Hot Pepper Slots
Hot Pepper is an online video slot game bringing a food extravaganza from Mexico with its many varied spicy and colourful elements. It was crafted and released by innovative slot developers Pragmatic Play in December of 2022.
This game brings some generous returns and a cheerful style combined with exciting tumbles, wild multipliers, free spins plus the chance of a big payout especially if several wilds are in a winning cluster. The maximum win potential of 10,000x the bet is possible at any point in the base game and free spins.
A gaming grid offers 7 reels with 7 rows and brings no paylines but a cluster pays mechanic. Winning clusters happen when at least five matching symbols land adjacent to each other in vertical or horizontal positions. On every spin with the tumble feature the symbols involved in a win will be removed from the reels. The gaps are filled by tumbles of new symbols falling down from above. Any bonus symbols that land during the spins will be removed through tumbles and stored on a wooden sign to the right of the reels and tumbles continue until no more wins can be formed.
The background to the wooden framed reels shows a scorching desert with cacti sitting in front of large rock formations and with lizards climbing around in the foreground. The visuals are in the cartoon category and are vibrant and well realised whilst the lively mariachi music hits just the right tone.
The RTP (Return to Player Percentage) is a solid 96.45% and it is a highly volatile game. This means that wins will not be so frequent and there will be expected dry spells but when they do land they can be sizeable. Whilst this brings a lot of exciting appeal to high rollers with deeper pockets it will bring some challenges to more beginner punters so they will need to game with a big dose of prudence and care as the road can get bumpy.
Multiple betting options are offered in a betting range with the minimum starting from $0.20 per spin and the maximum being $100.00 per spin. A useful convenience is the Autoplay button which can be used to pre automate the number of spins to game with which can aid those who are keen on maintaining a specific gaming budget. It is also a handy tool for those who dislike manual gameplay.
Symbols pay in clusters of 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,11-12, 13-14 and 15+ and they begin with the three royal playing cards of green clubs, orange hearts and purple spades in addition to the limes awarding wins between 0.10x and 0.20x the bet for clusters of 5 and increasing to values between 10 and 10x the bet for 15+ clusters. At the premium end there are tacos, bull pinatas and the mexican dude wearing the sombrero is the most valuable. Land clusters of 5 will see wins between 0.40x and 1x the bet increasing to values between 25x and 50x the bet for clusters of 15+.
The sun is the bonus icon and players will need three of these in a single tumble sequence to receive 12 free spins but hitting three bonus icons during this mode across a tumble sequence will re-trigger the round and provide 5 extra spins. Also the wilds created by the clusters are at level 5 during the free spins.
Gamers have the option to buy the Bonus round if they have no luck triggering it naturally. It costs 100x the base bet and provides instant access to the free spins.
There are four wilds each in the shape of a different coloured chilli pepper with the hottest of them having the highest multipliers. They can substitute for all the symbols in the game except for the Bonus sun icon. These peppers count as any primary symbol to help players form winning combinations and where each time a wild chilli pepper is also left behind in one of its empty positions which is a nice touch. They are generated when a cluster explodes. When this happens a progressive feature is triggered for the consecutive tumble sequence. It starts at level 1 and goes up to level 5 and with their help, clusters of 5/6, 7/8, 9/10 or 11+ icons create multipliers with values of x1 and up to x128.
The more you win the bigger the multiplier and if players get more than one wild multiplier per win their values are combined. This means that the base game can be pretty lucrative.
Hot Pepper slot game is fully mobile optimized. A seamless and fluid gaming experience can be enjoyed on the go from either a desktop or a compatible smartphone or tablet device such as iOS Apple, Android or Samsung.