Hot Shots Megaways

Hot Shots Megaways: Slot Overview

Come kick a ball around with software provider iSoftBet in the next instalment of their Hot Shots range of slots. If you haven't come across this series before, it involves football with animal participants rather than humans. This one has the honour of being the first to mix anthropomorphic animalistic athletes with Big Time Gaming's popular Megaways game engine. But hang on, maybe not so much honour after all, since Hot Shots Megaways is essentially a reskin of Aztec Gold Megaways/Aztec Gold Extra Gold Megaways, piling in features such as optional betting extras, cascading wins, Cash Respins, and modifiers.

Hot Shots Megaways looks and sounds a lot different, though. Whereas before, players were sent into a stylistic jungle, Hot Shots Megaways is a lot plainer, albeit quite bubbly. Despite the rousing soundtrack, the game didn't have as much feel-good cheer as others in the Hot Shots series have had. Maybe because the majority of the screen is taken up by the game grid, which is not transparent as it was in part one, nor do you experience the sitting in a crowd effect. As such, aside from a couple of footballs spinning away on the sides of the screen, there isn't a massive use of the football theme. Not to worry, the animal symbols are as quirky as ever, and it isn't too hard to get into a sportive mood.

There are several ways of tackling Hot Shots Megaways. One is by setting up a regular bet of 20 p/c to $/€20 and taking a shot. Doing so this way comes with a return to player value of 95.98%. Or you can activate the Hot Shots Cup Fever side bet, which ups the stake by 25%, increasing the chance of triggering the bonus, with an RTP of 96.48%. The other is just by buying free spins covered below. Till then, the action takes place on a 6-reel game grid, each reel holding up to 7 symbols each, creating 117,649 ways to win when fully expanded.

Players collect a win when matching symbols land left to right from the leftmost side, and there are 10 regular pay symbols in total. The first six are brightly designed 9-A low pays giving you 0.5 to 1.75x the bet for six of a kind, while the remaining four are cheetahs, chickens, dogs, and deer, worth 2-50 times the stake for a six-of-a-kind winning way. Winning symbols are removed from the reels by the cascading feature and are replaced by symbols falling from above. Consecutive cascades will continue to roll like this until no new win hits. Lending a potential helping hand, wild symbols appear on reels 2, 3, 4, or 5 and substitute for all symbols except the Gold Ball scatter. In addition, appearing on all reels are mystery symbols, which all transform into matching regular pay symbols when any are in view.

Hot Shots Megaways: Slot Features

With a fair amount of animalistic football already scrutinised, the remaining features include three random modifiers and a Cash Respins bonus round. The three modifiers are:

• Hot Shots Cup – the Hot Shots Cup can appear on any spin to either activate Cash Respins or a Big Win.
• Max Megaways – when triggered on any paid spin, the reels produce full symbols and the full 117,649 ways to win.
• Goal Scatters – on any paid spin, when this modifier triggers, there is a chance Cash Respins or VIP Cash Respins are won. It is not guaranteed to happen, though.

Cash Respins

The Cash Respins feature is triggered when at least 5 Gold Ball scatters hit when playing in the regular mode, or 4 if the Hot Shots Cup Fever side bet is active. Triggering scatters lock to the grid, and play moves to a hold 'n win style round. Here, 3 respins are awarded, and if new scatters hit, they lock in place while resetting the respin count. If all positions on a reel are covered in locked scatters, a multiplier equal to the number of scatters on the reel is applied to their values.

As well as normal Gold Ball scatters are Mini, Major, and Mega jackpot scatters, which are worth 30x, 100x, or 1,000x the bet, respectively. When respins end, the value of all scatters in view is paid out. Also, if available in your jurisdiction, you can buy two bonus rounds. 100x the bet gets a regular Cash Respins feature, while 150x the bet buys VIP Cash Respins that is played on a 7x6 game board with max positions available for landing scatters on.

Hot Shots Megaways: Slot Verdict

You might think it would be a major trek from the jungle to the football pitch, but iSoftBet makes the journey a short one due to the reskin procedure. It does feel like Hot Shots 2 has been sold a little short, not benefitting from any new feature, like nothing. Even the game's presentation feels half-baked. Before, players could squint, use a bit of imagination, and at a push, pretend they were at a football game with a bunch of animals. This time, we get a pinky purple screen with a couple of balls on it. The character symbols have spunk, yet it's not the most invigorating game of football imaginable on the reels.

Fortunately, the gameplay is just as enjoyable as it was in previous games, Aztec Gold Megaways and Aztec Gold Extra Gold Megaways. Modifiers and cascades light up the base game, and the bonus round has its charm. The iSoftBet team do like their hold 'n win games and has plenty of experience making them. So much so, it might have been nice if they'd added something new to Hot Shots Megaways to give it some desirability, but, it's the same as well. One positive aspect is the Aztec games had big max win figures, which presumably have been ported over to Hot Shots Megaways as well; much of everything else has stayed the same.

We said the gameplay is just as good, yet on second thoughts, maybe not quite so much. The Aztec games had a unique look and feel to them that made them a treat to play. Hot Shots Megaways is kind of drab by comparison, which did have a negative impact on the rest of the game. It can still technically fire, like its predecessors, but low-budget visuals and the fact nothing new has been added did detract from the overall experience.