Play Chilli Xtreme Ways Boost Slot

Chilli Xtreme Ways Boost Review

Although the mining theme is quite popular as well, and Hot Gems Extreme Ways Boost was a pretty solid release, it didn’t quite see the success needed to catapult Playtech’s Ways Boost engine into the mainstream. What can you do but pick up the pieces and try again in the equally popular chilli fiesta genre, but unfortunately Chilli Xtreme Ways Boost is shooting itself in the foot with a dealbreaker RTP of just 93.96 %.

The Mexican fiesta is nicely portrayed with vivid colors and lively music, and the core features are highly enjoyable as well. The grid expands up to 8 rows at the most, giving you 262,144 win ways, and you have exploding chilli wilds, random piñata wilds and crushing big symbols to help you out along the way. Everything culminates in the bonus round where the grid never resets, and we only wish the math model was as solid as the rest of the game.

Chilli Xtreme Ways Boost Slot - Reels Screen

Chilli Xtreme Ways Boost Slot Features

The 3 character premium symbols, which includes a chihuahua, a mariachi guitarist and a celebrating señorita, pay between 1 and 2.5 x your stake for 5 of a kind wins. The Chilli Wild does not hold any value of its own, but it steps in for all pay symbols to help complete winning combinations. You win by landing 2 (señorita) or 3+ matching symbols anywhere on adjacent reels from left to right.

Winning symbols explode to make room for new and/or existing symbols to drop down to fill the gaps, and each cascade adds +1 row to the grid via the Ways Boost mechanic. Up to 4 extra rows can be added this way, and the grid maxes out at 6x8 with 262,144 ways to win. In the base game the grid resets to 6x4 with 4,096 win ways when you hit a non-winning cascade.

A bundle of chillies marked with “hot” turn into wilds when they land, and all adjacent symbols then explode except bonus, piñata, wild, and 2x2 or 3x3 señorita symbols. All regular pay symbols may drop down as ‘big symbols’ (size 2x2 and 3x3), and these crush all smaller symbols below except bonus, hot chilli, wild and piñata symbols.

The Piñata symbol turns into a regular chilli wild, while also triggering the Wild Piñata feature. You will then see a piñata dangle in front of the grid, and it spreads a random amount of chilli wilds to random positions before it disappears.

You trigger the Free Games round when you land 3, 4, 5 or 6+ bonus scatters anywhere in view, and this awards 10, 12, 20 or 25 free spins, respectively. You get +3 extra spins per bonus scatter you land during the feature, and the only difference from the base game is the “safety level” that’s added to the Ways Boost mechanic. This simply means that the grid never resets during the bonus round, making it easier to max out the grid.

The 200 Spins Chilli Xtreme Ways Boost Slot Experience

You get to see the Piñata Wild feature at the very beginning of our 6:34-minute highlights video, and a lengthy cascading Ways Boost sequence eventually leads to the bonus round. The feature is triggered at 3:08, and we got 12 free spins. Check it all out for yourself by hitting the play button below.

Review Summary

Playtech Origins has never ventured “south of the border” before, but Chilli Xtreme Ways Boost is certainly a solid “first trip” to the hot and spicy land of fiestas and beautiful señoritas. The festive grid slot experience is spiced up by the Ways Boost mechanic, expanding the grid and number of win ways as exploding chilli wilds and Piñata wilds keep your winning streak going. Watching the big symbols crush their way down is also satisfying, but we’ve seen similar things before.

Somehow, you don’t really suffer from the same “grid reset fatigue” when it expands upwards instead of sideways (like with the Infinity engine), which is interesting, and maxing out the grid early on in the bonus round can lead to plenty of lengthy cascades. The predecessor, Hot Gems Extreme Ways Boost, never really took off despite being a pretty solid effort, and Chilli Xtreme could perhaps have broken the Ways Boost engine into the mainstream if it wasn’t for the hard-to-grasp 93.96 % RTP.

If you enjoy Chilli Xtreme Ways Boost Slot you should also try:

Hot Gems Extreme Ways Boost - is based on an early Playtech release, and you start with a 6x4 grid and 4,096 win ways also here. Up to 4 extra rows can be added, giving you up to 262,144 win ways, and the grid never resets in the bonus round. In addition, you get wandering mystery symbols, mega symbols and exploding TNT wilds, and you can win up to 10,000x your stake.

Chilli Heat - is a highly popular Pragmatic Play installment in the Mexican fiesta genre, and the big highlight is the hold-and-win style Money Respins feature. Fill all positions to win the 1,000x jackpot, and all low-value symbols are removed in the bonus round. The max win is 2,512x your stake, and the volatility is medium.

Hot Hot Chilli Pot - takes you right into the kitchen of a Mexican restaurant, and this is a popular Red Tiger cluster pays engine 7x7 grid slot. You’ll benefit from 3 unique 1x2 sized modifier chilli wilds, and you also get 2x2 super symbols. The volatility is a casual low, and you can win up to 1,000x your stake.