Start with volatility
The Super Scatter prize is rare. Most of any session is base-game spins, and that is where these five games really differ. Over 210–380 spins at $2, Sweet Bonanza took only $40 from us, Mahjong Wins left us $88 up, and Sugar Rush swallowed $330.
The game rules rate Sweet Bonanza and Mahjong Wins as low volatility, Gates of Olympus and Starlight Princess as medium, and Sugar Rush as high. The max win is 50,000x the bet everywhere except Mahjong Wins, where it is 100,000x.
How wins are paid
Gates of Olympus, Sweet Bonanza and Starlight Princess pay for 8 or more matching symbols anywhere on the 6×5 grid. They don't need to touch.
Sugar Rush pays for clusters on a 7×7 grid: five or more symbols joined horizontally or vertically. When a spot explodes for the second time, it gets a 2x multiplier, and each later explosion doubles it.
Mahjong Wins is closer to a classic slot. It has five reels, up to 2,000 ways and pays left to right. Gold tiles on reels 2–4 turn into wilds after a win.
Multipliers in free spins
In Gates of Olympus and Starlight Princess, every multiplier in free spins adds to a total that lasts until the round ends. Ours reached 84x in Gates of Olympus and 94x in Starlight Princess.
In Sweet Bonanza, bombs from 2x to 100x show up only in the bonus and clear when each tumble sequence ends. Even with two 100x bombs, our round barely covered its cost.
In Sugar Rush, the marked spots stay until the bonus ends and can grow to 1,024x. In Mahjong Wins the multiplier rises with each cascade (2x, 4x, 6x, 10x) and resets when the chain stops.
What our bonus buys returned
A regular buy costs 100x the bet and Super Free Spins cost 500x. Mahjong Wins only offers the regular one. In the other four games we first bought one of each, then bought more.
| Game | First 100x free spins | First 500x Super Free Spins | Three Super Free Spins rounds, % of cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gates of Olympus | 64x | 560x | 62% |
| Sugar Rush | 52x | 196x | 61% |
| Sweet Bonanza | 66x | 502x | 47% |
| Starlight Princess | 16x | 575x | 88% |
Across three rounds, Super Free Spins failed to pay back their cost in every game, from 47% in Sweet Bonanza to 88% in Starlight Princess. The first round paid for itself in three games out of four, which says more about luck than about the mode. Bonus buys carry almost the same RTP as base-game spins. Our bonus buy guide looks at whether Super Free Spins are worth 500x.
RTP
Base RTP: Sugar Rush 96.58%, Sweet Bonanza 96.51%, and Gates of Olympus, Starlight Princess and Mahjong Wins 96.50%. A gap of a few hundredths of a percent won't show up in one session. What matters more is which version a casino runs, and the game rules always show its RTP.
The buys have their own RTP, and those are close together too: Super Free Spins run at 96.49% in Gates of Olympus and Starlight Princess, 96.51% in Sweet Bonanza and 96.55% in Sugar Rush.
Our version comparison shows how four of these games differ from their originals and the 1000 and 2500 editions.