It’s fair to say that video slots are increasingly being developed with the look and feel of games console or desktop PC titles. Whether it’s the inclusion of hugely immersive high-definition (HD) visuals or audio or the gamification of slot features that makes players feel like they are part of a journey, online slots are back in vogue and are so much more than just pulling a lever and hoping for the best.
Slot themes are becoming more epic by the year too. It’s not just fruit machine-style games and light-hearted frivolity provided by lucky leprechauns and horseshoes, there are some really powerful themes that are capturing the imagination of popular culture right now. Playtech is one such online slot developer that’s got its fingers firmly on the pulse of pop culture and we’re going to review one of its most recent releases inspired by the heritage of the western genre, which moulded Hollywood icons such as Clint Eastwood.
Wild West Wilds is one of the newest video slot releases from Playtech, set within the middle of an old-school western town, with a red sky lighting up the frontier land and the five reels of slot action. Many of the symbols on Wild West Wilds pay homage to the western era, with characters that are even designed to imitate the likes of Clint Eastwood’s character, Manco, from the box-office success For a Few Dollars More. It’s available exclusively at William Hill Casino, which currently provides £15 in bonus funds to new users without having to make real-money deposits.
The background to Wild West Wilds
Wild West Wilds is designed to be a five-reel, 25-payline slot. It’s a slot game that’s also built to appeal to newcomers as well as experienced slot players, with minimum bets per spin starting from just 0.05 credits up to a maximum of 500 credits per spin. Visually, the reels of Wild West Wilds are set within an immersive frontier township that wouldn’t look out of place in a Sergio Leone spaghetti western movie.
More experienced slot fans will wonder why a 25-payline slot has captured the imagination so much when there are video slots out there with thousands, even hundreds of thousands of paylines to use. When you consider that Wild West Wilds looks modest on the surface, the fact that a 10,000x jackpot is up for grabs as well as plenty of free spins should help our review make more sense.
Wild West Wilds slot symbols
If you want to know how to trigger the Free Spins feature as well as the Sticky Wilds Respin feature, you’ll need to acquaint yourself with the slot symbols of Wild West Wilds first.
Let’s start by checking out the lower-value symbols on the high-definition reels. There are four playing card-style symbols on the reels from Jack through to Ace. All four of these are displayed in western-style wooden typography. That’s followed by four higher-value base game symbols including the Manco-lookalike outlaw, a glamorous saloon dancer, a cowgirl and the sheriff. The sheriff is the most lucrative base game icon in Wild West Wilds, paying out 50x your initial stake for landing five on the same payline.
It’s also important to note there are two types of wild symbols on the reels of Wild West Wilds, hence the name of the game. The first is the branded ‘WILD’ symbol, which is the base game wild and can replace all other base game symbols to enhance potential winning paylines. The second wild is the silver sheriff’s badge, which is only active during the Sticky Wild Respin and Free Spins features. Both wilds are worth 50x payouts whenever you land five on the same payline. Finally, the revolver is the slot’s scatter symbol which is the key to unlocking the Free Spins bonus.
The nuts and bolts of Wild West Wilds
Whenever you land two revolver scatters on reels three, four or five, you will unlock the Sticky Wilds Respins feature. You’ll immediately get one free spin. If you are fortunate enough to land the silver sheriff’s badge wild during that respin, it will become a sticky wild. You can keep retriggering this feature by landing two more scatters with each spin. If you get three consecutive Sticky Wild Respins you’ll automatically trigger the Free Spins bonus.
To enter the Free Spins feature without three successive Sticky Wild Respins, you must find three or more revolver scatters on reels three, four and five. Once this occurs, your game screen will transport you to a ‘showdown’ screen, whereby a duel will decide whether you get five or nine free spins with up to 3x win multipliers attached to all wins in these respins.
Remember, the silver sheriff’s badge is active during these free spins. Whenever they land on the reels they instantly turn into golden sticky wilds whilst being shot at by outlaws. It’s possible to retrigger the Free Spins feature several times, but the win multiplier is capped at 10x. With the maximum payout per spin capped at 1,000x, this means the maximum jackpot you can possibly when is 10,000x when sticky wilds land and fill up all five reels.
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We should also mention the return to player (RTP) percentage of the Wild West Wilds slot. An RTP percentage is the average percentage of wagered money that players can expect to receive back over time. The UK Gambling Commission describes the RTP calculation very well on its website. For every 100 £1 bets on Wild West Wilds, you can expect a return of £96.14 thanks to an RTP of 96.14%. This puts this slot in the low-to-medium volatility category, with player unlikely to have to wait too long for action on the reels.
Related slot titles to consider
If you are fascinated by the Wild West, there are plenty of other relevant slot titles to explore. NetEnt is a pioneering slot developer and its Dead or Alive II release is also considered one of the best online slot titles ever, with its immersive visuals and audio proving that video slots really do play more like console games than ever before.
