Retro Reels – Extreme Heat
The wombat says: This wombat does have a soft spot for pretty much anything retro, maybe because we’re not exactly wombat pups anymore, making us more than just a little retro. Sometimes simple games like the Jackpot 3×3 slot and these retro reels games really are more fun!
And here, Microgaming treats us vintage lovers with the 3rd installment of their Retro Reels series – after the original game and Diamond Glitz it’s now Extreme Heat’s turn to get us spinning like Tasmanian Devils (which is quite a claim).
So is this version going to be hot slot stuff, or the lukewarm copy of a copy? Let’s have a look.
Look and Feel
As the additional title Extreme Heat already suggests, we are dealing with a retro game with scorching hot slot twist. Red-hot flame blaze in the background and symbols are engulfed by fire. The game has overall a bit of a more rock vibe to it, and to accentuate this metal vibe, there’s a heavy guitar soundtrack which plays as the reels set in motion and celebrates each big win with a hearty riff.
In other news, Microgaming- those people behind the Bermuda Mysteries slot– also added a little surprise for us: Wild symbols! Yes, my friends, the two predecessors were that ultra retro and didn’t even come with Wilds in their arsenal. Fortunately, Microgaming reconsidered this and has screwed some onto this machine.
Game Play
Retro Reels has 5 reels, 3 rows and 30 pay-lines, more than even the Throne of Egypt slot with its 25 lines. Vintage slot symbols are mixed with some modern slot features and these include a scatter symbol, Free Spins bonus game and a re-spin feature.
The flame engulfed $ symbol is the highest paying symbol, if you get 5 of of these on one payline you’ll be paid out 10,000x your line bet, which would be a very decent win. But that is not all, it now also acts asWwild and substitutes every symbol except for the scatter.
Anyway, other symbols are the lucky 7 (also flame engulfed), bars, bells and of course all kinds of fruits, in this case lemon and a pair cherries. There is also the bonus symbol that carries the label free spins round, so you can pretty much guess what the bonus game entails…
Bonus Features & Free Spins
Unlike in the original Retro Reels slot, where you only needed 2x, in Extreme Heat it takes 3x of the bonus symbols to trigger the Free Spin round. During this feature, all regular wins will be multiplied by x2.
You’ll scoop 10x, 15x or 20x free spins, depending on how many bonus symbols you managed to line up and the freespins can be also retriggered! Which we like a lot.
All regular wins are doubled during this feature, and bets and pay-lines are the same as they were with the spin that triggered the bonus round. Free spins can be re-activated, so when you hit two or more bonus symbols during this feature, additional free spins will be added to those remaining.
There is also a ‘Respin’ feature that allows any individual reel to be respun, for an extra cost. This can be used to try and complete a combination with a missing symbol and by this achieving bigger wins. Here’s a bit of Wombat advice though: use this feature with caution. As tempting as the respin feature may look, if used too frequently it’ll burn through your bank roll very quickly…
Conclusion
Extreme Heat might be our favourite of the Retro Reels slot series. We welcome the addition of the new Wild symbol and the Respin feature is a cracker, too. Overall, Retro Reels: Extreme Heat slot is on fire when it comes to long play value, so if you feel like playing a vintage game, you should definitely fire it up!