The Next Generation Slot Misses the Mark for This Fan
As a Next Gen fan, I sometimes wonder how the Enterprise ever made it through a single mission. Picard’s delivering Shakespeare while absolute chaos unfolds behind him, Riker’s seducing anything with a pulse, and Troi’s main contribution is announcing that the obviously hostile aliens are… feeling hostile.
Meanwhile, poor Worf gets tossed around so often it’s basically a weekly Klingon slapstick hour. It was a fun ride, though.
Coming into it, my expectations for BGaming’s Star Trek: The Next Generation slot were, perhaps unfairly, sky-high. And, well, I’m not convinced the game quite lived up to the hype.
Make it so!
The Star Trek: The Next Generation slot offers 3,125 ways to win across a 5×5 grid of reels. Betting starts from $0.20 and goes up to $45 per spin. With a maximum multiplier of 10,000x, you have a shot at up to $450,000 in winnings when betting at the $45 per-spin maximum. The slot offers an RTP of 96.46% and features medium to high volatility.
A three-segment Power Meter to the left of the reels tracks consecutive cascading wins during a single spin. Each cascade fills one segment. Reaching three consecutive cascades on a single spin activates the respin feature, with any additional cascades granting extra respins.
As the meter fills, the game stores up to three of the highest-paying symbols from the winning cascades. These are carried into the bonus round, and the meter fully resets at the start of each new spin.
The respin feature is played on a deciated set of reels that pays both ways. All positions are first turned into mystery symbols. You then select one of the saved symbols, prompting all matching mystery positions to reveal themselves.
Winning symbols are removed, and the remaining symbols drop down without replacement. This sequence is repeated for the second and third saved symbols. If the reels are completely cleared after the third reveal, the Warp Speed Wheel is triggered. If any individual respin produces a win below your total bet, you receive an additional respin until a single-spin win equals or exceeds your bet.
The Warp Speed Wheel is triggered only by clearing the reels during the respin feature. You will then begin at Level 1 and attempt to make it to Level 3.
- Level 1: 10x–25x or a Level Up.
- Level 2: 50x–200x or a Level Up.
- Level 3: 500x–5,000x.
Your round will be concluded as soon as any cash prize is awarded. The values are then calculated using the bet that triggered the original respin feature.
A round of the slot’s free spins feature is triggered with three or more scatter symbols, which only land on reels one, three, and five.
Once triggered, you will be given the choice between four different missions, three of which offer a different number of free spins, multiplier start values, and multiplier progression. The third option is the Random Mission, which spins three bonus wheels to determine your starting position.
If you would prefer to trigger the bonus features with a purchase, that is an option too. For 75x your bet, you can purchase a round of free spins, and for 30x your bet, you can buy a round of the respin feature.
What would Jean-Luc think of the Star Trek: The Next Generation slot?
Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the Star Trek franchise, would almost certainly have disapproved of his vision being turned into a slot game. Which, from the outset, makes me a little uncomfortable as a huge fan of the franchise. And while the likeness of the crew in the Star Trek: The Next Generation slot is pretty good, the location setting is terrible.
I am assuming it’s meant to be the Transporter Room, but it’s not at all faithful. As a fan, I would have preferred the setting to be the bridge of the Enterprise and the various bonus levels to be other decks. The Engine Room, for instance, would have been perfect for the free spins round.
Altogether, the mix of cascading wins, mission-style free spins, and the escalating prize wheel gives the game a bonus setup that feels lively, varied, and capable of delivering some genuinely exciting moments when everything lines up. It’s just a little ruined for me by my expectations and misgivings. This review is very biased, but I’m giving it a six out of ten.
If you’re looking for some BGaming slots that I do recommend, try Snoop Dogg Dollars and Clucking Hell.
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