Slots Like Starburst: Similar Space and Gem Slots, RTP and Our Verdict

Looking for slots like Starburst? The closest similar slots and best Starburst alternatives are Starblast, Star Spinner, Stardust and Star Clusters, games that share Starburst’s gem and space theme, low volatility and expanding wild features. Below we compare each alternative and explain how it stacks up against the original NetEnt classic.

Starburst is a NetEnt slot built around an expanding wild that fills reels 2, 3 and 4 and fires a respin, paired with a 96.08% RTP, 10 two-way paylines and an official max win of 800x stake, available to play free or for real money at UK casinos.

Starburst is a 96.08% RTP slot game by NetEnt with 10 paylines, 5 reels and 3 rows. Released in 2012, it is low volatility and ranked #1 out of over 4,200 slot games on SlotsLike.co.uk. Starburst is ranked 1st out of all NetEnt games and its themes include Classic, Stars and Space. Its features are the expanding wild, the respin it triggers and two-way paylines. The closest games like Starburst on theme and gameplay are Stardust, Star Spinner, Starblast and Star Clusters.

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Pros and Cons

Reviewed by Paul Stone
Published: April 2026 · Updated: July 2026

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Pros

• Pays both ways on all 10 paylines, which effectively doubles your winning combinations versus a left-to-right only game
• Low volatility delivers frequent wins, ideal for extended sessions and clearing bonus wagering requirements
• The expanding wild on reels 2, 3 and 4 covers the whole reel and hands you a free respin, and a clean run can chain up to three respins back to back
• 96.08% RTP sits right on the UK online average, which is fair value for a low-volatility game you can sit on for a while
• Extremely fast-paced with no bonus loading screens or feature animations to wait through
• Free demo is available at almost every UK casino, so it is an easy way to try a new site before you deposit

Cons

• No free spins round at all, so if a proper bonus game is what you are after this will feel thin
• The 500x single-spin ceiling (NetEnt’s official 800x figure needs a stacked respin chain to reach) is small next to modern slots, so it is the wrong game if you are chasing a life-changing hit
• No multipliers, no progressive jackpot, no expanding features beyond the wild respin
• Very simple paytable with just eight symbols and modest individual payouts
• Sequels Starburst XXXtreme and Starburst Galaxy offer significantly more feature depth at similar stakes

How the Game Works

Starburst plays on a five-reel, three-row grid with 10 fixed paylines that pay both ways, left to right and right to left at the same time. This two-way system is what sets it apart from most slots of its era and is the main reason it produces wins so consistently. You can stake between £0.10 and £100 per spin, adjustable via coin value and level settings.

The Starburst wild is a jewelled multi-coloured star symbol. When it lands on reels 2, 3 or 4, it expands to fill the entire reel and triggers a free respin. If another wild lands on a different eligible reel during the respin, that reel also locks and expands and you get another respin, up to a maximum of three in a row from one paid spin. Because the paylines pay both ways, a wild covering an entire middle reel creates combinations in both directions at once, which is where the biggest base game wins come from.

Your stake is built from a coin value and a bet level rather than a single slider. There are always 10 coins in play, so the spend runs from 10p up to £100 a spin, and a few UK operators cap the top end lower at £10, £20 or £50. The hit rate is high for a slot this cheap to spin, landing a win on roughly 22.65% of spins, or about one in every 4.4. That is the trade you are making with Starburst: the wins arrive often, but most are small, and the real money only shows up when a full wild reel lines up with the high-value 7 and BAR symbols paying in both directions.

Player Sentiment

Across independent casino review sites and community forums, the pattern in how players talk about Starburst is consistent: praise for the two-way paylines, the expanding Wild respin, and how relaxing the low-volatility pacing feels for extended sessions, set against a recurring note that the single feature can feel thin once the novelty wears off. It’s the kind of split that tends to follow the game itself, players who want a simple, steady, wagering-friendly spinner rate it highly, while players chasing bigger features or a higher ceiling tend to mark it down, which is exactly why NetEnt built XXXtreme and Galaxy to serve that second audience.

