Butterfly Staxx

A slot that’s all about butterflies? Call us surprised. There’s no denying the visual aspect of this NetEnt slot is amazing, if a few of them feel a bit similar to their FairyTale Legends games. But beneath this beautiful façade lies a sinister title that aims to take you for all you’re worth and then some more. Pretty graphics can’t make up for a low paytable, the fact there is only one special feature, and that even that bonus has caused massive displeasure with players due to how rare it is to pay out anything worth of note or how cocoons never seem to line up to grant wins. So we do firmly hope you don’t like butterflies too much, because NetEnt seems to want to nail them to the wall.

The visuals are amazing. The slot really shines at just leaning back and staring at the spectacle in front of you. There aren’t any overblown animations or a colour burst at everything that happens, but it’s clear that effort has gone into making this game look damn good. If pretty graphics are your thing, the NetEnt release will have you covered here. It is a delight to look at, and we can’t deny that.

No more than we can deny it feels entirely unsatisfying to play. The RTP claims it sits at 96.8%, something we’re having a lot of trouble agreeing with. Bonuses seem rare, and when they do appear, actual wins are terribly small, and the amount of dead spins in Butterfly Staxx is highly concerning. We’ve hammered Microgaming on this same topic, but now it seems NetEnt is looking to claim a piece of the pie. When the slot is labelling a 20x win as a ‘big win’, you know you’re in for a bad time.

There’s no progressive jackpot in this game and the fixed jackpot comes out remarkably disappointing, as well, with a five of a kind butterfly win scoring $120. This is just a disappointment all around, and it feels like when it comes to payment, it seems slots are shying away from any actual big wins, and are trying to become a visual spectacle, or to just be there for entertainment. But a big part of the fun is the chance to win. And when that chance is miniscule, people will leave and find something more suited for their tastes.

If you decide to play Butterfly Staxx, you can do so with a wager ranging from $0.20 up to $400. They made an effort to appeal to high rollers, clearly, and $0.20 per spin isn’t awful for people in lower paying countries. That said, we still wouldn’t recommend this game, because unless you get a ‘big win’ and cash out early, you’ve just wasted your time and what little extra cash you might have won.

When it’s all about butterflies, flowers are obviously going to make a big part of the scene. As well as letters in varying shades of green. Skipping aside our obvious distaste for these, a big part of what we feel was missing is there is a distinct lack of flowery or butterfly like decorations on the letters. Even a little bit of flair would have made them seem less bland, but right now they just feel like ticking off a checklist.

And while you have Wilds, they don’t pay anything and they can’t replace Scatters. There is only one bonus you can work towards, and that’s a Scatter triggered free spins. If you have three or more Scatters present on the reel, you can win between five to seven extra turns. And while these are active, only cocoons can appear on the playing field.

These cocoons can be dormant or active. When they’re active, they turn into a butterfly. From there, you can score wins from left to right, like during normal gameplay, and you even have the chance of potentially scoring a full screen of butterflies. The chance, however, is super low, and when we activated this special feature, it usually alternated between giving us the first two rows full of butterflies, and then the last three.