Chili Heat Slots
Get set for some fiery fun as we head down Mexico way and spin the red-hot reels of Chili Heat, a slot game from Novomatic that features maracas, trumpets, a beautiful senorita and Pedro, a happy local in a sombrero hat who can fill the reels to award you with a progressive jackpot. Of course this online casino slot wouldn’t be complete without at least one chili-themed symbol, so there’s a bright red chili that launches a high-paying free spins bonus round. ‘Muy Caliente!’ as they say in Mexico, or for those of us who failed Spanish in school, it’s ’Very Hot!’
With a red-roofed house under bright blue skies visible behind the reels, the temperature is rising as we load up this cartoon style game. It’s got 5 reels and 50 paylines, and follows the conventional format where you need to see matching symbols across a line, in a continuous run from the left side to win anything, but Perdo helps out by acting as other symbols if he can then complete a combination.
The Novomatic casino games developer is one of the biggest in the business, having produced a vast range of slots and more for land-based casinos and now they have branched out to the online and mobile optimised sides. Based in Austria, they are known as a company to be trusted, with the games guaranteed to deliver a fair return to players and all results determined by RNG software, while independent testing companies ensure compliance at all times.
Feeling the heat
The beautiful lady-friend of Pedro will only need to be seen on reels 1 and 2 to pay you a prize equal to 5x the amount bet per line, while 3, 4, or 5 of this lovely lady across a payline will be worth 20x, 80x, or 400x. If either the trumpet or the maracas appear on 3, 4, or 5 reels, you win 16x, 60x, or 200x the line bet, while the classic playing card symbols will fill out the bottom of the paytable and return the smaller prizes when they line up in the right places.
Pedro is also worth something when he’s on just 2 reels, with a win of 10x the line bet awarded, while a full line of this guy across the reels will be worth the top payout of 1,000x. Fantastico! He’s also the wild symbol, so you will still win a prize if he’s in the right positions to fill in any gaps in a run of matching symbols, or to stretch a winning line across extra reels for a higher reward.
He won’t be able to act as the scatter symbol however, as this bright red chili works in a different way, returning the top prizes of 100x, 1,000x, or a massive 10,000x the line stake if it’s in any 3 or more places, while then triggering 15 free spins. All of these symbols can be stacked several high on the reels, which has the effect of making it a bit easier to land them across a payline, especially if the wild symbol appears.
Plenty of Pedro’s in the Bonus Round
There’s a plethora of Pedro symbols in the mix during these free spins, so it should be easier for him to complete win-lines, but it’s also possible to scoop a progressive jackpot in this round if he lands in all 20 spots on the reels. A little bit of each bet made on the Chili Heat video slot, across all online casinos, is put aside and contributes to the progressive prize, although only players at the maximum stakes will win 100% of it, with those on lower stakes qualifying for proportionally smaller percentages.
The free spins can be retriggered if you land 3, 4, or 5 chili scatter symbols in a single game, potentially over and over again.
Gamble Feature
Apart from progressive jackpot wins, you can gamble a prize in an optional round that takes place on a second screen, where there’s a series of yellow horizontal bars, with the bottom one flashing on and off. The win is doubled if you time a click on the Gamble button when it’s on, and this can either be collected, or you can gamble again to double it over and over, moving up through the bars each time.
Beware though, as any wrong pick at any point will lose the gamble and you not only forfeit anything gained in the round so far, but also the initial win that triggered the gamble feature.
Betting Options
Free Chili Heat video slots are available if you want to get some practice spins before trying for real cash wins, but like all Novomatic games, this is a trusted slot with a high return to players, so most punters will want to place real stakes, which can be done from just 0.20 per spin. Higher stakes means you can claim higher prizes, plus of course, collect 100% of any jackpot wins to cash out.
A simple Autoplay button sets the reels spinning on their own, saving you from having to click each time and speeding the game up a little, and the only other decision you need to make is whether or not to have the Mariachi-style soundtrack on or off.
Similar South of the Border Slots
Did you know that the hottest chili is called a Bhut Jolokia, or Ghost Pepper? If you’re a true aficionado of fiery feasts, then it’s useful information, and it’s also useful to know that chili-based slots can be found at a range of casinos.
The More Chilli video slot, from Aristocrat, has hot sauces, carts selling chilli’s, Tequila and a Chihuahua, giving it an authentic Mexican vibe. There’s some nice bonuses to spice things up, including a free spins round where extra chillies will add more spins on for you, plus there’s extra wild symbols if you collect enough of them.
The Verdict on Chili Heat
This is a good-looking game, filled with the bright colours and zesty sounds of Mexico, and where you can enjoy some tasty bonus features as the reels spin. We particularly liked the frequent wild substitutions that can really boost the number of win-lines created by Pedro, and it’s nice that Novomatic tend to give their games high-paying bonus rounds, with the extra wilds in play during the free spins feature hopefully leading to lots of wins before the games are done.
You can find the Chili Heat video slot in the many web-based Novomatic casinos, where the rest of the range from this popular developer will also be featured. Their slots are all reliable and can deliver high returns and with many of them now mobile optimised, you can play them across desktop PC’s, phones and tablets.