The Sequels: XXXtreme and Galaxy

Starburst’s enduring popularity eventually led NetEnt to release two sequels. Starburst XXXtreme arrived on 15 July 2021, keeping the same five-reel gem theme but running at high volatility with an 87% hit frequency, random wild multipliers up to 150x per reel (x2 to x150), and a genuine max win of 16,800x stake, a big step up from the original’s 800x. Starburst Galaxy followed on 26 November 2024, taking things further still with an Avalanche cluster-pays system on a grid that expands from 5×5 to 7×7, a Feature Generator, a Mega Star multiplier collector, and a 17,288x max win. Both sequels retain the original’s gem aesthetic but trade its low volatility for considerably higher risk. The original Starburst remains the go-to for low-volatility play and bonus wagering, where a low, steady wagering-friendly game matters more than a big ceiling.

Clones, Copies and Alternatives

Very popular slot games get the full cloning and copying treatment, some games are exact clones with different graphics and some are similar with a few unique features, here are the very best clones, copies and alternatives to the original Starburst slot.

Starburst – but with bigger jackpots, Atlantean Treasures Mega Moolah is basically the same game but with a lower RTP and more jackpots.

Starburst clone from a different provider – Star Spinner by Blueprint is a full clone of the Starburst game maths, with a fruity twist on the classic space-themed Starburst original slot game.

A more volatile Starburst? – Crystal Sun. This slot game is more volatile than the low variance Starburst original game with very similar space / crystal themed graphics.

Starburst Free Spins alternative? Wild Wild West The Great Train Heist is the game for you, it has a very similar feel to Starburst with the addition of free spins bonus rounds.

Similar Slots Compared

If you want the closest games like Starburst, start with the four below. Each one borrows something specific from the original: the gem-and-space look, the win-both-ways maths, or the expanding wild that drives the respin. None is an exact replacement, and a couple actually push past it, so here is what each does differently and who it suits.

Starblast is the most shameless lookalike of the four, a Play’n GO build running a 96.6% RTP with near-identical gem visuals. It plays a touch punchier than Starburst, though it never caught on in the same way.

Star Spinner swaps the gems for bells and fruit, but the bones are pure Starburst: 5 reels, 3 rows, 10 paylines and the same expanding wild respin. If you like the rhythm of Starburst but have had enough of the space theme, this is the easy swap.

Stardust is the closest on pure mood: glowing gems on a dark purple space backdrop that could pass for the original at a glance. It comes from Microgaming rather than NetEnt, so the maths underneath feels a little different, but the look is the nearest match here.

Star Clusters keeps the gemstone look but throws out paylines for a cluster-pays grid, a Big Time Gaming idea that runs on 4 reels and 4 rows. It is the pick if you love the Starburst aesthetic but want a more modern way of forming wins.

Star and Space Themed Slots

Starburst leans on a bright arcade-gem look set against a space backdrop, and that mix spawned a whole shelf of imitators. The titles below all sit in the star or space corner of the lobby, and a few are worth a spin in their own right.

Space is an easy sell for slot studios: deep backdrops, glowing symbols and the hint of riches just out of reach. Starburst did not invent the theme, but its success is a big reason so many gem-and-galaxy slots followed. The ones here run from close cousins to looser takes on the same idea.

Popular Star themed slots

What counts as a star themed slot? Usually it means the night-sky kind of star rather than a celebrity, so think constellations, comets and the gems Starburst turned into a house style. A handful use famous-faces branding instead, but the gem-and-galaxy look is the one most players picture.

The theme stays popular because it gives studios an excuse for bold colour and big light effects, and Starburst is a large part of why it took off. The four below are the ones we point Starburst players toward most often.

Other slots in this corner worth a look are Star Wilds Hot Spins, Super Star Turns, Electric Tiger and Starmania.

