77 Sunset Strip: Slot Review and Free Play Demo

77 Sunset Strip Review

77 Sunset Strip is the latest addition to Live 5’s collection of Instapots games, which is the studio’s jackpot slot series. Here, players have an opportunity to claim one of the five jackpot prizes, as well as benefit from expanding reels and free spins.

Although 77 Sunset Strip takes its name from the popular self-titled American TV show that aired in the late 50s, the slot has nothing to do with the drama series. The actions of the game take place 20 years later, in the 80s, and it takes us to Miami instead of LA. Anyway, Live 5 has done a great job of creating the outer look, as the graphics are of a top-notch level, which together with a classy retro soundtrack produce a highly immersive atmosphere.

77 Sunset Strip Slot - Reel Screen

What catches your eye is the massive reel setup sitting in the middle, though, only half of it is active by default. The game starts at a 5x4 grid with 40 win lines, and once the features come into play, everything doubles in size, which is covered in the respective section below. As we head over to the stats, we see it’s the weak spot of the 77 Sunset Strip slot. While the variance is rather high, rated by the devs 4.5 out of 5, the RTP is just disappointing, being far lower than average at 94.21%. The payout potential is equally unimpressive, maxing out at 2,500x the bet. Finally, there aren’t particularly a lot of stake options available, as the betting ranges from £0.1 to £10 per spin.

The paytable of the 77 Sunset Strip slot counts 13 regular symbols that are split into three sections. On the lower side, the pay symbols start with traditional card suits, followed by a bunch of mid-pays, namely music players, sunglasses, two cocktails, and pink and yellow convertibles. The premium lot, in turn, consists of two character symbols as well as the game’s logo. The latter has the highest value, paying 25x your bet for combinations of five, and the characters pay 8x and 10x your bet respectively. Five-of-a-kind wins of low and mid symbols are much less valued, worth from 1x to 5x your bet. Nonetheless, they can still bring you a fortune since all symbols appear stacked on the reels and full-screen combos are possible.

77 Sunset Strip Slot Features

77 Sunset Strip Slot - Free Spins

Look out for Wild symbols that are available on reels 2, 3, and 4. Traditionally, Wild symbols help you to achieve winning combos by acting as substitutes for any other symbols except the bonus ones, and much like the regulars, they can appear in stacks.

More importantly though is that they also have an additional special function, producing even bigger winning opportunities. Whenever one appears in view, the reels alter significantly for that spin. The inactive upper rows unlock, expanding the reels to 5x8, and the number of paylines is doubled, increasing to 80.

Scatter is another special symbol of the 77 Sunset Strip slot, and it can only appear on reels 1, 3, and 5. Once 3 instances land simultaneously on the grid, the Free Spins feature comes into play.

10 Free Spins are awarded, though, it’s possible to get more spins by landing another 2 or 3 Scatters during the bonus, which awards +5 or +10 extra free games respectively. During the bonus game, the reel expansion feature is active on each spin, so the reels are always 8 positions in height.

Review Summary

77 Sunset Strip is a perfect example of how terrible balancing can spoil the overall impression of the game. While there isn’t anything to be found to complain about the design and gameplay, the math model leaves much to be desired. The lower-than-average RTP paired with high variance and a poor tiny max win sounds like a rip-off, so we can’t really recommend you this one.