Neon Staxx Pokie Machine
Looking like a 1980’s video game, the Neon Staxx pokie is actually a pretty sophisticated machine from Net Ent that brings the retro style to online casinos worldwide. The distinctive design and bright colours makes the ‘Neon’ part of the name obvious, while the ‘Staxx’ refers to the way symbols are stacked one on top of another to potentially bring in multiple wins in a single spin.
Anyone who has watched 1980’s cartoons or played games from the era will recognise the inspiration for the Neon Staxx video pokie, where symbols of animals that remind us a bit like the Thundercats are joined by chrome-effect playing card icons across the 5 reels. A digital landscape that looks like something from the original Tron movie sits being the game and the reels are angled away from the bottom to further the impression that we are playing in an arcade. It might not be to everyone’s taste, but those of us who remember these things are going to love the nostalgic style.
Running from the left side, there’s 40 paylines and all of them are permanently activated, although the low limit needed to get the reels spinning is set at just 0.20, which can be raised up to a maximum of 100.00 for those on bigger budgets. If anyone wants to test the game out, then they will find that most online casinos offer free Neon Staxx video pokies.
Playing Neon Staxx
Green, purple, pink and orange chromed J, Q, K and A playing card symbols pay out the smaller wins when 3 or more of the same land across a payline on adjacent reels from the left. The higher-value symbols are stylish representations of animal heads, starting with a snake that’s worth up to 40x the coin value, then we see an eagle and a panther, while the top wins from standard symbols come from the lion, which pays out 100x when it stops right across a payline.
The most valuable symbol however, is a wild, which is easy to spot because it’s got the word splashed across it in pink lettering that’s in a very 80’s style. Like all wilds, it can stand in for other symbols if needed and complete winning combinations, but unlike many games, in this one it’s also the highest-value symbol, paying out 15x the coin amount if it’s on reels 1, 2 and 3, while lines of 4 are worth 30x and a full run pays 200x.
Any of these symbols can be randomly selected at the beginning of each spin to become a SuperStaxx symbol, filling entire reels that are also randomly chosen at a time. If several reels get filled with the same symbol then players can get multiple winlines completed in a single spin, and if these are the higher value icons like animals or the wild, then the rewards can be substantial. It’s not certain that a win will occur with this feature, but it can help.
Neon Staxx
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Scatters And Free Spins
The only symbol that can’t be SuperStaxx-ed is the scatter which is a strange picture of a pink pyramid in a blue-ish circle. This is the key to a free spins bonus game that’s launched when the scatter appears in any 3, 4 or 5 places at once, with 10, 15 or 20 extra games starting respectively.
To make these spins potentially more rewarding, the playing card symbols won’t be stacked with each game, meaning that there’s a higher chance that players will get bigger payouts as the animal and wild symbols can fill entire reels at once.
It’s not possible to retrigger the free games, so once the allocated number of spins have played out the bonus ends and players are returned to the base game.
The Verdict
Neon Staxx is deliberately designed to appeal to a certain audience and has become very successful, so clearly Net Ent knew what they were doing when they decided to produce an online casino game that’s unashamedly old-school.
The highlight is the way that multiple reels can get covered with the same symbol type and as this is what gives this pokie its name, perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by this, but there’s more than that going on and the wild substitutions and free spins bonus games certainly help to bring in some extra winnings for players.
Like all Net Ent games, it’s reliable, can be trusted to deliver fair results and has a high return to player percentage, although something else that it has in common with much of this range is that it’s not mobile-optimised.