Hot Chilliways Review
Hot Chilliways features a fairly standard setup but it does have the added bonus of offering cascading reels. Winning symbols must land on adjacent reels; when you hit a win, those symbols leave the board. New ones drop into place and you can hit another win with these new symbols.
The potential is staggering thanks to the wild red chilli symbols. If everything falls into place, you could be looking at a huge 117,649 ways to catch a payout. This creates an opportunity similar to that of a Megaways game, except you have to land a red chilli for it to occur.
Stakelogic has done a great job of opening its titles up to as wide an audience as possible. Laptop, desktop, pad and mobile users will easily be able to connect and enjoy the action through any device that runs on Android, Windows, macOS or iOS.
Design
Hot Chilliways is everything you would expect from a Mexican-themed slot. It's a typical fiesta latina scene with bright colours and a predictable soundtrack. The symbols are as stereotypical as you can imagine with skulls, sombreros and cactus images making up part of the winning inventory. Lower paying symbols are standard playing cards from 10 through to ace.
The wild chilli symbols add a fun and potentially profitable edge to the game as they land with an animated flame just before they transform the reels in their own unique way. The free spins game is simply an extension of the base game with no new imagery adding to the scene.
If you enter the free spins round, you'll have a chance to gamble and your options are displayed on a wheel. The coloured sections of the wheel represent the actual chances you have of being successful. It is a decent effort but doesn't exactly go above and beyond to stand out from the crowded Mexican slots niche. However, the massive payout potential is probably what interests most customers in a highly volatile slot like this.
Gameplay
It's a simple slot that is easy to figure out with all of the controls displayed along the left-hand side. These allow you to use autospin features—outside the UK— as well as access the pay table. Here, you'll find explanations for all of the different feature elements and special symbols.
The cascading reels allow for new symbols to land in place of any that create a win. And this is always a crowd-pleaser. It’s optional to take advantage of the Super Stake feature if you’d like to see more scatter symbols land. But it isn’t a given so you’ll need to weigh up the risks depending on your budget and what you’re looking to achieve.
To speed up the game, you can use the fast-forward button. This simply makes all of the symbols land at the same time instead of waiting for the reels to end their spin in turn.
Win Potential
Hot Chilliways’ RTP is 96.01%, which keeps it in line with the industry average. This gives a theoretical return that should satisfy most customers. And it’s also up there with many of the Megaways games that also feature a large number of win ways like this slot.
The 30,000x max win is huge and could add up to a massive payday for the right person. Stakelogic states that the maximum payout will stop at 480,000 (€/£) so it can hold its own among some of the bigger paying titles around.
Remember that you’ll need a decent bankroll to see you through if you’re off in search of the bigger prizes. You won’t see wins land all the time but many of them will be of a decent level that will help your balance recover from the dry spells. It’s all about waiting for the big one with this game so only take a bite of the spicy chilli if you’re prepared to see it through.
Our Verdict
Stakelogic doesn't tend to go in for a huge number of clever features. There's usually a little added extra to keep things interesting. But they don't go as far as some of the other major game producers out there. Hot Chilliways is good fun and watching those spicy peppers land on the reels certainly gets the adrenaline flowing.
But if you're looking for more entertainment from a slot rather than a huge payout, then you may need to consider other options. That said, we enjoyed our time at the fiesta and did witness some decent wins along the way.
Alyx has always loved slots and continuously follows their progress and development. She’s a big fan of gridded slots and music themes as well, so it makes sense that Def Leppard Hysteria is her absolute favourite. She can’t wait to see what’s next in the Play’n GO rock series.
Learn more about Alyx here