Hot Pots

Hot Pots: Slot Overview

Hot Pots is another group effort between UK based Reflex Gaming and Stakelogic via the latter studio's Greenlogic Programme. This programme gives teams like Reflex the chance to focus on the development side of things while Stakelogic covers the distribution stuff. The last time we caught up with a Stakelogic, Reflex Gaming collab was in Sea God, which despite the nautical theme, failed to float our boat. It meant expectations weren't riding high when Hot Pots came along, but after a playthrough, the game turned out to be surprisingly okay.

Like 'Gold' or 'Deluxe', 'Hot' is one of those words that's easy to slap on a slot's title to give it some pizzazz. In the case of Hot Pots, it's pretty apt because not only is the slot based around chilli peppers, it's also held in pretty much the hottest place possible. Down in a pit of fire is where players find themselves for Hot Pots. It's not as terrifying a journey as it might have been because Reflex Gaming has made the pepper characters look fiendishly cute rather than just fiendish. The rest of the scene is indeed rather warm looking, where a pool of liquid magma bubbles away beneath the game panel in a heated stone room.

Hot Pots is available on any device and is played on a 5x3 game grid with 20 fixed paylines. There are a few variable attributes to look out for. First is RTP, maxing at 95.21% but dropping as low as 88.01% depending on settings. Bet selection alters the dynamics as well. Regular bets range from 20 p/c to $/€100 per spin but switching on the Super Stake feature doubles the cost. Doing so increases the chance of triggering free spins and changes volatility from 3 out 5 in default bet mode to 5 out of 5. Potential changes as well, covered below.

Winning in Hot Pots happens when matching symbols land across paylines in adjacent reels from the left-hand side. In ascending order of value, the normal pay symbols are made up of glowing 10-A royals, three anthropomorphic peppers, and the game's logo. Rewards for five of a kind combos top out at 1-5x for the low pays, 10 to 25x for the highs. Appearing on any reels is a pepper coated wild which substitutes any paying symbol and pays out up to 25x the bet for a line of five wilds. It doesn't specifically say this in the game rules, but wilds only showed up when added to the reels by the Wild Boost feature.

Hot Pots: Slot Features

In Hot Pots, players can look forward to 3 Wild Boost bonuses and rounds of free spins where respins are also used.

Wild Boost Bonuses

Whenever one of the special Hot Chilli Symbols lands, one of these three modifiers is triggered:

• Rivers of Fire – creates 1 to 4 stacked wild symbols.
• Wild Fire – creates 2 to 8 wild symbols.
• Red Hot Wilds – creates 2 to 8 wild symbols carrying multipliers of x2 to x20. Only one multiplier may apply per pay line.

Free Spins

Appearing on reels 1, 3, or 5 is the regular scatter, while on reel 3, Super scatters or Mega scatters may land. Landing:

• 3 regular scatters awards 8 free spins
• 2 regular scatters + 1 Super scatter gets you 12 free spins.
• 2 regular scatters + 1 Mega scatter awards 16 free spins.

In free spins, when the first Wild Boost feature triggers, wild symbols are locked, and a respin is awarded. On the second Wild Boost trigger, players get 2 respins. Then, after the third and subsequent Wild Boost trigger, 3 respins are awarded. The final rule is that +8 additional free spins are awarded if 3 scatters land during the feature.

Gamble Feature

Hot Pots also comes with the usual Stakelogic gamble feature bolted on. Following wins, players have the option of gambling or collecting their prize. To gamble, you have to correctly guess a face-down card's colour or suit to x2 or x4 your winning amount. Getting the guess wrong means, you lose whatever was won up until then.

Hot Pots: Slot Verdict

It feels a bit harsh to say this, but after the last few tussles we've had with Reflex Gaming products when a slot comes our way with their name on it, it's hard to stifle an accompanying grimace. But you know what? Hot Pots wasn't that bad at all. There were no cringe moments; no 'what the heck' forehead slaps; it was smooth sailing from start to finish. Hot Pots isn't likely to crack many top 10 lists any time soon, far from it, though, for a quirky wee slot, it was pretty fun.

The theme's been neatly dealt with, for starters. Some slots saturate the screen with the chilli theme, like Hot Hot Chilli Pot, as an example, while others go full Mexicana. Both approaches have their place; however, Hot Pots does well by being comparatively light on the chilli element. Here, the peppers provide character, and the accompanying backing track rounds off what is a sort of Charlie Chance 1920s slapstick vibe. The features match the playfulness, as does potential, which maxes out at 4,000x the bet when the Super Stake is active, 3,000x when it's not. After playing the game for a while, the Super Stake feature appeared to make a major difference on our enjoyment levels, though as always, doubling the spin cost understandably might not sit well with some players.

And so, let's wrap up by saying Hot Pots turned out to be a positive experience, all things considered - though it helped that we went into it expecting to be baffled. For a cheerful pepper themed slot, Hot Pots' attitude and gameplay do enough to fill a certain niche in the chilli market.