Colt Lightning

Colt Lightning: Slot Overview

Apologies, animal lovers, but when Colt Lightning, an online slot from Play'n GO, loaded, it prompted an involuntary internal chuckle. What triggered it was watching a horse race across the desert before being annihilated out of existence by a bolt of lightning. Not something you see every day, which is a good thing. It was the shock of it that elicited a silent giggle, though rest assured, what followed was a lot more akin to a celebration of horses than a pulverisation of them. It's also a game with a stampede of features such as Colt Strikes, Rapid Re-spins, and Super Colt Spins. Giddyap.

Colt Lightning sees players return to one of slot designer's favourite spots, the North American outdoors, specifically, a location full of cacti, rocky ridges, and an abundance of scrub. There's also plenty of lightning. Fortunately, no animals appeared to be harmed in the game, apart from that poor horse getting obliterated at the start. Might as well come clean now by saying that Colt Lightning is a reskin of another Play'n GO nature-themed creation by the name of Beasts of Fire. This one is a lot lighter looking, though, and obviously has horses instead of buffalo as its main animal. Otherwise, the gameplay is very similar, if not nigh on the same.

The stats have stayed the same, meaning the game is run by a highly volatile math model, rated by Play'n GO as 7 out of 10, and comes in numerous RTP configurations depending on the market. Return values range from a maximum of 96.24% and lower, so it'll pay to check if possible. Playable on any device, Colt Lightning takes bets starting at 10 p/c, rising to $/€100 at the most.

A rather busy game, Colt Lightning occurs on a grid that may shift, grow, and expand. In its resting mode, the game panel consists of 5 reels with symbols lined up 3-4-4-4-3 on them, and at this level, 576 ways to win are present. Most of its pay symbols possess a rock border, including the 10 through Ace low pays, worth 1.2 to 2.5x the stake, and the snake, wolf, cougar, and eagle high pays, paying 3-2x the bet. The two most valuable symbols are the colt which appears only in the base game, worth up to 6x the bet or the Super Colt, present only in free spins paying 12x the bet for six-of-a-kind hits. In addition, hitting on reels 2, 3, and 4 is the game's wild symbol, capable of replacing anything except scatters or Horseshoe symbols.

Colt Lightning: Slot Features

The trio of features to look out for in Colt Lightning are its Colt Strike, Rapid Re-spin, and Super Colt Spins.

Colt Strike

Colt Strike randomly triggers on any spin in the base game. When activated, the number of Colt symbols on the reels is increased.

Rapid Re-spin

Horseshoe symbols appear only on the middle reel. When a Horseshoe lands, a Rapid Re-spin is triggered. For the Re-spin, each reel is expanded by +1 extra symbol, growing the grid and the number of ways to win. It is possible to trigger two further Rapid Re-spins, and when the reels have grown +3 positions high (6-7-7-7-6), 12,348 ways to win are available. Free spins cannot be triggered during Rapid Re-spins, but the chance of activating Colt Strike actually increases. When Rapid Re-spins end, the grid returns to its default 3-4-4-4-3 size.

Super Colt Spins

Hitting 3 scatter symbols on reels 2, 3, and 4 awards 10 free Super Colt Spins. For the bonus round, the Colt symbol is removed from the reels and replaced by the Super Colt, which is worth twice as much. Colt Strikes do not occur, but when Horseshoe symbols land on a free spin, the reels grow by +1 position, up to a maximum of 6-7-7-7-6. The Horseshoe is removed when the grid reaches its max height. Expanded reels persist until the round ends before returning to their normal size for the base game. Landing 3 scatter symbols during Super Colt Spins retriggers the round with an additional 10 free spins, up to 100 at the most.

Colt Lightning: Slot Verdict

Like Beasts of Fire, Colt Lightning is a busy game, fairly liberal with its bonus triggers. To be fair, Colt Strike was the most common of the three, followed by Rapid Re-spins, and last, but by no means least, Super Colt Spins were the most elusive feature. Logical, of course, since free spins are generally where a slot often has an improved chance of going ballistic, and really, the Colt Strike just lands horse symbols, which it may have done anyway. Admittedly, they land at an increased number, according to the game info, and the way a voiceover calls them out while adding a special animation does an effective job of making the base game seem less repetitive than it might have been otherwise. Kinda weird, though, when there's all this fanfare going off, then, like, one Colt symbol hits.

Rapid Re-spins were a mixed bag which triggered sporadically. No doubt they can pull off a decent result, technically speaking, but nothing particularly special occurred during testing off them, despite the significantly larger number of possible pay ways. It also helps that the Colt Strike can trigger on a respin, too, in the base game, at least. Too bad there's no Super Colt Strike in free spins; however, the free spins intro screen does mention an increased number of Super Colts on the reels anyway. Free spins are where players have one of their best chances of getting within striking distance of Colt Lightning's impressive max 25,000x the bet win, or even scoring it, who knows. To be fully transparent, Beasts of Fire makes the same max win claim, but we are yet to see a hit anywhere near this number. The largest hit we could find on Youtube at the time of writing was around 2,500x, though, in all fairness, it doesn't exactly seem to be a widely popular streamer slot.

This might sound odd, but after a playthrough, one of the most amusing things about Colt Lightning remained the intro animation detailed in the opening paragraph. Anyway, no real horse was actually hurt, that's the main thing, and what followed was a well-executed reskin job, with the goods to entertain players looking for a solid North American nature slot with a nice mix of features, reel expansion, and big winning potential.