Berryburst MAX slot review

Berryburst MAX is a video slot from NetEnt with 5 reels and cluster pay across 3 rows. You need at least five symbols touching vertically or horizontally to create a winning combination in this slot. You can play Berryburst MAX in Online Casinos such as Mr Green, Maria Casino or Dunder.

Theme and game basics

Berryburst MAX is very much the same slot as sister game Berryburst, which was released at the same time. In terms of theme, there’s no difference between the two games. We have berries submersed in liquid, giving us the impression of a fruity summer cocktail where the Wilds are the ice cubes. Alas, the Wilds make infrequent appearances, which makes this game a lot less refreshing than we would hope for.
On the reels we find the same seven symbols as in the Berryburst slot: raspberries, dark berries (black currant or blueberries?), oranges, limes and the bubbled-up hearts, diamonds and spades.
The value of the fruits is the first difference we have noticed in this game. Where raspberries are worth 5,000 coins for a cluster of 15 in the Berryburst slot, they’re worth 10,000 coins in the MAX version. Oranges will still give us 5,000 coins in such a combination and the other two are worth 2,500 coins. The card suit symbols remain at 1,000, which is slightly disappointing.

Gameplay and features

Berryburst MAX has the same game mechanics as its sister slot. You need clusters of five or more of the same symbol touching each other vertically or horizontally in order to get a win. Wilds will substitute all other symbols and they will expand once they appear anywhere on the reels.
And, of course, you get your free re-spin when a Wild shows up on the reels. Mind you, if you have three Wilds showing up at once, you will still only get one re-spin. But should another one be added on that spin, another re-spin will follow. Since you can only get 5 expanding Wilds, you can never have more than 5 re-spins. And that is unlikely to happen most of the time anyway.
Here’s the main difference to the Berryburst slot: you can win a maximum of 6,000x your stake with the MAX version. The low variance games ‘only’ offers up 1,868x our stake.

Conclusion

The theoretical RTP (return to player) of Berryburst MAX is 96.23%. That’s another difference to the sister slot, which gives us 96.66% return. The difference seems small, but you will feel it. Berryburst MAX is a medium to high variance slot, meaning wins are a lot less frequent than in the low variance version. That can eat up your budget quite quickly as you wait for those big guns to hit.
The question is, is the wait worth it? We’ll, we managed to hit 4 expanding Wilds at one point (and only once during 200 spins, which isn’t too bad), getting a total of 3 re-spins. We won 250x our stake on that one and that was pretty exciting stuff. As usual, luck is a fickle lady and you can never count on wins like that. We find the low variance version a little more entertaining in the long run, but it never gave us the kick that we got from that one win. So, choose wisely and mind your budget.