To understand ways win slots, or, as they’re also known, 243 ways slot machines, you have to understand some of the basics of how slots work, especially as they relate to games with multiple pay lines. On a basic, traditional 3 reel slot machine, there is a single pay line, which is the center, horizontal line. When you line up a winning combination of symbols from left to right, you win a jackpot (small or large).

Modern slot machines often have multiple reels, which are what “spin” during your session on the game, and multiple pay lines, some of which go from left to right in a straight line, but some of which might also go diagonally or in a zig zag pattern. It’s not uncommon to find slot games with as few as one pay line, or as many as five to twenty five pay lines.

Here’s what a slot machine game with multiple pay lines looks like, with the actual pay lines all drawn out:

Slot machines with multiple pay lines can be a lot of fun, because they offer multiple opportunities to win, but they also cost more than a similar slots game with a single pay line. That’s because you have to place a wager on each pay line you want to activate. So if you’re playing a game with 25 pay lines, and it’s a quarter machine, to activate all the pay lines, you’d have to wager $6.25 on each spin.

In a sense, “ways win slots” have 243 different pay lines, which is every possible combination on a five reel slot machine. In another sense, 243 ways slots eliminate pay lines altogether. With these kinds of games, you win any time you get any winning combination from left to right, no matter what kind of “line” it draws. In other words, all the symbols act like adjacent scatter symbols.

Experienced slot machine players might already know what a “scatter symbol” is, but for the neophytes in the audience, here’s a simple explanation. A scatter symbol is a symbol on the reels that triggers a payout regardless of the pay line. In traditional video slot machine games, these are special symbols, but on these new brands of 243 ways slot machines, every symbol becomes an adjacent scatter symbol.

Below we’ve listed some of our favorite 243 ways win slots, along with brief reviews of the games. There are an almost countless number of these games available now; the ones listed below are just some of our favorites.

The Dark Knight Rises

The Dark Knight Rises slot machine game is powered by Microgaming software and borrows its theme from the recent Batman movie of the same name. The game has 5 reels and 243 ways to win. This game features a wild symbol that “expands”, which means it feels an entire reel, making the number of winning possibilities even greater. The game also features “split wilds”, which add an extra symbol on the winning combination. So it’s possible to have a six symbol win on a five reel slot machine game, which doubles the payout. Other unique features to The Dark Knight Rises include the “symbol scramble” feature and the “free spins accumulator” feature. With the symbol scramble, the game sometimes triggers this feature where all of the symbols on the screen are scrambled in order to produce the best potential winning combination. The free spins feature is triggered by getting 3+ scatter symbols. You then get to take on the persona of Bane or Batman while they fight and give you free spins.

Playboy

Players who enjoy sexy slot machine games will love the Playboy 243 ways slots game from Microgaming. The symbols on this game are made up of racy pictures of Playboy girls. The game also features a bonus game with 4 parts. There are also plenty of ways to earn free spins throughout the game. Different girls have special prizes—for example, Kimi awards you with 10 free spins and a 5X multiplier. The biggest potential win on this game is over a million coins, too.

Battlestar Galactica

The Battlestar Galactica game from Microgaming is another 5 reel, 243 ways win slot machine. You can play for a penny or a nickel per line, with a maximum bet of $15 per spin. The game features wild symbols, scatter symbols, and bonus games. The symbols include characters from the revamped version of the 1970s television show: Colonel Tigh, Apollo, Baltar, Starbuck, Six, and others. If you’re a science fiction fan, this game might be your #1 choice for a slot machine game.

The Lord of the Rings

This game is based on the popular series of Peter Jackson movies, which were, in turn, based on the JRR Tolkien trilogy. Unlike the other games we’ve mentioned, this is NOT a Microgaming game. Instead, The Lord of the Rings slot was designed by WMS Gaming. The symbols include some of the most popular characters from the movie, including Frodo, Gandalf, and Aragorn. Your minimum wager is 40 cents, and the game features eight different bonus games, all of which are based on important scenes from the film series. For example, one of the bonus games is based on the battle with the Balrog in the Mines of Moria. Like many themed slots, The Lord of the Rings has a “storyline”. The more you play, the more miles you accumulate in your journey. Those miles enable you to trigger bonuses and special effects.

This type of game is good for someone with a reasonable sized bankroll. Since there are so many ways to win, even a penny game requires a reasonably large minimum bet, although some of them are still affordable. (The Lord of the Rings game above can be played for a minimum of 40 cents per spin, which is within the range of reason for most gamblers, even low rollers.)

Players who like video games, storylines, and lots of bonuses and scatters will also enjoy these ways win slots games. Only very conservative players who like traditional slots should avoid these games.