Space Miners

Space Miners Review

Mining asteroids for gold, gems and other precious metals is what people like Elon Musk and others are not only dreaming about, but actually working towards with a somewhat realistic prospect of getting there in terms of technology (at least at some point in the future). Perhaps Relax Gaming’s latest release, Space Miners, can inspire those with such lofty ambitions, and getting aliens to do the job for us would certainly help.

This game comes with a fun intro well worth watching at least one time, and it’s classic grid slot tile blocker removing action from start to finish. The grid can be increased from 3 to 10 rows, and a maxed out grid gives you a solid 1 million win ways. The progress never resets in the bonus round, and you have 4 tile blocker modifiers to help you out along the way.

Space Miners Slot - Reels Screen

Space Miners Slot Features

The 5 alien premium symbols are worth 0.6 to 5 x your stake for 6 of a kind wins, and you also have a crystal box Wild symbol that can land anywhere to help complete winning combos by substituting for regular pay symbols. Wilds always expand to cover all unblocked positions on the reel when they land, but the wild symbol holds no value of its own.

The name of the game is removing symbol blockers, and this is done when blockers are adjacent to winning symbols. You get a respin whenever you land a winner, and removed blockers increase the active positions as well as the number of win ways. The grid maxes out at 6x10 with 1,000,000 win ways, and everything resets on a non-winning respin in the base game.

Some of the Blocker tiles come with Power-up symbols, and when these are destroyed the corresponding power-up modifier is unleashed. It works as follows:

• Cross - removes all blockers in both the horizontal and vertical direction.
• Horizontal - removes blocker in the horizontal direction only.
• Vertical - removes blocker in the vertical direction only.
• 3x3 - destroys blockers in a 3x3 area on the grid.

UFO bonus scatters are collected in a meter when they appear, and you need 3+ in the same cascading sequence to trigger the Bonus Round. This awards 6 free spins, and you get +2 extra spins on top of that for each additional triggering bonus scatter. When scatters land during the feature, you get +1 free spin added to your tally per scatter.

The big difference between the base game and the bonus round is that Blocker tiles are permanently destroyed when removed. The grid never resets during the feature in other words, which makes it easier to reach the maxed out grid. In addition, non-UK players can pay 100x the stake to buy the bonus round, which guarantees 3+ scatters on the spin that follows. This also increases the RTP to 97.14 %.

The 200 Spins Space Miners Slot Experience

You get a decent taste of the base game, before we trigger the bonus round at 1:21 into the 2:18-minute highlights video. We only got 6 free spins though, and the feature was over almost as soon as it started. You can check it all out for yourself by hitting the play button below.

Review Summary

Maybe it’s because we have to test so many of them, but we are suckers for high-tempo games, and this is something Relax Gaming usually nails in their releases. Even with the turbo switched off Space Miners flows smoothly all the way, and the Reactoonz-like aliens are as charming as ever. Although the core features and tile removal mechanic is clearly inspired from several other releases, both from Relax themselves and others (see below), Space Miners does not come across as a copycat effort.

The base game is filled with dead spins and smaller top-up wins most of the time though, so players unable to purchase the bonus round will probably appreciate the high pace as much as we do. What’s missing here is a reward for maxing out the grid, which would have boosted morale to keep you going. The bonus round is very ‘hit or miss’, as you may expect from a highly volatile release, but the very solid 50,000x potential makes this a highly appealing grid slot experience.

If you love Space Miners Slot you should also try:

Cluster Tumble - is an 8x8 grid slot from Relax Gaming, and it also revolves around the blocker tile removal mechanic. This is done via cascading wins also here, and the blocker tiles can come with 3 unique modifiers. Clearing the grid increases the bonus round multiplier by +3, and you can win up to 20,000x your stake.

Cluster Slide - is a somewhat similar looking cluster pays release from ELK Studios, but this one comes with a tilted 7x8 grid that utilizes ELK’s gravity mechanic. You can benefit from up to 5 modifier wilds, and this is done by collecting winning symbols. The multiplier is upped by +5 if you get all 5 in the same round, which can award up to 10,000x your stake.

Gigantoonz - is the latest installment in Play’n Go’s highly popular Toonz range, and it plays out on a cascading wins 8x8 grid. Winning symbols are collected to charge the Quantumeter, and it awards 4 modifiers which culminates in the unleashing of the 2-step Gigantoon Mega Wilds modifier. The max win is 4,000x your stake.