Eyecon has proven to be an outstanding video slots provider, but that doesn’t mean that the developers don’t know where the slot magic comes from. They are perfectly aware of the charming nature of traditional fruit slots, so they wanted to share that with the world. Their slot Heartburst is a perfect example of a style that could be called “traditional theme meets modern implementation”. It’s not something revolutionary that hasn’t been ever before, but it’s always a welcome surprise.
By launching Heartburst, you won’t see 3D visuals, complex animation sequences, characters or storylines. You will see a classic fruit machine with a slightly broadened mechanism and some cleverly incorporated features that improve on the experience. The background is regal purple – no scenography. The slot’s logo is above the reels with little hearts bursting out of it. The reels are transparent, but one can make out 5 columns and 4 rows of symbols. Joined in a grid, these offer up to 100 paying lines. The game’s control panel is stripped to the bare minimum while still showing the essential settings.
The question mark icon opens the paytable and game rules. There are 11 symbols in total, if we count out the special symbols, and they award prizes from 100 to 3,000 credits per line. Apart from playing card icons J, Q, K and A, the reels are home to lemons, oranges, watermelons, grapes and cherries, as well as to bells and bars. The red lucky seven is the Scatter and the polished red heart is the Wild.
Heartburst is not your average traditional fruit machine, and that is reflected through its special features. For one, the Wild becomes an expanding Wild, covering all the positions on reels 1, 3 or 5 whenever it lands. It substitutes for regular icons and when it assumes a position in a winning combination the payout is tripled. Watch out for the Scatter sevens as 3, 4 or 5 of them initiate the Free Games bonus. This round brings 15, 20 or 25 free spins and can be retriggered up to 15 times in a row.
There are no strategies to this game. It is simple and straightforward, with honest potential for making things exciting. The heart is in the centre of the event, and so are the lucky sevens. Love and good luck are always welcome in our lives. In fact, they often guide them. If you’re low on patience and you want things to keep flowing, you can activate Autoplay and observe up to 100 automatic spins take place before your eyes without clicking anything. The wins are yours to keep. On occasions, the game may offer the optional Gamble future as well.
The theoretical return of 95.63% is reasonable enough and you will have the most fun triggering the free spins. Heartburst will send you some love with expanding Wild hearts; in the meantime, you can relax and browse fruit salad recipes as you play.