Hot Tuna

Hot Tuna: Slot Overview

Not to be confused with the surf-inspired lifestyle brand or the Jefferson Airplane offshoot, Hot Tuna, in this instance, is the name of a fishing slot from Pragmatic Play partner Reel Kingdom. Yes, another RK fishing release, but will it be the first in a brand new dynasty of fish slots to challenge the studio's already out-of-control Big Bass cash cow? Time will tell on that. For now, dust off your rod if you're planning to come along, as well as your best traditional gold and red robes. Why? Because, in an attempt to capture a different audience, or to distance itself from Big Bass, or just for fun, Hot Tuna blends Asian-inspired cultural elements with oceanic components to create something 'new'.

An actual gold and red-robed fisherman joins players on this voyage, very happy looking, he is, too, with his gold and red box, on a gold and red boat. Instead of finding ourselves below the water line like in Big Bass Bonanza 1000, Hot Tuna takes place above it, where a wide open, wavy sea can be made out through and around the gaming grid, as can a collection of jagged islands in the distance. There will be others, but one thing Hot Tuna shares with its cousins is a light-hearted, playful, fun representation of fishing, all clean and sanitised, without the guts, smells, and sea sickness that can accompany the real thing.

The game grid is a 5x3 matrix where 10 paylines evaluate winning combinations left to right from the leftmost reel. Of the three possible RTP variants, the highly volatile math model produces a value of 96.53% at the highest, when betting $/€0.05 to $/€240 per spin. An ante bet has also been built in, and when activated, the stake is doubled to increase the chance of getting free spins.

Hot Tuna's pay symbols are 10-A fishing line adorned card ranks, fish (also the money symbol), sea horses, boxes, sushi, and octopus lures. When landing 5 matching royals, players win 10 times their bet, or 20x to 200x the stake is paid when 5 matching premium symbols land. Wilds substitute for anything except scatters, money, or Hot Tuna symbols, and like that other fish slot, they only appear during free spins.

Hot Tuna: Slot Features

Since nothing extra occurs in the base game, let's go straight to the bonus round, and hitting 3, 4, or 5 scatters triggers 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. If two scatters land in the base game, there is a chance a third becomes visible by a respin feature or just randomly. The Hot Tuna symbol can only appear during free spins. When it hits, it is collected, and an x10 multiplier is applied to the total of the money symbol values collected. If more than one Hot Tuna symbol is part of the same collection, their multipliers are added together.

During free spins, each landed wild symbol grants an extra free spin and collects all the values of money symbols in view. Money symbols have values of 2x to 2,500x the bet. If a money symbol lands without a wild, it gets collected in a meter. Collecting 6 money symbols for each of the 7 steps on the meter retriggers the feature with +10 free spins, and a Hot Tuna symbol to randomly hit at every free spin. Each time the meter is filled, +10 free spins are awarded, and an additional Hot Tuna symbol can randomly hit at every free spin. After the first retrigger, Hot Tuna symbols can also be collected in the meter. Lastly, when there are no wild or money symbols in view, at the end of a free spin, wild, money, and Hot Tuna symbols may appear in random positions. The Hot Tuna symbols can only appear if the feature has been retriggered at least once.

Feature Buy

The free spins round can be bought for 100x the bet, and when doing so, 3, 4, or 5 scatters land to trigger it.

Hot Tuna: Slot Verdict

If there is one thing Reel Kingdom knows, it's how to make a fish slot, and in Hot Tuna, the studio has designed a pretty average one. When reading the game rules, Hot Tuna was almost instantly familiar, which may soothe the psyche of non-adventurous fish fanatics, as the links to Big Bass Bonanza are revealed. From the third scatter in the base game effect, to the way nothing really happens until free spins are triggered, to the symbol collection dynamic. It's crystal clear who resides further up Hot Tuna's family tree, for good or for ill.

Obviously, this isn't a direct clone of Big Bass Bonanza, though. Reel Kingdom has designed a new progressive sequence to go with collecting money symbols in the free spins phase. The collection system, on the whole, was pretty annoying. It was difficult to collect the required number of money symbols needed in order to get the Hot Tuna symbol and retrigger the feature. Put simply, a lot more money symbols need to be collected than wild symbols in a regular Big Bass game, so the likelihood of retriggers appears to be much less frequent. The flipside of this is that retriggers do not build up the multiplier from x2 to x3 to x10 - it just jumps straight to x10, which might make a massive difference. In some ways, instead of playing it safe, Hot Tuna takes a risk on a system that could quite easily rub users the wrong way. For instance, if a bunch of bonus rounds play out and none of them produce a retrigger, you can see how it could be very tempting to walk away in exasperation.

Or vice versa if retriggers and Hot Tunas are flowing like water around a reef. Even so, winning potential is not one of the game's standout qualities, as payouts are capped at 2,500x the stake. On the bright side, its max exposure probability is a lot more positive than Big Bass Bonanza's. All in all, Hot Tuna is a cute game, and the skin makes for a refreshing change. However, though the free spins round has been rejigged, Hot Tuna feels like business as usual from Reel Kingdom.