Wanted Usual Suspects

Wanted Unusual Suspects: Slot Overview

It takes a certain type of person to stand firm amongst the ranks of the thin blue line, willing to be the righteous bulwark between the clashing forces of law, order, and chaos. Rewind the clock a few hundred years, and people willing to be the Sheriff of some two-bit middle of nowhere one-horse town on the frontier must have been of a certain breed as well. Surely upholding the law back in those days was a tough task (not saying it's not now by any means), dramatised by the movies, but fraught with peril and danger in real life. If you'd like to throw reality aside and pretend you're a lawman for a moment, why not come take a look at Northern Lights Gaming's online slot Wanted Unusual Suspects, a continuation of the developer's Unusual Suspects series.

The gritty skyscrapered metropolis of the first two games has been replaced by a gritty frontier scene where the buildings have been seriously reduced in size and sturdiness. Actually, gritty might not be the best adjective, as Wanted Unusual Suspects, in some ways, exuded an almost tropical vibe, driven in part by the puddles of water located below the gaming grid and the greenery - you don't usually see much water in these sorts of games. Wanted Unusual Suspects' mood is about the same as before: bouncy, playful, and packed with features to keep the pace moving.

By clicking the coins button on the lower right-hand side of the screen, players may choose their desired stake where the choices are 20 c to $/€20 per game round. Wanted Unusual Suspects is a highly volatile slot, and the highest RTP model available is 96.05%. A total of 20 paylines are built into the 5x3 gaming matrix, awarding winning combinations left to right from the leftmost reel.

For symbol pays, players collect 1 times their bet when landing a line of five matching 10-A card ranks, or 2x to 10x when five manacles, pistols, dynamites, or gold bags land on the reels. Wilds, both Outlaw Wilds and regular wilds, appear in both game phases to substitute anything except the Sheriff, coins, and scatter symbols. Getting 5 wilds in a line is worth 10 times the stake.

Wanted Unusual Suspects: Slot Features

Like its siblings, Wanted Unusual Suspects has a lot going on. Its features are Outlaw Wilds, coin symbols, Sheriff symbols, the Sheriff Backup Bonus, a Bonus Perk Bar, Scatter Nudging Respins, Bonus Perk Picks, free spins, and bonus buys.

Outlaw Wilds

Outlaw Wilds trigger an Exploding Wilds feature when they hit, spawning more wilds onto the reels. The different types of Outlaw Wilds are:

• Purple Outlaw Wild - turns the top and bottom symbols on 2 random reels into wilds.
• Green Outlaw Wild - turns 1 random reel wild.
• Orange Outlaw Wild - turns 2 random reels wild.
• Blue Outlaw Wild - turns 4 to 7 random symbols wild.

Coin Symbol

Coin symbols can land in the base or bonus game bearing prize values of 1 to 100 times the bet or displaying the 20x Mini, 50x Minor, 1,000x Minor, or 5,000x Grand Jackpot prize. Only one jackpot can be awarded. Furthermore, each coin that lands on the reels creates an x1 sticky frame in its position. If a coin lands in a frame, it increases the frame's multiplier by +1 up to x5.

Sheriff Symbol & Sheriff Backup Bonus

When a Sheriff symbol lands, it places coins in sticky framed positions that don't already have coins in them. Each Sheriff in view is awarded the value of all coin symbols on the reels, with any sticky frame multipliers applied to the respective coins. In the base game, frames are removed after coins are collected. In free spins, frames persist till the round ends. Sheriff symbols do not land in sticky frames. In addition, the Sheriff may call in backup, adding additional Sheriff symbols to the reels.

Bonus Perk Bar

Scatters may land on any reel in the base game. When 2 scatters land, a token is added to the Perk Bar. Collecting 50 tokens fills the bar. Once full, an extra bonus pick is added to the start of free spins. The bar resets when the extra pick has been used.

Scatters Nudging Respins

Landing 2 scatters on the top 3 rows triggers nudging respins. Any reels with scatters on them are held and nudge down 1 position. The other reels respin. This procedure continues until a scatter makes it to the bottom row or until 5 scatters are in view. On each respin, tokens are added to the Perk Bar.

Bonus Perk Pick

When free spins have been triggered, players pick outlaws from a lineup to reveal one of these boosters. If the Perk Bar is full, the extra bonus perk is awarded. Perk Bar progress is saved per bet:

• Free Spins Boost - unlocks the first bandit on the free spins trail, thereby awarding +5 free spins with an x2 multiplier.
• More Spins - awards +2 free spins.
• More Frames - adds 3 frames to the reels at the start of the feature.
• More Wilds - awards more wilds.
• More Sheriff - awards more Sheriff symbols.
• No Perk - when this is revealed, the picking session ends.

Free Spins

Hitting 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols triggers 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. Each landed Sheriff symbol on a free spin lights one position on the Bonus Trail. When lighting a bandit on the trail, free spins are upgraded. The bonus trail resets when free spins end:

• Bandit 1 - awards +5 free spins with an x2 multiplier.
• Bandit 2 - awards +5 free spins with an x3 multiplier.
• Bandit 3 - awards +5 free spins with an x5 multiplier.
• Bandit 4 - awards +5 free spins with an x10 multiplier.

When free spins end, one Getaway Spin may be awarded. If it is, then a Sheriff symbol lands on the awarded Getaway Spin.

Buy Bonus

From the bonus buy, players can buy free spins for 100 times their bet or super free spins for 200 times the bet. In super free spins, there are more frames, Sheriffs, and wins.

Wanted Unusual Suspects: Slot Verdict

Wanted Unusual Suspects is the fourth game in a series which has worked its way through Unusual Suspects, More Unusual Suspects, a fishing version called Unusual Catch, and now this one. What's been good is the way the series has clung tightly to core gaming mechanics and a crime-busting atmosphere (aside from the fish one) while making various changes along the way. Wanted Unusual Suspects departs from the previous three slots in several ways. One is the Wild West skin makeover, and shifting the lawman from the present day to one of the past's most popular eras was a logical move, as the new setting fits the Unusual Suspects series like a glove. It's a little cliched, perhaps, but there is a reason why things like Western slots attain cliche status in the first place.

One would imagine Wanted Unusual Suspects mechanical changes will go down well with certain groups of gamblers, too. Gone is the landing of gold bar overlays to trigger the jackpot pick feature. In their place are jackpot coins and coin wins in general, which are very popular gambling devices, resulting in an astute alteration on Northern Lights Gaming's part. Much of the remaining gameplay is what gamblers got in the past, and since we're now on the fourth slot in the series, this feature set is clearly being well received. With wins of over 10,000x available, a decent pile of potential loot lies on the table. Outlaw Wilds and their Exploding Wilds function provides a neat touch, too.

All in all, it's hard to deny the changes Northern Lights Gaming has incorporated are anything but positive ones. As mentioned, coin wins and Westerns might be accused of being obvious, cliched choices, but that doesn't mean they aren't entertaining. Plus, the new bits suit what came before while pulling Unusual Suspects in a new direction. Perhaps the next one will be set in the future; just thinking out loud here, maybe some sort of Cyberpunk 2077 deal. Wherever Unusual Suspects might end up in the future, there is a suspicion Northern Lights Gaming isn't done with the series just yet.