Ever since the launch of Lightning Link a decade ago, an increasing number of games have symbols with credits listed on them, with various ways of collecting them. The industry has a term for this: Cash on Reels.
The name makes sense – the prizes are listed directly on the reels themselves. And it is designed to showcase the potential money at stake if you can trigger the right scenarios.
We’ve covered various scenarios of this in terms of game write-ups on the site. For instance, the hold and spin bonus on Lightning Link is triggered based on the cash on reels symbols – getting six of them triggers that bonus. On Ultimate Fire Link, a similar bonus occurs when four fireballs land on a single spin.
Another model has the cash on reels prizes awarded when a symbol appears in the middle reel, like Devil’s Lock or Hot Hot Blazing Lock.
The challenge on many of these games is that these symbols prove to be line hit blockers because they don’t match up with anything and aren’t awarded if a certain scenario pays out. There are a few exceptions to this format, like Fortune Coin, which pays out coins automatically when they land.
The Cash On Reels feature often are an element combined with some other option, like a free spins bonus, meaning the money is spread across multiple features and bonuses, a sign of increased volatility. But players do seem to love it!
At this point, with the enduring popularity of Lightning Link and its sibling games, as well as so many other games that have picked up on the Cash on Reels format, it seems like the format is pretty entrenched as a slot staple at this point and won’t be going away anytime soon. Fortunately, it also seems like game makers are looking for new ways to play with such a format!
