Riotstock 2099: Slot Overview
They say you just can't beat the original, and in the case of music festivals, they've kind of got a point. For instance, where the original 1969 Woodstock was a celebration of peace, love, and harmony, Woodstock 99 is famous for descending into chaotic Lord of the Flies savagery of sexual assault, looting, and riots, not to mention the corporate greed, all 'brought to you by our sponsors.' Developer Sneaky Slots has gazed into its crystal ball to visualise a musical event 73 years into the future before bringing it back, kicking, screaming, and making rock out hand gestures, in the online slot Riotstock 2099. Here's hoping by that point in the future, event organisers have realised that if you're going to overcharge for water, at least provide enough toilets.
Riotstock 2099 is a game best played with the volume on. Muting it will seriously weaken the impact. Provided, of course, you appreciate a bit of driving heavy metal, with electronic overtones. Will humanity be headbanging to tunes like this in the year 2099? Will there even be a humanity in 2099? Could be, hopefully, but either way, Riotstock 2099 drips with a sort of spiky punk rock, neo-expressionistic, DIY zine style. There's a whole mishmash of cyberpunk angst happening here, of fudge the corporations, let's battle in the mosh pit, tomorrow never comes anyway. It works well, and Riotstock 2099 exudes a losing yourself in the music energy, cos you know what? We're still here, alive, pumping blood, we can change the future, man... Sorry, got a bit carried away there.
The rioting happens on a 5x4 grid with 30 paylines, where a line multiplier sits next to each row. Plus and minus buttons may be used to choose a stake of $/€0.10 to $/€40, while above them, the eyes button is where ante bets and feature buys are located. Highly volatile, Riotstock 2099 has an RTP of 95.68%.
The pay symbols are divided between 10-A royals and five rockers of the future. Hitting 5 OAK winning combinations pays 1x for the royals or 2x to 10x for the characters. When wilds are on the reels, whatever the form, they substitute for all regular pay symbols. A 5 wild winning line also pays 10x. Winning symbols are removed from the board and gaps filled by a symbol drop, repeating as long as new wins appear.
Riotstock 2099: Slot Features
Riotstock 2099 is a festival with a lot of acts to get through. They include line multipliers, Diesel Bombs, Mud Slides, Firestarter Wilds, a Riot Spins bonus, a Wall of Death bonus, with super versions of each bonus, Sneaky Buys, and feature buys.
Line Multipliers
At the start of each spin, a multiplier of x2 to x666 appears by each row, initially locked. One to four of them can be unlocked by landing the Diesel Bomb scatter. When unlocked, the multiplier applies to all wins that start from its row. Multipliers increase by 1 for each new win line they are part of till the end of the spin.
Diesel Bomb
Diesel Bombs land anywhere to unlock 1-4 line multipliers till the end of the spin. In addition, when it explodes, the Diesel Bomb turns itself and 1-4 other symbols into Burning Wilds. Only one can land per spin. Burning Wilds can only appear from Diesel Bombs, though they can be cloned by Mud Slide or Firestarter Wilds.
Mud Slide
The Mud Slide scatter lands anywhere, revealing a multiplier value up to x50 and increasing 1-4 line multipliers with it. After this, the Mud Side explodes, destroying symbols vertically and horizontally, causing a cascade. Any affected symbols part of win lines pay out before being removed. Then the Mud Slide turns into a random pay symbol. If a Burning Wild is in the explosion's path, it is cloned from its position in the direction of the path, spreading extra Burning Wilds as it does so. Mud Slides also unlock the line multiplier on their row.
Firestarter Wild
The Firestarter wild is a 1x2 symbol that can only land at the bottom of the rightmost reel. When it lands, it turns 3 or more symbols into the strongest symbol on the screen. If a Burning Wild is in view, the transformed symbols turn into Burning Wilds.
Bonus Game Pick
The normal bonus is triggered by landing 3 yellow scatters, while the super bonus triggers when 3 yellow scatters plus a purple scatter hit. Players get to pick Riot Spins or Wall of Death, or the super versions if the super bonus triggers. In the base game, yellow scatters are present on all reels in the base game, while purple scatters appear on the two rightmost reels. Only one scatter may land per reel.
