Bernd Becker 
Like most players, we love the carefully designed graphics on online and offline slot games. Add that to the music, and you have an enjoyable gaming session you can tap your feet and nod your head to. These graphics and music are often not random but designed around specific themes.
Game providers decide which themes to design their games around. They can use popular movies like what we have in Terminator 2, which draws inspiration from the original Terminator movie. Other themes include mythologies, music, oriental, magic, etc. But let’s explore them in more detail.
How Themed Slots Function
We agree that slots use different approaches even when the underlying mechanism is still the same. By that, we mean the simple reel-spinning design – place a bet, spin the reels, and hope to land a winning combination.
Game providers can build from this basic principle and extend the number of reels and rows. For example, Fruit Shop Megaways from NetEnt can contain up to seven rows in one reel. This expansion often results in higher winning lines.
Megaways can have over 100,000 winning ways because of the expanded number of reels and rows. On that note, themed slots can use diverse winning mechanisms.
Paylines are the most common winning mechanism, where you land matching symbols from the leftmost reel. Another approach is through cluster pays, where you land matching symbols within a cluster. The eligible number of symbols for a win is often eight or above.
Now, add these mechanisms with a design that follows a popular movie or show of magic, and you have a themed slot. You can find many of those at StarVegas and explore them with free cash that the site gives to new players.
Popular Themes and Our Recommended Slots Under them
Following what we discussed in the previous section, let us see the top themes and a few games under them.
Movie-themed Slots
As described, slot games with movie themes are designed around popular movies. The graphics or characters will be drawn from the movie, while the winning mechanism remains like other slot games.
Also, the game provider might add bonus features to spice up the gameplay and boost the payout.
Popular movie-themed slots you can play today include:
- Jurassic Park
- Terminator 2: Remastered
- The Dark Knight
- Basic Instinct (find this and other sexy slots at https://slotspeak.com/sexy-slots/)
- Alice in Wonderland
- James Bond
- A Nightmare on Elm Street
Music-themed Slots
Like movie slots, music-themed video slots draw inspiration from popular music groups, performances, or concerts. As such, you’ll find symbols like guitars, drums, and other instruments peculiar to the music theme. Some games also include popular singers.
You can warm up with the following music-themed slot games:
- Guns N’ Roses
- The Jimi Hendrix Slot
- Disco Danny Slot
- Retro Tapes Cluster Link
- Jammin’ Jars 2
- Rasputin Megaways
Magic-themed Slots
This category is where you’ll find magic items like portions, witches, wizards, spells, etc. Some historical and fictional magic characters may also be present in these slot games.
You can expect the setting to look scary with magic items.
The top games in this category include:
- Rise of Merlin
- Book of Spells Deluxe
- Book of Shadows
- 3 Lucky Witches
- 10,001 Nights Megaways
Mythological-themed Slots
Games in this category explore different myths. The popular “Book Of” video slots are mythological-themed slots. You will find games that explore different myths and legends. Typical among them are those that draw from Norse mythology.
That said, here are our recommended games in this category:
- Age of the Gods
- Book of Ra
- Vikings Go Wild
- Cleopatra
- Gates of Olympus
- Thunderstruck II
- Hall of Gods
Conclusion
There are more themes to explore than what we’ve listed here. Fortunately, some casinos offer filter functions to see games under specific themes. Use that or use the search function to find games.
Try out the demo modes before moving on to the real-money versions. That way, you’ll have a hang of the gameplay, including the pay mechanism, symbols, and bonus features.
