Starlight Princess Slot Review

If you've ever played Gates of Olympus, you already know exactly how Starlight Princess works. Released by Pragmatic Play back in September 2021, it shares that massively popular game's math and mechanics and wraps them in a bright, sky-high anime fantasy theme. It's a fun aesthetic if you like that style, but underneath, the rules are the same, medium volatility included.

To get into the free spins, you need four scatters to land anywhere on the board, which gives you 15 spins (hitting three more during the bonus adds another five). You can also just buy the bonus outright for 100x your bet. If you prefer grinding it out in the base game, there's a "Double Chance" ante bet. It costs 25% more per spin and adds extra scatters to the reels to double your chances of triggering the bonus naturally, though it turns off the bonus buy button.

The whole game revolves around multiplier orbs that range from 2x all the way up to 500x. But to build up your global multiplier meter, an orb has to land on a spin that actually wins. If a huge 500x orb drops on a dead spin, it just vanishes. It gets tougher: once you have a multiplier banked in your meter, it only applies to your next win if a brand-new orb lands on that specific winning spin. If you win but no orb drops, you just get the standard, flat payout.

I recently bought the bonus for 100x my bet, and it was a perfect example of how this strict mechanic plays out.

Early on, a 3x orb landed alongside a small 0.75x win. The game banked the 3x in my meter and paid out 2.25x. After that, I hit a frustrating dry spell: I had a few winning spins, but because no new orbs dropped with them, they all paid out flat and my meter stayed put. Finally, near the end of the round, the stars aligned: I hit a 1.50x win and a new 3x orb dropped. That bumped my total meter to 6x, turning the win into 9x.

Still, there was a lot of "empty air" in the bonus with plenty of dead spins. In the end, my 100x buy-in only paid back about 20%. It really shows how much the round leans on timing; you absolutely need a win and an orb to land at the exact same time to get any real momentum going.

Starlight Princess is one of a crowded field of tumble games now. Since it shares the 96.50% RTP and 5,000x max win with Gates of Olympus, deciding between the two really just comes down to which theme you prefer.

Pragmatic has definitely capitalized on the franchise since 2021. If you want higher volatility, Starlight Princess 1000 bumps the max win to 15,000x, and the Super Scatter version pushes it to an insane 50,000x. They've also released a 3x3 grid version called Pachi and a jackpot version (though watch out for that one, as the RTP drops to 92.10%).

If you find the strict multiplier rules in Starlight a bit too harsh, there are other options out there. Pragmatic's older Sweet Bonanza has a similar feel but doesn't use a running multiplier at all. Meanwhile, games like Kadita Ocean Fury or Popok Gaming's Fortune Empire are a bit more forgiving, letting you collect multipliers even on dead spins or applying your banked multiplier to all future wins.

But if you like the tension of needing that perfect combo of a board win and a multiplier orb, the original Starlight Princess still holds up really well.