Casino Bonuses
Provider | Relax Gaming |
Reels | 5 |
Rows | 4 |
Paylines | 30 |
Bonus Rounds | 1 |
Bet Range | 0.10 - 40 |
Volatility | High |
Max Win | 25,000x |
Bonus Buy | Yes |
RTP | 96.00% |
Our Rating | 8.2 |
Latest Slots
Game Overview
I’ve enjoyed most of Relax Gaming’s output this year, so I’m always pleased when I see their name on a new slot to review. The studio’s latest creation is titled “Hot Rod Racers”, which you would expect to be a petrol heads dream online slot, but don’t expect any Lambo’s or Ferrari’s here. The eponymous “Hot Rods” are the older American style of hot rod – think over-specced Model T’s, unreasonably over-engineered Corvette’s, or maybe even a ’56 Lancer with a ’52 Cadillac engine swap – hopefully, you understand what I’m getting at here! As for the specifications, we’ve got 30 fixed pay lines, a 96% RTP, and an overall winnings cap of 25,000x the current bet.
The feature set is somewhat restrained – the wild symbol has a modifier attached to it every time it lands, and there are both regular free spin and super free spin bonus rounds to look forward to when the scatters fall in your favour. Not much else to report other than this – there is a bonus buy facility available, too, with options to purchase both the regular and super free spins.
Does this sound like your kind of game? Or perhaps you are simply a fan of Relax Gaming in general? Even if the answer to these questions is no, I still recommend you go ahead and try our free demo slot of Hot Rod Racers, available to play below:
Hot Rod Racers Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
There have been a few noteworthy attempts at creating a “Fast & Furious” style online slot, most notably NetEnt’s “Drive – Multiplier Mayhem”, which was an excellent game that surely deserved to have a sequel published by now. This game has a very different feel to Drive, though, and in fact, I can’t think of any car-themed games that look quite like this one. Quickspin’s Wild Chase: Tokyo is another more modern take, as is IGT’s Formula X – I suspect that there probably are a few other games that focus on older cars that I have missed, but as it stands, I think Relax deserves a point or two for trying something relatively original with their Hot Rod Racers video slot.
Now the paytable – at the top of the list is the wild symbol, which has a special payout of 25x the current bet for a full pay line of five-of-a-kind. In many recent games, the wild pays the same as the regular top-paying symbol, so it’s nice to see the special symbol get a premium boost as used to be the tradition. The purple hot rod is worth 10x for all five symbols, followed by the red hot rod at 7.5x. The green car will pay you 6x for a full line of five-of-a-kind, whilst the blue car makes up the final element of the high-paying symbols with a return of 5x the current bet. All of the lower-paying royal symbols pay 2.5x for a full pay line of five-of-a-kind, and the scatter symbols have no specific return of their own, unfortunately.
The betting range begins at €0.10 per spin, and you can increase this in €0.10 increments until you reach €1.00, after which the steps get bigger. The maximum bet per round is limited to €40.00 per spin, which should be more than enough for all but the highest of high rollers.
Base Game & Modifiers
Let’s talk about the base game next – we’ve got a 5×4 playfield, which is a reasonable size for a thirty payline game, and as usual, you will need to hit three or more matching symbols starting from the left to score yourself a win.
Wild symbols appear on reels two through five and have a special feature described below.
Wheelspin Modifier
Any wilds landing on the reels will spin towards the left, converting any high-paying car symbols into wilds as they do so. A 1x multiplier is applied to all high-paying symbols or wilds that the spinning wild encounters between its position and the left-hand side. All multipliers will be multiplied together when evaluating the final total for the current round.
Hot Rod Racers Slot Bonus Features
Aside from the wheelspin modifier, there isn’t much else to talk about with regards to the base game; all of the big wins to be found in this game are in the two free spins modes, which are both triggered by hitting three scatter symbols on reels two, three, and four. To win the super free spins, you must also hit a “nitro” wild on reels one and five simultaneously as the three scatter symbols.
Free Spins Feature
The regular free spins feature is enhanced by a sticky wild feature which will lock any wheelspin wilds in place when they land on the reels. Once you have one or more sticky wilds on the screen, the wheelspin modifier will be triggered on every subsequent free spin. You will always receive 10 free spins, with no option to win more as the scatter symbols are not present on the reels whilst the bonus round is in play.
Super Free Spins Feature
The super free spins feature works similarly to the regular free spins, as you might expect, but adds an additional multiplier feature to the wheelspin wilds. Each time a wild rolls over a high-paying symbol, it will boost the multiplier for the cell it rolls over, up to a maximum of 5x.
These multipliers are held between consecutive spins and, combined with the sticky wilds, give this feature a huge amount of big win potential. You can potentially add a 5x multiplier to all cells on a row, potentially multiplying your returns by up to 625x.
Bonus Buy Feature
The regular free spins feature costs 100x the normal bet, whilst the super free spins cost much more at 400x the current stake. During my testing, I found that most bonus rounds I purchased resulted in a win of less than the cost of the feature; that doesn’t sound great, and indeed it isn’t, but it is a common feature in games with sticky wild symbols.
Hot Rod Racers Slot Review Final Thoughts
This is a great game, but just for once I can see the UKGC’s point of view when it comes to bonus buy features; the option is just far too risky in a game like Hot Rod Racers, but if you stick to the base game, you will have plenty of fun.
- Game Types:
- Bonus Buy Slots
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