More NetEnt Slots

More NetEnt games worth a spin if Starburst is what brought you here, all from the same Stockholm studio: Wild Water, Jack’s Beanstalk, Magic Maid Cafe and Asgardian Stones.

NetEnt is one of the longest-running names in online slots, founded in Sweden in 1996 and bought by Evolution in 2020. Players who land on Starburst often work through the rest of the catalogue for the same clean production, and our top five NetEnt titles are Starburst, Gonzo’s Quest Megaways, Gonzo’s Quest, Hotline and Twin Spin. Red Tiger, the studio behind Gonzo’s Quest Megaways, now sits under the same NetEnt and Evolution umbrella.

Our Verdict on Starburst

Starburst is not the most exciting slot ever made, and it has never tried to be. What it delivers is speed, reliability, and a two-way payline mechanic that makes every spin feel active. For low-stakes casual play, bonus wagering, or players who simply want a consistent, low-pressure game, it remains one of the best choices in any casino lobby.

Where it falls short is ambition. Players looking for free spins, progressive features, or meaningful max win potential will find Starburst frustrating. The sequels address some of this but change the character of the game considerably. The original Starburst is what it is: the most reliable workhorse in UK online slots, and the benchmark that slots like Starburst are still measured against.

SlotsLike rating: 7/10. The definitive low-volatility classic, unspectacular but dependable, and still the #1 ranked slot on SlotsLike for good reason.

Starburst Key Stats

Starburst slot information last reviewed: July 2026, verified against NetEnt’s official game data

Game Screenshot

Here is the classic screenshot of Starburst, showing the 5 reels and 3 rows where you can see the expanding wild star symbol and the sticky wild respin in action.

The Expanding Wild Respin

The only bonus in Starburst is the expanding wild respin. When the wild lands on reel 2, 3 or 4 it stretches to fill that reel top to bottom, holds in place and the game hands you a free respin. Land another wild on a different eligible reel during that respin and it expands too, setting off yet another respin, up to three in a row from one paid spin. The dream is all three middle reels stacked with wilds at once: with win-both-ways scoring that turns a 7 or BAR on reels 1 and 5 into a paying line in both directions, and that is where the 500x ceiling actually comes from.

Symbols and Paytable

Starburst keeps the paytable short. There are five coloured gems plus a lucky red 7 and a BAR. The gems are the low end: the purple and blue stones pay roughly 0.5x, 1x and 2.5x your bet for three, four and five in a row, with the green, orange and yellow gems paying a little more. The 7 and the BAR are the prizes: the 7 pays up to around 120x for a full line of five, and the BAR pays up to 250x. Because every symbol pays both ways, a single full line of BAR worth 250x in one direction is worth 500x once both directions count, the ceiling for a single non-respin line. NetEnt’s officially published max win for the whole feature is 800x stake, which needs wilds landing across a stacked respin chain to reach rather than a single spin.

Slots With the Same Features

Starburst has similar slots with the bonus features: Expanding Wilds, No Win Respins and Shifting Wilds.

Slots with Expanding Wilds

Expanding wilds are the heart of Starburst, so these four lean on the same trick: Football Gladiators, Haul Of Hades Super Spinner, Age Of Conquest and The Great Albini all stretch a wild across a reel to open up wins.

Games with No Win Respins

The free respin that fires when a wild lands, even on a spin that has not won yet, is the other thing Starburst is known for. Retro Reels Diamond Glitz and Banana Rock use the same idea, handing you an extra spin off the back of a feature symbol.

Games with Shifting Wilds

If it is the moving, sticky wild behaviour you like, Final Countdown and Poltava Flames of War both build their bonus around wilds that travel across the reels.

Sources & Verification

Primary sources checked and figures re-verified 9 July 2026: NetEnt’s official game pages for Starburst, Starburst XXXtreme and Starburst Galaxy, including their published RTP, max win, hit frequency and release date figures; and the UK Gambling Commission’s announcement of the 10x wagering requirement cap under Social Responsibility Code 5.1.1, in force since 19 January 2026.

Frequently Asked Questions