying that difference purely for the respin. Skip it too if you want a feature round to chase: there is no scatter, no free spins, and nothing to accumulate toward. What you see on the reels is the entire game.
Extra Stars FAQ
What is the RTP of Extra Stars?
How does the Extra Stars wild work?
Does Extra Stars have free spins?
What is the maximum win in Extra Stars?
How many paylines does Extra Stars have?
Is Extra Stars high volatility?
Does Extra Stars have a jackpot?
Can I play Extra Stars for free?
Our Verdict
One good idea, executed cleanly, at a price
Extra Stars is the most interesting machine Amusnet released in its December 2014 wave, and the reason is a single mechanic done properly. A wild that expands and hands back a free respin, available on any spin rather than gated behind a scatter, gives this game something almost none of its contemporaries have: a reason to watch. The ten-line structure compounds it, turning a 5,000× line payout into roughly 500× your total stake — twenty times what the forty-line siblings can reach. Amusnet also names the Jackpot Cards progressive on the game’s own page, which is better disclosure than most of the range gets.
The price is the return. 95.78% is below average, and it is 0.59 points under Shining Crown — a game with the identical board, line count and ceiling. That is the trade this review comes down to, and it is a real one rather than a dismissal: you are paying a measurable amount of expected return for a mechanic that makes the game genuinely more engaging. We score it 8.0. If the respin loop appeals, it earns its place; if you are optimising the numbers, its own sibling beats it.
Similar EGT Slots
The direct comparison is Shining Crown, which matches this game’s board and ceiling exactly. After that, the two classics that use the same expanding-symbol idea inside a free-spins round instead of on every spin.
Or browse every game we have rated in the EGT slot reviews hub.
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