Unusual Suspects

Unusual Suspects: Slot Overview

Hey players, are you ready to get your crime on and break a few laws (in a pretend way), or take the other side of the thin blue line and bag make-believe baddies? If so, then Unusual Suspects from Games Global partner Northernlights might be the place to do so. It features a moustachioed detective taking on a gang of bad guys, well, if one foot soldier and four bosses constitute a gang, in a swinging environment. Features-wise, wannabe goodies or baddies can look forward to triggering things like a Wild Sticky Frames system, a bit of nudging, a dash of collecting, free spins, and bonus buy/gamble options.

Onto the swinging downtown location first, where the base game takes place. However, activate the bound round, and the intensity actually kinda winds down since play moves to a detective's workplace, which feels like Unusual Suspects puts on the brakes instead of upping the hype. Odd, but whatever; doing it this way bolsters the detective angle if we're going to put a positive spin on the game phase change. The soundtrack remains upbeat throughout, a jazzy big band number that gets the foot a tapping. For starters, though, there hasn't been a whole that automatically brings to mind the word unusual. But, the night is young.

What is a tad unusual, admittedly, is Unusual Suspects' gamble feature tucked away next to the buy feature. After picking a stake of 10 p/c to $/€20, players then have the option of buying free spins for 38.6x the bet or gambling to win bonus round entry instead. This latter choice takes place on an adjustable odds and costs wheel, which spins to either grant access to free spins or not. Another thing to look out for is Unusual Suspects has a collection feature which can lead to upgraded free spins. Changing bets saves progress at each level. Finally, Unusual Suspects is a medium volatile game with a default RTP of 96.05%, though lower models are available.

Held on a 5x4 gaming panel, players are supplied with 20 paylines for the purposes of win evaluations. Line wins pay left to right, beginning with the leftmost reel. Striped 10-A card royals make up the low pays, all awarding 1 times the bet for a 5 OAK hit, while the higher pays are handcuffs, a pistol, dynamite, and a bag of dough, worth 2 to 10 times the bet for a 5 premium symbols win.

Unusual Suspects: Slot Features

Wilds are integral to much of Unusual Suspects, and they appear on all reels. A line of 5 wilds pays 10x the bet, and they can be used to replace any other pay symbol. In addition, when wild symbols land, they leave a frame around the position they landed in. If a Golden Wild lands, it spawns more wilds or another Golden Wild symbol. When wilds appear in a position that is already framed, they increase the multiplier by +1 up to a maximum of x5.

Detective Wild Bonus

When the Detective symbol hits, it populates all framed positions with wild symbols. Multipliers on a payline are applied to any win they are part of. In the base game, after the Detective Wild bonus ends, all sticky frames are removed from the reels. During free spins, sticky frames remain in place until the round ends.

Free Spins Booster

Scatters can land anywhere on the grid. When exactly 2 of them are in view, they add 1 token to the Booster Meter, which requires 50 tokens to be filled. If the 2 scatters land on the top 3 rows, they trigger Nudging Respins. Any reel with a scatter is held and nudged down 1 row while the other reels respin.

Big Boss Free Spins

Landing 3, 4, or 5 scatters triggers 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. During the round, when Detective symbols hit, they are collected on the Bonus Trail:

• Collecting 3 Detectives unlocks Big Boss 1, awarding +5 free spins with an x2 multiplier.
• Collecting 6 Detectives unlocks Big Boss 2, awarding +5 free spins with an x3 multiplier.
• Collecting 9 Detectives unlocks Big Boss 3, awarding +5 free spins with an x5 multiplier.
• Collecting 12 Detectives unlocks Big Boss 4, awarding +5 free spins with an x10 multiplier.

If free spins were triggered and the Booster Meter was full, Big Boss 1 is unlocked.

Unusual Suspects: Slot Verdict

We might not have been too hyped in the beginning about the supposed 'unusualness' of Unusual Suspects, but it's got one or two things which might raise the pulse rate. One thing that could throw prospective players is the framed position feature. These kinds of mechanics are often tied to a set number of spins, unleashing their modifying abilities on the final spin of the set. Not so, Unusual Suspects, which holds onto them (in the base game) until the Detective symbols hits to add wilds to each framed cell. Great when you've built up a nice stack of frames that eventually get filled, and something swell happens as a result. Maybe not so great for players who prefer the clockwork approach and aren't keen on holding for an indefinite period of time till framed positions get used. What can sweeten the wait is when wilds re-land on a framed position, they bestow a multiplier.

Free spins are boosted further since frames never leave the grid until the round ends. No matter how many Detectives hit and are collected Big Bass Bonanza style on the progress meter. Still not overly impressed with the base game location, though. An office, all that paperwork? Somewhere packing more pizzazz might have increased the enjoyment factor. We might be nitpicking here, though, because Unusual Suspects' features have a decent flow to them, despite the humdrum bonus round setting. Not too shabby a top prize either at 12,500 times the bet, so fingers crossed as many multipliers band together if/when taking Unusual Suspects for a spin.

There might not be masses of unusualness going on here when examining the features on an individual basis. But bring them all together, and Unusual Suspects gives keyboard cops 'n' robbers something a bit different to consider sparking up.