Hotter Than Hot Slot Machine
From all the modern trends on the slot game market, the Egyptian slots have managed to become so popular that it would actually be difficult to find a single gambler worthy of the name who hasn’t played one of them, at least. Developers might struggle to come up with original ideas, but some like Ainsworth manage to introduce a little bit of challenge to this classic mix.
Introducing Hotter Than Hot, a video slot game featuring an extra reel on the side dedicated to bonus features only. Use it well and you could land with one of the 4 big jackpots of the game. With 94.40% RTP, Hotter Than Hot looks a little more challenging than average, on paper at least. Let’s figure out how the game actually works in our complete review here.
Long Walk Through the Desert
Hotter Than Hot sticks to the usual settings for an Egyptian slot game: the vast Sahara desert. The Ainsworth developers have actually toned down the golden palaces and imposing columns covered in hieroglyphs, making Hotter Than Hot actually look rather low key compared to the vast majority of other slots in its category.
If we stick to the looks only, Hotter Than Hot probably isn’t the most memorable slot on the current market. The animations are nice enough and the commands buttons were designed to be as intuitive as possible, and easily found on a mobile device as well. But the real interest of Hotter Than Hot lies in its gameplay, as we will see now.
First Steps
What experienced players will notice right away in Hotter Than Hot is the betting range: you can risk from 0.30 to 3,000 credits at every turn, which is truly impressive. The 5 reels of the game contain 30 paylines, with a handy autoplay mode to help you stick to the same wager for a while, if you want to speed up the game a little bit.
Hotter Than Hot has a relatively low volatility, which makes it easier than usual to score frequent small prizes. On the other end, the larger rewards will be tougher to get to, so be ready to spend a few extra credits here. The card icons will be by far the most common on the reels, followed by a nice selection of golden Egyptian artefacts, worth at most 300 times your line bet.
Extra Reel for Extra Bonuses
Hotter Than Hot proved fairly generous in terms of special features when we tried it out, starting with pyramid symbols working as wilds. They can appear anywhere on the reels to boost your chances of scoring some basic winning combinations. You cannot replace the scattered beetles with pyramids, however. These tiny insects award 10 free spins as soon as you find 3 on the screen, plus a cash bonus of up to x3000. Note that the value of each combination will be reduced during the free games, making them less profitable than they seem.
The most generous option of the entire game is scoring one of the 4 jackpots displayed on top of the game screen. To do so, you will need to find specific combinations of amulets on the reels and a crown symbol on the 6th bonus reel on the right. You can find each combination in the help menu during the game, but we can tell you right away that unlocking any of the jackpots is much tougher than it looks...
Plenty of Other Options
If you stick to the basic settings of Hotter Than Hot and forget about the bonus reel, you are left with fairly common options that you can find in many other slot games. Daredevil from Playtech, for instance, is based on a similar reel set and gives you a chance to win free spins in the exact same way as in Hotter Than Hot.
As mentioned before, Ancient Egypt is a major source of inspiration for slot game developers and one of the most popular themes out there. If you really want to experience the classic charm of the genre, then you have to check out Cleopatra’s Gold by RTP and see if you can manage to win some free spins and multipliers there.
A Big Challenge Ahead
Hotter Than Hot is going to be challenging for many players out there because of its lower RTP and low variance. There are plenty of big wins available, but getting to them can prove quite difficult. This is why we would recommend Hotter Than Hot to experienced gamblers who don’t mind going the extra mile when they know that a jackpot awaits – never mind 4 of them.
We did enjoy the original bonus system of the game, with this tiny extra reel on the side. This simple idea made the whole experienced more thrilling, as you never know if a regular spin could turn into a jackpot win all of a sudden.
