El Paso Gunfight xNudge

El Paso Gunfight xNudge: Slot Overview

If movies have taught us anything about the Wild West, it's how ruthless, lawless, and downright mean it could be. However, fact can sometimes be stranger than fiction, and nowhere is this maxim more appropriate than in the infamous El Paso Gunfight. Calling it by its other name, 4 Dead in Five Seconds gives a better indication of what it was all about - a hail of bullets that left four corpses in its wake while creating a legend of the West in the process. The legend’s name was Dallas Stoudenmire, and his claim to fame has been further immortalised by Nolimit City in their slot El Paso Gunfight xNudge.

Nolimit City is certainly no stranger to this part of the world, having blown players away with the likes of Tombstone and Deadwood. El Paso Gunfight xNudge is a follow-on of sorts, though not a direct sequel as such. It feels like Nolimit has a real interest in the Old West which they channel into making solid games. Part of that passion is apparent visually, yet music has also been a real highlight. So, while El Paso Gunfight's music doesn't get as frantic as Deadwood's, its upbeat saloon soundtrack is the perfect counterpoint to all the gunfire, bullets, and blood being splashed across the screen.

Set against a shelf of liquor bottles, El Paso Gunfight xNudge is played over a 5-reel grid, offering up to 43,334 ways to win when fully expanded. As well as choosing stakes from 25 p/c to £/€50 per spin, players can also choose their stance. This means flicking a switch above the reels to set them in a 4-3-3-3-2 formation which is the highly volatile setup, or a 2-3-3-3-4 layout which is the extremely volatile option. One other difference between the two is that the Marshal Badge and the Deputy Badge land on opposing reels (more on that below). Moreover, when free spins trigger, players can also alter the volatility, except in Drunken Gundfiguth&r… Spins as you will see. As well as volatility, the RTP comes in two levels – 96.06% or a reduced 94.24% version.

In either setting, three matching symbols are required from the leftmost reel to trigger a payout. Interestingly, the 10-A royals making up the low pays have a more gothic look than the usual Lucky Luke font typically used in a Western slot. Moving on to the 4 high pays symbols, we find the four souls who fell during the infamous gunfight. When you dig into the story, it is pretty complicated, but the four characters are the former Marshall George Campbell, his friend John Hale, Constable Krempkau, and a Mexican bystander who unfortunately ended up in the way of Stoudenmire's pistol. Scoring a line of five premiums is worth a payout of 2 to 6 times the stake.

El Paso Gunfight xNudge: Slot Features

The man Stoudenmire appears on the xNudge Wilds, alongside a host of other features, including Deputy and Marshall Raid, Gunfight Spins, Deputy or Marshall Gunfight Spins, Drunken Gundfiguth&r… Spins, 4 Dead in 5 Seconds, and feature buys.

Starting with Stoudenmire xNudge Wilds, these are 3-row high wild symbols appearing on reels 2, 3, or 4 and always nudge to be fully visible. For every step the Stoudenmire Wild nudges, its win multiplier increases by 1. If more than one of these wilds is in play, the multiplier values are added together.

Deputy and Marshall Raids are trigged when the Deputy Badge or Marshall Badge land in view. Deputy Badges convert all low-value symbols to one random low pay symbol, with the badge becoming the same low-value symbol. The Marshal Badge does the same thing, except it converts all high-value symbols into one random high-value symbol. If both badges land at the same time, they transform to wilds and increase the reel area to 4-3-3-3-4.

8 Gunfight Spins are triggered when 3 scatters land in the base game where you choose the volatility that suits (high or extremely high). Scatters become jumping wilds during the feature leaping to a new position on each spin. If a jumping wild lands on a reel with a Stoudemire Wild, any multiplier is doubled. Landing Deputy Badges or Marshall Badges awards an extra spin, and upgrades Gunfight Spins to either of the 3 rounds covered next.

If you manage to land 3 scatters + a badge in the base game, then 9 Deputy or Marshall Gunfight Spins are awarded. Alternatively, badges during Gunfight Spins upgrade trigger the upgrade to this bonus game. Badge symbols landing in this round act in the same way as described, with the added benefit of them remaining in position for the rest of the feature. Triggering scatter symbols also become jumping wilds and can upgrade Stoudenmire Wilds.

What you really want though, is 3 scatters to land with both badges in the base game, or both badges in Gunfight Spins. This leads to 10 Drunken Gundfiguth&r… Spins, played on a 4-3-3-3-4 grid. Here you get 5 jumping wilds and sticky Stoudenmire xNudge Wilds. Stoudenmire Wilds can be upgraded as mentioned above, although now they lock in place for the rest of the round.

El Paso Gunfight xNudge also has one more lethal respin feature stuffed up a sleeve. Known as the 4 dead in 5 seconds feature, one respin is awarded where all 5 character symbols (including the Stoudenmire wild) land at once. Stoudenmire Wilds expand to cover all three middle reels for the respin and its multiplier appliers to the respin payout.

Lastly, for players who like to fast forward to the best parts, El Paso Gunfight xNudge lets players buy Gunfight Spins, Deputy Gunfight Spins, Marshall Gunfight Spins, Drunken Gundfiguth&r… Spins, a 4 dead in 5 seconds Respin, or a lucky dip for 80x, 400x, 400x, 800x, 300x, or 238x the bet respectively.

El Paso Gunfight xNudge: Slot Verdict

Let’s just say it from the outset, El Paso Gunfight xNudge is another wild stallion of a ride from Nolimit City. Of their three Westerns to date, El Paso might not be the most immediately attractive one, as its low key saloon doesn't grab you the way Deadwood's grim small-town setting did, or even Tombstone's unusual black, white, and red colour scheme. The brown tones and plinking piano create an almost warm, inviting environment to come in, kick your feet up, maybe sample some moonshine before maybe having a chinwag or round of cards with the locals.

That impression quickly fades, however, once you're knee-deep in El Paso Gunfight's action, which is as volatile or extremely volatile as ever - depending on the setting you go for. Then you start to realise how clever the saloon location is. It's not the kind of place you expect a frenzied shoot-out or some massive feature to erupt in, so when it does, the juxtaposition is even more jarring. Blasts of adrenaline pop at regular intervals, and nowhere more so than the 4 dead in 5 seconds feature. Whether triggered naturally or bought, you are looking at one short sharp hit of a spin.

Following on this point, El Paso Gunfight continues Nolimit's tendency to include a menu of bonus buy options. None of the price tags might be as eye-catching as San Quentin xWays perhaps, but 300x for a single respin is not to be trifled with. In many ways, the intensity of the features encapsulates the spirit of the four dead in five seconds story where a crazy amount of action was crammed into a very short space of time.

The game might not have a bucking bronco released from the pen feel Deadwood had, yet El Paso Gunfight xNudge gets real close at times and in many ways surpasses its older siblings. One area is potential where wins of up to 44,440x the bet are possible. This is obviously higher than the previous two, and after seeing a number of Nolimit slots achieving their max win, there is little doubt some lucky gunslinger somewhere is going to hit that.

If there is one genre Nolimit City repeatedly gets right it is the Western one, and El Paso Gunfight xNudge is another strong entry. It might not have the initial aesthetic impact of the previous two, but when it comes to features, potential, or sheer manic action, it's quicker on the draw and blasting most of its competitors before they've even realised they're in a gunfight.