Hot Shots Megaways™ Review

The Hot Shot Megaways™ slot is the latest animal-themed video title by iSoftBet, which brings the best of the wildlife from North America together on a football backdrop for an enjoyable gaming experience. Keep reading for a full review on all it has to offer!

Best Hot Shots Megaways™ Casinos

This slot isn’t out yet, but we’ll update this section as soon as you can play this game for real money.

What Is the Hot Shots Megaways™ Slot?

Hot Shot Megaways™ by iSoftBet is a football-and animal-themed video slot which pits cheetahs, chickens, dogs, and deer against each other in the ultimate penalty shootout… In fact, it totally reminds us of that iconic football match in Disney’s Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

Fun and animated, this 6×7 slot has high volatility, an RTP of 95.98%, and like many other Megaways™ slots, comes with 117,649 ways to win.

It’s also chock-a-block with special features, including progressive multipliers, cascading wins, cash respins, and a whole load more.

The biggest downside is that the theme is rather superficial, so while the engine is great, the whole experience can sometimes feel a little lacklustre. We explain why below.

Overall, the game is an excellent sequel to both Hot Shots and Hot Shots 2, with iSoftBet retaining all the elements that made these games so beloved, including the fun animal characters and a number of the features. Even so, the added Megaways™ twist makes this an even better title.

Hot Shots Megaways™ Free Play Demo

We haven’t got our hands on the demo just yet, but we’ll be adding it as soon as we do!

Hot Shots Megaways™ Key Facts & Ratings

• Bets: £/€/$0.20 to £/€/$20.00
• Ways of winning: 117,649
• Theme: Animal/Football
• Symbols: 9, 10, J, Q, K, A card suit symbols + Cheetah, Chicken, Dog, Deer, Hotter Shots Mystery Symbol
• Wild: Wild Football Icon
• Scatter: Gold Ball Scatter
• Free Spins: No
• Bonus Games: Yes
• Devices: Desktop, tablet, smartphone

Hot Shots Megaways™ Top Features & Modifiers

The beauty of the Hot Shots Megaways™ slot game is the many features that it has, each of which can boost your winnings. Some of these come in the form of modifiers which are available for an extra stake.

In-game modifiers

The game comes with several modifiers, which can activate randomly on any given spin.

• The Hot Shots Cup feature can appear randomly on any spin. When the cup appears, one of two things can happen: you will either be rewarded with a big win or you will get Cash Respins, so this is a feature well worth watching out for.
• Max Megaways™ is another feature that can come along on any random spin. When it lands, you will get a different background with Max Megaways™ scrawled on it. This is a huge feature to activate because this is the route which ensures the maximum number of ways to win: the much coveted 117,649 on a boosted set of reels. The reel will grow from a 5×6 to a 6×7, so you have a chance at bigger and better combos.
• The Goal Scatters can potentially be activated on any spin and will award you 10 or 20 Goal Scatters, which boost your chances of triggering the Cash or the VIP Cash Respins (which basically means that the Max Megaways™ is guaranteed to be on). During these respins, an extra reel will be added to the grid, which allows for bigger winning combos. Along with this comes a better chance of activating the Cash Respins feature.

Cascading Reels

Like all Megaways™ slots, this game comes with cascading reels.

A cascade is just a fancy word for waterfall and, in this case, it means that symbols in a winning combination are replaced by new ones, effectively giving you the chance to make more wins per spin.

Hot Shots Cup Fever

If you want a better shot at the Hot Shots Cup, you can activate the Hot Shots Cup Fever side bet. This will increase your wager by 25% but will boost your odds of getting this bonus round. It will also slightly increase the RTP up to 96.48%, so this extra bet is actually worth placing.

Cash Respins

Landing five or more Gold Ball Scatters will activate the Cash Respins feature, which will award you three respins.

This may not seem like much, but the great thing is that the respins counter will reset every time you land a Scatter symbol – potentially to infinity!

But there’s more: when enjoying this feature, you may notice that the Mini, Major, and Mega Jackpot Scatters listed just above the grid. If these land, you will be awarded 30x, 100x, or 1,000x your stake, respectively.

