NetEnt Casino Review 2021

The Swedish company NetEnt has one of the more interesting histories in the online gambling space, stretching all the way back to 1963 with the founding by Bill Lindwall and Rolf Lundström of AB Restaurang Rouletter, a company that provided slot machines to restaurants in Sweden. That organization partnered with AB Roulett konsult & Spelautomater, and the combined entity rebranded as Cherryföretagen, or simply Cherry, in 1972.

Fast forward over 20 years, and in 1996, Lindwall’s son Pontus founded NetEnt, short for Net Entertainment, a few short years before the first online casino opened for business. In the two decades since, NetEnt has cemented itself as one of the industry’s leading software providers, acquiring casino licenses in locations around the world and releasing multiple new online slots every month.

Between being a family affair and originating from one of Sweden’s best-known casino gaming organizations, NetEnt certainly had big shoes to fill, but it walked its own path and became a juggernaut in its own right. If that’s not inspiring, we don’t know what is.

Dead or Alive

There are a lot of online pokies with the wild west as the theme, but Dead or Alive is not only one of the best, it provides the quintessential NetEnt experience. From the moment you load the game up, you’re drawn into the world through charming animations and immersive sound effects, and you can really sense the game’s enthusiasm for its theme. When you spin three Scatter icons, you’re rewarded with 12 free spins with a 2x multiplier; what’s more, these free spins feature sticky Wilds, giving you the opportunity to extend your wins even further. It’s a testament to Dead or Alive, and really all of NetEnt’s online pokies, that a game that released in 2009 still feels fresh and competitive today.

Gonzo’s Quest

Gonzo’s Quest is a search for the treasures of El Dorado, the fabled city of gold, with a pokies twist. As opposed to spinning reels, the game takes the form of columns of stone blocks falling into place. Further, every winning line will disappear, allowing new blocks to fall into place, and increasing the score multiplier up to 5x. What’s so exciting to us about Gonzo’a Quest is that it’s an online pokie that doesn’t much feel like one at all - there’s something oddly satisfying about hearing a new round of blocks fall into place, the ambient jungle sounds in the background, and the little guitar flourish that plays whenever you complete a line.

Starburst

It speaks to the variety of NetEnt’s games that Starburst is very much unlike the titles above. Featuring a science-fiction theme where you match gems and traditional casino icons in the form of planets, what makes Starburst unique is that paylines can be completed from either direction, as opposed to the traditional left-to-right that so many pokies use. It also features a unique expanding Wilds feature, where any Wild spun will expand to that entire reel and will activate a re-spin. As with NetEnt’s other titles, the sound design is top-notch, and the gameplay is straightforward, yet addicting.

Bar none, NetEnt games are known for their incredible quality. The music, the graphics, the animations, and the gameplay all have an incredible amount of polish, and NetEnt will never pass up a chance to insert unique or interesting mechanics. Aliens and Reel Rush are great showcases of NetEnt trying to do new things within the framework of online pokies, as they add narrative or progressive elements, taking the core slot machine elements and building on them to create an engaging, immersive experience.

While the company may have had fairly humble beginnings, NetEnt also has access to the knowledge that only 60 years in the pokies business can provide. Australian players, as well as those around the world, want to play pokies that are rewarding and not overly complex, but most importantly fun. NetEnt seems to understand this, and though there is a huge variation of themes and mechanics across their games, entertainment and enjoyment is always a huge part of their games. Even amongst their older titles, which may not be as compelling or flashy as their newer fare, the emphasis on fun is always there.