Over The Moon

Over the Moon: Slot Overview

'That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind', so said Neil Armstrong, the first man to step foot on our closest celestial neighbour, the moon. Or did he? There is talk Armstrong actually said 'a man', which is a small yet, in some ways, significant alteration to the original message. Either way, Neil was the first human, Gene Cernan of Apollo 17 was the last, and since 1972 no one's been back to visit the mysterious body orbiting planet earth pulling the tides and the subject of much poetic output.

In real life, that is. In books, movies, or tv shows, the moon and travel far beyond it is commonplace. Now players get a chance to traverse the cosmos in Over the Moon Megaways from developer Big Time Gaming. Despite the title, participants don't actually see much of the moon while playing the game. Instead, the background parts of the screen are taken up by interstellar gas clouds and loads of sparkling, twinkling stars. Oh, and Rockets, there are quite a few of those, parking themselves next to the 6-reel Megaways-powered game grid from time to time. The more, the merrier, too, as Rockets are needed to both collect Meteor Prizes as well as multiply their values. It would be hard to call Over the Moon a crazy freak fest of wild cosmic imagery, but it's not bad either, sitting comfortably alongside online slots such as Opal Fruits, Euphoria Megaways, or Hyper Respins, to name a few.

Hitting the spin button sets the gaming matrix in motion, dropping anywhere from 2 to 7 symbols onto each reel. With a ways-to-win system rather than paylines means, the varying number of symbols create a varying number of ways to win – up to 117,649 when the grid is maxed out. Before pressing go, players may pick a stake of 20 p/c to $/€20 and have access to 2 bonus buy options. These are 12 free spins for 70 times the bet or 12 Enhanced free spins for 140x the bet. No matter how Over the Moon is approached, it's very highly volatile and generates a return to player value of 96.55%.

In typical Megaways fashion, winning combinations trigger a reaction which removes them from the grid and replaces them with symbols from above. If a new win hits after this, then the feature triggers again, ending when no new win appears. Regular wins occur when matching symbols hit on at least 3 adjacent reels, beginning on the grid's leftmost side. Over the Moon's pay symbols have a classic Big Time Gaming feel about them, and in ascending order, include 9-A card ranks as the low pays, then a green gem, blue gem, red gem, and purple gem as the 4 high pays. Hit a 5-of-a-kind winning way awards 0.8 to 1 times the bet for the lows or 1.5 to 50 times the bet for the highs. One minor aside is the purple gem pays out for 2 OAK wins as well. Present on the four central reels is Over the Moon's wild symbol. The wild substitutes for everything except scatters, Meteors, and Battery symbols.

Over the Moon: Slot Features

While floating around Over the Moon's virtual void, keep an eye out for features such as Rockets, Meteor Prizes, free spins, Enhanced Free Spins, and the Win Exchange.

Rockets

Rockets may appear next to the grid on any spin or reaction. Up to 3 at the most. In the base game, Rockets display a multiplier of x1, x5 or x10. Each Rocket may also have up to 3 fuel cells lit on it. Following a reaction, Rockets with no lit fuel cells are removed, while other Rockets lose 1 fuel cell.

Meteor Prizes

When Meteor Prize symbols hit, they display a cash prize value of up to 100x the stake. Meteor Prizes are awarded for each of the Rockets in view. In addition, Meteor Prizes are multiplied by the multipliers displayed on the Rockets.

Free Spins and Enhanced Free Spins

Landing 3 Scatter symbols awards 12 free spins, plus 2 free spins for any extra triggering scatter. Free spins have an Unlimited Rocket Multiplier. The first Rocket in the round has a multiplier of x1; the second one has a multiplier of x2, and so on. Meteor Prizes are multiplied by all Rocket Multipliers on display. Also, a Battery symbol may land on the rightmost reel. When a Battery hits, all Rockets in view get their 3 fuel cells lit. The round extends when 3 or more scatters land awarding 4 free spins, plus 2 free spins for the 4th scatter symbol and beyond. If at least 1 of the triggering scatters was an Enhanced Scatter, then 12 Enhanced Free Spins are awarded. During this feature, Rocket Multipliers start at x2 and increment by 2 for each new Rocket that occurs.

Win Exchange

When a win of 80x the bet of more occurs in the base game, players may exchange a value of 80x the bet for 12 free spins. Alternatively, if a win of 25x to 80x the bet occurs, players may gamble it for the chance to win 12 free spins.

Over the Moon: Slot Verdict

Once upon a time, the deep blue sea presented one of humankind's greatest challenges and opportunities for travel or discovery. Since the evolution of rocket propulsion, our minds and dreams have significantly broadened to encompass not just our planet but the tremendous number of planetary objects out there in the depth of space. As well as sharing an explorative link in the physical world, the sea and outer space also share a link on the reels, with Over the Moon delivering a helping of money symbol collection action in the time-honoured tradition of games like Fishin' Frenzy and more latterly, the Big Bass Bonanza range - amongst many others.

One of those many others is Big Time Gaming's own contribution, Golden Catch, so the studio is quite well-versed in making these sorts of games. While rockets and anglers or fish and meteors might be about as far apart as it gets, the money symbol gathering action in Over the Moon should still feel comfortably familiar. In a nutshell - hit Meteors when Rockets are in view, collect their bounty. Within this framework, Big Time Gaming has added desirable extras such as multipliers and fuel cells, along with 2 types of free spin rounds with a progressive multiplier element to help augment potential thrills. When factoring on the additional gambling options such as the Win Exchange, solid stats, plus winning potential of up to 13,570x the bet in free spins, and you’ve got a solid platform for launching some symbol collection sorties from.

Some may argue that Over the Moon isn't the most striking game, visually speaking. There may be some truth to that, but it's not bad looking either, and reliably gets on with the business of delivering a highly popular form of online slot gaming in a uniquely run manner.