Riot Spins
This feature starts with 7 free spins, and a Diesel Bomb is guaranteed on each spin. Landing a yellow scatter awards +2 spins. Hitting a purple scatter on any reel upgrades the bonus to super Riot Spins and awards +3 spins.
Super Riot Spins are the same, but 9 free spins are awarded, plus all line multipliers start unblocked and remain so until the round ends. Only purple scatters may land, awarding +3 free spins each time they hit.
Wall of Death
Three spins, or clashes as they are called, are awarded. On each clash, two crowds stand at opposite sides of a grid showing bet multiplier prizes and features. The two sides crash together and part, potentially leaving dead bodies on the grid. Positions with dead bodies on them award the corresponding bet multiplier prize or feature. Boost and Multiply features always activate before prizes are added to the count. The bet multipliers range in value from 1x to 666x the bet, while the possible feature symbols are:
- Boost - Adds its value of 1x to 100x to all other bet multipliers before turning into a bet multiplier of the same value.
- Multiply - Multiplies all other bet multipliers on the screen by x2 to x5 before turning into a bet multiplier of the equal value.
- Reset - Resets the clash count back to 3. Only one may appear at a time.
- Upgrade - Upgrades to the Super Wall of Death.
- The Sinkhole - Sucks the values of all bet multiplier prizes, Boost, and Multiply symbols, before the crowd crashes, then spits them back out. If bet multipliers or Boosts were less than 10x, they are upgraded to 10x. If they were 10x or above, they are doubled. Multiply is always doubled.
Super Wall of Death is the same except players get 4 clashes instead of 3, and a feature activation is guaranteed on each spin. Purple scatters reset the count back to 4.
Sneaky Boost
When Sneaky Boost is on, costing 2x the bet, then landing 1 or 2 Sneaky symbols triggers a normal bonus. When Super Sneaky Boost is activated, at 5x, landing 1 Super Sneaky symbol triggers a normal bonus, but 2 of them trigger the super bonus.
Sneaky Buys
Players may buy a regular bonus round trigger for 150x the stake or the super bonus version for 450x.
Riotstock 2099: Slot Verdict
The chaotic legacy of Woodstock '99 is a heavy crown to bear, but Riotstock 2099 wears it like a spiky leather jacket it's found in an alleyway behind the cramped, overpopulated, neon-lit mega building it calls home. Basically, the game has an attitude, and a taste for getting sweaty in a crowd of music goers as they line up and barge into each other for no other reason than why the heck not. The game probably wouldn't have worked as well if it had been an officially licensed, branded slot using a big-name group to garner attention. Doing it that way would have smacked a little too hard of late-stage capitalism, with a price tag slapped on everything, and five multi-trillionaires making all the money off the back of AI slave labour, while the rest of us can do nothing more than rage.
Spose a mosh pit is one place to let the rage out, and Riotstock 2099's Wall of Death round is one of its most unique mechanical elements. It's an entertaining way of translating symbols on a grid into wins and financial payouts. Definitely worth a look if new features get you going. During the review, if memory serves, Riot Spins proved to be more rewarding, and they have a novelty factor of their own that's worth a look. Adding wilds to a grid is one thing, but exploding them across it, or better yet, spraying them with fire, certainly ups the entertainment value. Line multipliers are the final big piece of the puzzle, and they might turn out to be very handy when they start building sizable unlocked values.
Riotstock 2099 is a breath of fresh air, albeit air from the future that could be full of all sorts of nasty toxins. Its rebellious spirit makes a welcome break from the mosh pit of generic, reskinned cliches which abound; winning potential of 10,666x the bet is a decent figure, and it's got some genuinely unique gaming. While Riotstock 2099 might not go down in history like Woodstock, it's a fun reminder that even if we can't change the world for the better, we can at least party in the ruins while the corporate gang bang goes up in flames.
