Sparky and Shortz Hidden Joules: Slot Review and Free Play Demo

Sparky and Shortz Hidden Joules Review

Once again Play’n Go takes you to Alpha Labori, a planet whose destiny hangs on the effort of the 2 robot heroes you get to be reunited with (if you’ve already played the original game, that is). Sparky and Shortz Hidden Joules comes with charming robot visuals that seem vaguely inspired by R2-D2 and C-3PO (the golden robot) from Star Wars. Shortz is the massive robot whose chest turns into the 7x7 Cluster pays grid, and Sparky is the smaller repair robot that hovers in the air on the right-hand side.

This is a more feature-rich affair than what you get in the first Sparks & Shorty installment, and the grid slot concept comes with a cluster pays system this time. The win multiplier increases via mega symbol generation, and special wilds can unleash different modifiers. The Mega Sparky Wild comes from collecting special wilds, and the multiplier only keeps building in the bonus round. The 6,000x potential is a bit lower than in the first game, but the max win probability has been given a significant boost (see details further down).

Sparky and Shortz Hidden Joules Slot - Reels Screen

Sparky and Shortz Hidden Joules Slot Features

You win by landing 5 to 25+ matching symbols in a cluster anywhere on the 7x7 sized grid, and the alien premium symbols award between 100 and 250 x your stake for a 25-symbol win. A 5-symbol win pays only 0.3 to 0.5 x your stake in comparison, and Wild symbols step in for any pay symbol to help complete and/or improve cluster wins as their core function.

There are a total of 6 wild symbols you can benefit from in this game, and these are categorized as the regular wild, 4 Special Wilds, and the Mega Sparky Wild. The Special Wilds trigger modifiers when partaking in a win, and this includes adding extra mega symbols, removing low-value symbols, adding extra regular wilds, or removing random symbols in different patterns to be replaced by a random matching symbol type.

You need to collect 4 special wilds to unleash the 2x2-sized Mega Sparky Wild, and this symbol is added when the cascading sequence ends. This can happen up to 3 times within the same sequence, and it plays out as follows:

• 1st trigger awards the Sparky Wild with a Special Wild.
• 2nd trigger awards the Sparky Wild with a Special or regular wild.
• 3rd trigger awards the Sparky Wild with a regular wild.

Whenever you land a cluster of matching symbols in the size of 2x2, 4x1, or 1x4, the symbols turn into a Mega symbol. The mega symbol still counts as the individual symbols it is made up from when part of a winning cluster, however, and each formed mega symbol increases the Win Multiplier by +1. The multiplier cannot go higher than x25, however.

Winning symbols are removed from the grid and collected by the Boost Meter seen down to the left. You need to fill the meter with 25, 60, 110 and 200 symbols, respectively, to progress through each stage, and the stages are known as +2, +3, +4, and +5. The meter resets between cascading sequences, and each achieved level determines how much the Win Multiplier increments per generated mega symbol. The meter stops working when you reach the x25 max multiplier level.

The Bonus Round triggers from 3 power cell scatters in view, and these will appear on reels 1, 3, and 5 only. You get 10 free spins for starters, and the Boost Meter does not reset for as long as the bonus round lasts. You win +5 extra spins from 3 power cell scatters in the same free spin sequence, and up to 100 free spins can be won in total per feature.

Sparky and Shortz Hidden Joules Slot - Feature Screen

Review Summary

We were quite charmed by the original Sparky and Shortz release, and the same can be said about this follow-up effort from the productive and creative crew that is Play’n Go. The traditional win ways system has been replaced by a cluster win system, which fits the grid slot concept like a glove. Significantly increasing the win multiplier isn’t all that easy though, as significantly leveling up in the boost system does not happen all that often. Still, the gameplay is entertaining all the way, as a lot is happening most of the time.

The special wilds can wreak havoc out of the blue, and the Mega Sparky Wild feature can certainly make a dent when unleashed as well. The Boost Meter comes more to its right in the bonus round, since it only keeps building for as long as the feature lasts, but lowering the max win from 10,000x to 6,000x seems like a strange choice at first glance. Look more closely, however, and you’ll see that the max win hit rate has increased from 1 in 100m to 1 in 15m spins. The volatility is a tad lower in this game as well, and all in all Sparky and Shortz Hidden Joules may turn out to have a broader appeal than the original game.