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In the online casino space, few games are as widespread as Slots. There are hundreds of different slot games available online, all of them offering their own themes, mechanics and gameplay styles for players to choose from.
Fortunately, Slots can be divided into a few major categories which makes sorting through all the available options a little simpler. Whether it’s a more modern design like Epic Ape 2 or a game styled after the original fruit machines, let’s take a look at the main categories that slot games fall into.
1. Classic Slots
The most obvious category of slot games is those patterned after the original slot machine designs. These feature just three reels, one to a handful of paylines and very little in the way of additional gameplay or features.
Classic Slots are straightforward to understand, using the mechanics that were around in the earliest slot games. This makes them ideal for players who want to stick to the core gameplay and are less interested in the extra twists and turns of more modern slot game designs.
Plenty of classic slot games will also feature fruit symbols and tend to go lighter on their overall theming.
2. Video Slots
The name video Slots seems a bit redundant, as all online Slots are digital in nature and are presented through video screens. But this is where many modern designs are grouped, distinguishing them from the more minimal designs of classic slot games.
What sets video Slots apart are their use of additional gameplay mechanics, higher numbers of reels and paylines, as well as their greater use of theming.
In fact, there are so many games that fall into the video Slots category that we can divide them up even further into a variety of subcategories that include the following entries.
3. Progressive jackpot Slots
These slot games are defined by their jackpot, in contrast to other games that feature a fixed one. How progressive jackpots work is that a small fraction of each wager made on one of the connected games will go towards the overall jackpot, helping it to climb higher every time the reels are spun.
But, because progressive jackpots have the potential to rise so high, the odds of landing the jackpot combination are generally lower relative to games with fixed jackpots.
4. Megaways Slots
Another category of slot games, Megaways Slots, are defined by the central game mechanics that set them apart from plenty of other games. Megaways games feature reels that can show between one and seven symbols per reel on any given spin.
These games also do away with the traditional paylines system, in favour of counting matches where enough matching symbols appear adjacent to each other on the reels. Plus, many Megaways games feature cascading reels that see fresh symbols ‘fall’ onto the reels once any matching combinations have cleared away.
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Of course, there are plenty of other categories of slot games out there.
With new games debuting in online casinos regularly, the number of Slots is only going to continue growing, but many of them will still fall into one of these categories.