This feature can lead to big wins, especially if the counter continues to reset for a while! With any luck, you can combine the Cash Respins with the Max Megaways™.

Bonus Buy Feature

Both the Cash Respins and the Cash Respins with the Max Megaways™ active are available for purchase. These cost 100x and 150x your bet, respectively, but with them come a much bigger win potential. In fact, the RTP is actually slightly higher for these boosted wagers.

Hot Shots Megaways™ RTP, Volatility & Win Potential

Hot Shots Megaways™ is not for the faint hearted.

This game is highly volatile, with the various features in the game being difficult to trigger. However, activating the features increases the potential for a big win to come your way.

The high volatility is combined with an RTP rating of 95.98%, which is a little on the low side and definitely one of the cons of this game. In fact, there’s no way this game would make it onto our highest Megaways™ RTP slots, where some titles have an RTP of almost 98%.

It should be said, though, that activating the features will see the RTP rise to 96.48%, which takes it just above the average.

Finally, the win frequency here is around 31.53%, which is decent, and means that a shade under a third of all spins yield a return.

Hot Shots Megaways™ Stakes & Betting Range

The range of betting and stakes for Hot Shots Megaways™ is quite broad.

The minimum stake is just £/€/$0.20, while the maximum is £/€/$20.00.

The maximum win in this machine is 21,417x your stake. This is obviously difficult to achieve, and you’ll definitely need to activate the features to have a chance to win it.

Theme, Slot Design & User Experience

When you launch the game, the first thing you’ll notice is a football background, which in itself shouldn’t come as a surprise given the game’s title. But then, when you get down and dirty with it, there isn’t that much football action at all.

In fact, it is more within the aesthetics of the game rather than the playability of it. Still, with the World Cup coming up this winter, it is as great a time as any to play a football- themed slot.

The game actually centres around four fun-looking animals, which seem to be looking to win a penalty shootout of sorts. Look for a Cheetah, Chicken, Dog or Deer to land on your reels, as these make out the high-paying symbols. This, of course, is not the only Megaways™ title to feature animals; just think of Buffalo King Megaways™,  Gorilla Gold Megaways™, or Great Rhino Megaways™.

In terms of user experience, we’re happy to report that the visuals of this game are pretty striking – though the sounds are much less appealing. While there is nothing wrong with them, they quickly become repetitive. At least, there are different sounds for the different features, which is certainly a positive.

Paytable & Special Symbols

This game has a pretty easy-to-understand paytable.

• The lower-paying symbols are the traditional 9, 10, J, Q, K and A card suit symbols. These pay up to 1.75x for six A.
• The higher-paying symbols are the animal characters, with the cheetah, chicken, dog, and deer paying higher amounts, respectively. Lining up six deer pays up to 50x your stake.

Finally, there are three special symbols.

• The Wild Football Scatter substitutes all other symbols apart from the Gold Ball Scatter.
• The Gold Ball Scatter activates the respins.
• The Mystery Symbol can transform into any other animal or a low-paying symbol.

Hot Shots Megaways™ Mobile Play

Hot Shots Megaways™ is a modern slot, which means that it is possible to play it on your mobile and tablet devices. The slot uses HTML5 technology, so it will work seamlessly on Android and iOS phones.

Hot Shots Megaways™ – Pros & Cons

Here are the positives and negatives of this title at a glance.

Pros

• 117,649 ways to win
• Max win of 21,417x your stake
• Plenty of features
• Interface is easy to use and navigate

Cons

• Highly volatile
• Low RTP
• Lack of a Free Spins feature
• Sounds can get annoying
• Theme slightly superficial

Hot Shots Megaways™ Slot Verdict

Hot Shots Megaways™ ticks the important boxes in that it looks good and is incredibly easy to use and understand – even when so much is going on during the features. Although there are a number of Megaways™ titles on the market (see the full list of Megaways™ slots here), this one is still a fun one to check out right before this decade’s first World Cup!

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