Introduction to Neon Frames
Neon Frames is a casino slot from Backseat Gaming, mixing the classic casino imagery with a contemporary, energetic finish in a game where luminous frames can help you reach wins up to 15,000x the bet. It's no secret that slots containing artwork associated with gambling, like card icons or fruits, have always dominated casino lobbies, but that doesn't discourage studios from releasing new iterations of that look. This time, it's a super-clean composition enhanced by neon lights gracefully encircling all the symbols on the grid and highlighting the power of special features. With every glowing Wild landing, you'll mark the positions with pink frames, potentially also empowered by multipliers, in the hope of scoring the Trigger symbol on the same spin to transform all of them into Wilds. During the two bonus rounds, frames will stay persistent until activated or throughout the entire game, boosting the chances for big wins.
If you're curious what power those shiny frames bring, you can test them out in the demo we've set up at the beginning of this article.
Theme, Gameplay & Payouts
Neon Frames is a video slot from Backseat Gaming with 6 reels, 5 rows, and a cluster-pays win system that requires 5+ matching symbols to land horizontally and/or vertically adjacent. Within the bet selection panel, you can pick your stake from a range of options, starting from a Min.bet of 0.1 up to a Max.bet of 100. The game comes with a default RTP of 96.26%, although one lower variant of 94.29% is also available to operators, so make sure to verify your version before playing. Due to the game's high volatility, you should expect less frequent but more valuable payouts on average. It's possible to win up to 15,000x the bet in any single game round. The base hit frequency is 38.33%.
Neon Frames keeps things ultra simple regarding its main scene, making the centrally located grid the only element you can focus on. There are no animations in the background, just a purple wall with some faint white spots, which may pass for stars, suggesting that maybe we're somewhere in outer space. A funky dance soundtrack adds to the groovy vibe delivered by glowing symbols, further amplifying the sleek, futuristic atmosphere. The playing panel is encased in a hi-tech, polished frame, where icons land on 30 designated spots separated by subtle lines. The game is optimized for most modern devices, so you can play it on desktops, smartphones, and tablets alike.
The paytable comprises two sets of regular symbols, which award payouts whenever you manage to form them into clusters of 5 or more matching instances connected vertically and/or horizontally. Among the low-paying ones, you'll see classic numbers and letters from playing cards, including 10, J, Q, K, and A, awarding 100x the bet for a set of 25 or more on the grid. High-paying symbols consist of an apple, a banana, a pineapple, and cherries, bringing payouts ranging from 150x to 250x the bet for clusters of 25+ matching instances. The Wild is represented by a glowing pink letter 'W', while the Trigger symbol takes the form of a strawberry. Scatters appear as multicolored round badges with a star and the word 'bonus' written across.
Special Features & Slot Mechanics
What is the max win in the slot Neon Frames?
You can win up to 15,000x the bet.
What features are available in the slot Neon Frames?
The features are Cascading, Neon Frames, Berry Wild Burst Bonus, Strawberry Bonanza Bonus, and Feature Buy.
Cascading
Within the cascading mechanism, you'll have a chance to score multiple consecutive wins. Every initial combination is removed from the grid, causing the remaining symbols to drop and new ones to populate the board. This can potentially lead to more hits, thus extending the sequence until no new combinations can be formed.
Neon Frames
Each Wild landing on the grid marks the corresponding position with a Neon Frame. Additionally, if it lands with a multiplier, it will leave it inside the frame. The possible values range from x2 to x100. Any winning combinations landing on the frames with multipliers will be multiplied by the sum of their values. If a Wild with a multiplier lands on a position that already has an active value, it adds to it.
A Trigger symbol may land anywhere on the grid. It will wait until all cascading is over, after which it will activate and generate Wilds in all positions marked by Neon Frames. Next, it transforms itself into a Wild as well. All Neon Frames are cleared at the beginning of the next paid spin.
Berry Wild Burst Bonus
By landing 3 Scatters simultaneously during a single base game round, you'll activate 10 free spins. Throughout this bonus, all Neon Frames remain persistent between spins until activated by the Trigger symbol.
Strawberry Bonanza Bonus
With 4 Scatters achieved throughout a single base game spin, an enhanced version of the bonus is awarded. It also contains 10 free spins, but this time, all Neon Frames will stay on the grid until the end, even if activated by the Trigger symbol.
Feature Buy
In Neon Frames, you can make use of several Feature Buy options that allow for boosting base game spins, as well as triggering the bonus rounds instantly.
2x = Bonushunt Featurespins with a 3-times higher chance to trigger the bonus round.
100x = Berry Wild Burst Bonus with 10 free spins.
250x = Strawberry Bonanza Bonus with 10 free spins.
Final Thoughts on Neon Frames
Neon Frames is one of those games where you can't exactly tell if the simplicity was supposed to be its strength or if it's a product of rushed development and/or lack of creativity. The first impression is quite positive, appealing with the clean environment populated by crisp, glowing symbols and charged with an upbeat dance soundtrack. However, it doesn't go any further than that. When a game contains the word 'neon' in its title, you'd expect the light to be truly dominating all around, contributing to spectacular effects on every win and feature trigger. Here, all those animations feel somewhat underwhelming, stripped of the energy you'd normally hope for in such a setting. It’s all smooth and functional, just misses some zing that would make it stand out.
Feature-wise, Neon Frames gives off a Sugar Rush vibe with its position-marking mechanics enhanced by multipliers. However, instead of applying the highlight on the winning cells, it requires a Wild to land and generate the frame. This may feel like a downside initially, given that Wilds are much rarer than regular cluster hits, but there’s the Trigger symbol to the rescue, which transforms all marked areas into Wilds. That’s pretty much the essence of the entire sequence and source of all significant wins. We found it to be massively tricky in the base game, though, where realistic chances of achieving numerous Wilds over one cascading chain reaction are pretty slim, let alone finalizing it with the Trigger symbol. But, if you hit even a few with some high multipliers that happen to fall underneath a single cluster, it might deliver a proper hit. The situation turns much brighter during either bonus round, where frames remain persistent until activated in the first variant and they never leave the screen in the second one. There’s undoubtedly clear potential in this setup, even despite its simplicity.
Neon Frames is a relatively average production, with a clean yet slightly bare theme and a single, powerful, highly volatile mechanism based on Multiplier Wilds.
