James Dean pokie review

When James Dean was tragically killed at the age of 24 in a car crash, just before the premiere of his movie Rebel Without a Cause, the actor cemented his way into film history. The late star has also been idolised for his roles in both East of Eden and Giant, as well as for his looks, acting abilities, and what he represented (teen angst), so it only seems fitting a pokie has been created in his name – available to play online and on mobile devices.

Behind the pokies game is NextGen, the leading software developer, who have a reputation for creating slots based on celebrities, as well as movie and TV-themed pokies. As such, we’re here to decide whether or not they’ve met our expectations when it comes to the slot based on one of our most iconic pop culture icons in history.

How to play James Dean pokie game

James Dean will forever be remembered for his good looks and it seems NextGen understands this well with the 25 payline slot featuring several different images of the actor across the five reels.

Rolled out on the NYX platform, players are greeted to all things James Dean – classic film rolls, his fast cars, motorbikes, and more – all perfectly executed.

• Coin sizes: 0.02, 0.04, 0.10, 0.20, 0.40, 0.50,1.00, 2.00, and 4.00
• Maximum coins per spin: 25
• Minimum bet per spin: $0.50
• Maximum bet per spin: $100
• Scatter: Yes (James Dean Hollywood Star symbol)
• Wild: Yes (James Dean on a blue backdrop)
• Free spins:Yes (10 Free Spins with a 2x and up to 40 Legend free spins with a 5x multiplier)
• Bonus Round: Yes (Wild Re-Spins, Expanding Wilds, Pick Me feature, Gamble feature)
• Jackpot: 5000 coins
• RTP: 96%

The soundtrack is a bit confusing – one minute there’s a 50’s jukebox track blasting, and then next minute there is light, dainty music playing but you if you aren’t a fan you can simply mute this in the bottom left hand corner.

James Dean symbols

Perhaps the many faces of James Dean is enough to please the masses, or perhaps Nextgen ran out of James Dean’s favourite things as the software provider has included the traditional 10, J, Q, K, and A symbols as the lower value symbols.

The middle value symbols are more the actors style, including aviators, film reels, motorbikes, and cars, with the car being worth the most (five of a kind will score you 5000 coins).

Wild symbol: The Wild symbol is James Dean looking to the right of the screen with a blue background. It only appears on reels 2, 3, and 4 and substitutes for all symbols except the Bonus symbol, the Clapper symbol (only available in the Free Spins feature), and the Scatter symbol.

The Wild is also key to the Wild Re-Spins feature, detailed below.

Scatter symbol: The Scatter symbol is the Hollywood Star with James Dean’s name in it and is key to the Free Spins feature. You will also be paid 250 coins if you spin five of the Scatter symbols.

Bonus symbol: The Bonus symbol is James Dean looking down to the left with a purple background, and activates the Pick Me bonus.

James Dean bonus features

There are quite a few bonus features available on the James Dean slot.

Wild Re-Spins

The Wild Re-Spins feature sees three free re-spins awarded when players land three Wild symbols, and here all wins are tripled. Additionally, an Expanding Wild appears on reel 2, 3, or 4.

Free Spins feature

Spin at least three Scatter symbols to win 10 free spins in the main Free Spin feature, where all wins are doubled.

A Clapper symbol is added to the reels (specifically reel 3) in the Free Spins feature and every time it appears during the Free Spins feature players are awarded a certain amount of ‘Legend Spins’ up to four in one spin.

These spins are accrued and activated once you have completed the main Free Spins feature. Additionally, all wins have a 5x multiplier applied in the Legend Spins feature.

Pick Me bonus

When three or more Bonus symbols appear, the reels transform and you will be prompted to pick a James Dean symbol to reveal a prize of up to 150x your initial bet. Players may also be able pick a ‘Win All’ or a ‘Pick Again’ symbol, as well as the prize. This bonus round can be activated at anytime during the base game or the Free Spins feature.

Gamble feature

On every win a red Heart and black Clubs will appear in the corner for players to gamble their winnings. Here, players can quadruple their winnings by picking the correct suit (Diamonds, Hearts, Spades or Clubs), or double them by picking the correct colour (red or black). Though if you lose, you lose your initial winnings too.

Play James Dean on your smartphone or tablet

James Dean has been optimised for mobile devices so if you own an Apple, Android, or Windows smartphone or tablet you can play the pokies game anywhere you are connected to the Internet. Simply follow our links to Slots Million via your mobile browser to get tapping and win.

Our thoughts

We’ve come to expect a generous amount of features in Nextgen’s games and the James Dean slot has not let us down.

We managed to trigger the Free Spins feature almost right away, and while we only initially scored 10 free spins (with all wins doubled) we ended up getting another 10 with the Legend Spins, each with a 5x multiplier. On top of this we triggered the Pick Me bonus here too and won big.

The Wild Re-Spins feature was a bit harder to trigger, but when we activated it we won big, considering our bet size, which made it worth the wait.

Overall, visually the slot has been designed perfectly, and when it comes down to gameplay the bonus features make this slot worthy of the iconic star. Give it a go at Slots Million today.