Miami Rise

Miami Rise: Slot Overview

A survey by Which? asked members to rate their travel experiences of cities outside of Europe and coming in last on the list was the Floridian city of Miami. Expensive and overrated were some of the responses, while it scored a single star for cultural sights. However, despite the negative groupthink, developer Red Tiger has used some of the city's more exciting connotations to design Miami Rise, an online slot that tells the story of a kingpin's rise through the ranks, and its reputation system provides an increasing ability to sling prizes at gamblers.

Golden sunlight, palm trees, and hot cars are what a lot of people might want to see on a trip to Miami, and this is what Miami Rise serves up on the screen when the game loads. Splashes of neon have been added to a street of hotels the game finds itself on as it taps into the sockless charm of Miami Vice. Echoing the likes of Agent Royale or Rock'N'Lock, Miami Rise has a classic Red Tiger look, all shiny and chrome, while an upgrade system that increases the potency of the game as players progress is another staple of the studio's output.

A highly volatile slot, Miami Rise is played on a 5x3 gaming grid with a 243 ways pay system, awarding wins when matching symbols land on at least 3 consecutive reels starting from the leftmost side. Players may stake 10 c to $/€4 per spin, where the highest RTP is 95.7% while having access to three feature buys to enhance or skip the base game.

Ten to Ace card ranks appear on the lower end of the symbol hierarchy, awarding 0.3x to 0.4x the bet for 5 OAK, followed by a glass of alcohol, a watch, diamonds, and a female character paying 1x to 10x for 5 OAK. The wild substitutes for all paying symbols and lands on the three middle reels only.

Miami Rise: Slot Features

Ranking up is one of Miami Rise's missions, accompanied by collecting Cash or Cash Hit symbols, triggering free spins or better Cash Hit Spins, and feature buys.

Cash and Cash Hit Symbols

Cash and Cash Hit symbols land on all reels except the rightmost. Cash symbols hold a cash prize of 0.5x to 5x the bet, while the four Cash Hit prizes start the game with values of Small 5x, Big Hit 15x, Huge Hit 50x, and Mega Hit 1,000x.

The Kingpin

The Kingpin symbol only lands on the rightmost reel. When the Kingpin lands together with Cash or Cash Hit symbols, it collects them and awards the total value.

Climbing the Ranks

The game has three rank levels that need to be completed to rise to the next rank. Doing so unlocks new features. Each collected Cash and Cash Hit prize increases the Kingpin's reputation by +1. Rank 1, Rank 2, and Rank 3 require 30, 50, and 70 reputation points to be gained, respectively. Completing a stage upgrades the Kingpin to the next rank, like so:

• Rank 1 - the Kingpin becomes sticky and remains on the screen for 2 more spins when it lands. Collecting Cash or Cash Hit prizes resets the number of spins the Kingpin will remain on screen for back to 2.
• Rank 2 - the Kingpin gets an increasing multiplier that increases by +1 each time it collects any Cash or Cash Hit prizes. The multiplier applies to random Cash or Cash Hit prizes the next time the Kingpin collects that prize. It resets when the Kingpin leaves the screen.
• Rank 3 - adds a new Cash Hit Spins scatter on the second reels and increases the Cash Hit prizes to Small 10x, Big Hit 25x, Huge Hit 100x, and Mega Hit 1,000x.

Free Spins

Landing 3 regular scatters on the middle three reels triggers 10 free spins, and landing 3 scatters during the feature awards a further +10 free spins. Reputation progress carries over to the bonus round and any progress made there then transfers back to the base game. After gaining Rank 1, if not already present at the start of free spins, the Kingpin appears on the middle row of the rightmost reel and remains there till the round ends. After gaining Rank 2, if free spins trigger while the Kingpin is on the reels, any multiplier acquired transfers into free spins. Any multiplier he gets remains till the round ends. After gaining rank 3, landing a Cash Hit Spins scatter on the second reel plus 2 free spins scatters on reels 3 and 4 awards +5 free spins and upgrades the round to Cash Hit Spins.

Cash Hit Spins

In the base game, hitting a Cash Hit Spins scatter on the second reel plus regular scatters on reels 3 and 4 triggers 5 Cash Hit Spins. During Cash Hit Spins, all Cash symbols are upgraded to Cash Hit symbols. No scatter of any kind lands in Cash Hit Spins.

Feature Buy

Instead of triggering them organically, free spins with a fully ranked up Kingpin can be bought at a cost of 50x the bet, while Cash Hit Spins with an x5 fully ranked up Kingpin can be bought for 240x the bet. At 9x the bet, a fully ranked up Kingpin and Cash or Cash Hit symbols are guaranteed to land on a spin. When buying any feature, the current base game progress is saved and returned to when the feature ends.

Miami Rise: Slot Verdict

Red Tiger do like their players to put in a bit of work in order to be able to get to a game's better bits. They generally don't take an eternity in order to level up, but sometimes it can feel a bit strange not having all the best parts of a game on hand from the very first spin. But this style must be popular enough for the studio to keep making them, at least in the casual gamblers segment of the market. If you like your slots to function this way, then Miami Rise is one to try. What's somewhat interesting is the way the levelling-up mechanic is intertwined with the story of an ambitious chap moving up the ranks to achieve kingpin status. On a side note, any crime side of Miami Rise is played down to the point of being almost entirely absent, so quite what this guy is a kingpin of is a slight mystery.

He looks cashed up, though, and Miami Rise is shot through with references to wealth and riches. It's also a rather high potential slot too, as the game's calculated max multiplier is 23,002.5 times the bet. It's a rather questionable number, but guess when the Kingpin's blasting through the multiplier and the Mega Hit appears, big things can technically happen. Having the desire to shoot for them to do so not only depends on a willingness to sit through the ranking up process, but also how appealing playing another cash symbol collecting game with a local jackpot aspect is.

If both of those things sound alright, then Miami Rise has more than enough Red Tiger glitz backed by big winning potential to satisfy the right gambler. On the other hand, those without the time for ranking up or aren't in the mood for another cash collect game, then like the city it's set in, Miami Rise might seem more flash than substance.