Dude. Very. It is said that slots players come to the games for the chance at winning money but stay for the excitement of each individual win. Well, it says here that this excitement is only multiplied (so to speak) with expanding wilds.
With expanding wilds, playing slots goes like so: Spin the reels; watch the expanding wild symbol hit and get the thrill of winning; get that thrill again when the wild symbol expands to fill the entire reel; titter with glee when the winning paylines are revealed and the virtual coinage starts piling up.
You’d think that the presence of an expanding wild would pretty much automatically mean a win; after all, you’ve just tripled the number of wilds – which can be substituted for any other symbol for wins – on the board. Particularly in a “243 ways to win”-style slots game, one would assume expanding wild equals win. Sadly, this is not the case.
After all, in most slots games, you’ll have to hit some sort of matching combination in the first three reels. If a given spin turns out mismatching garbage in those first three reels, expanding wilds in both reels four and five won’t do the player one whit of good…
Absolutely! Frankly speaking, we don’t understand why ever single franchise-branded slots game and/or 50-payline slot coming down the pike doesn’t include the expanding wilds feature. And here’s another we’re still awaiting after 15 years in the business (this is written in 2017): How about a 3-reel 5-payline fruit machine-style classic slot – but with an expanding wild in the middle reel?