Willy’s Hot Chillies Slot Review

Released in July 2020, this game can be played at online casinos such as Royal Panda, Rizk or LeoVegas.

Theme and general information

Once upon a time, NetEnt released a slot called Spinata Grande and somehow, Willy’s Hot Chillis throws us back to that one. Whilst unique in its own right, there are some similar elements, including the somewhat garish cartoon-style of the graphics and the colourful symbols.

There is a simplistic look to the slot with the block-style drawing, though there is still a lot going on visually, which makes it a bit difficult for the eye to relax. You’re always wondering what exactly it is you’re looking at and whether the symbols match to form a win. Mostly, they don’t.

If you’re into this style of graphics, you might even enjoy the theme. Willy is the main character and his hot chilis are what this game is all about, presumably anyway.

So, we get a whimsical game, a festive soundtrack, and perhaps the idea that we’d rather be in Mexico right now.

Low value card suits are scattered on the reels and high value symbols include chili sauce, a pinata, a box of gold and tacos. The box of gold is worth 3x our stake for five of a kind and is the most valuable of the symbols, which is not much at all.

A chili is the wild symbol and Willy is the bonus symbol in this game.

You can play this slot from 0.20 to 400.00 per spin.

Multiplier wilds to boost your wins

The wild symbol can be equipped with multipliers from 2x to 5x, which boosts any wins they are part of. If more than one wild is part of a winning combination, the multipliers are added up (instead of multiplied), which can yield some good results, especially since the symbol values are quite low.

But that’s about it for regular action as we wait for Willy himself to show up.

Willy’s Hot Wheel for coin prizes and boosted multipliers

When he does show up (in combination with a full stack of multiplier wilds), it gets a little confusing as we don’t get classic free spins. Instead, the regular reels sort of get pushed out of the way and Willy’s Hot Wheel takes centre stage. At the bottom, you’ll see a Fire Pointer, which lands on an empty space or various symbols that are sitting on the wheel.

We now get spins on the wheel, which are equivalent to the multipliers the stack was made up of. If we had a stack of 4x multiplier, we’d get 3×4 spins (so 12). If you had a stack of 2x multipliers, you’d get 6 spins.

In any case, on the wheel the symbols the Fire Pointer lands on give us the following:

• Coin win – between 1x and 30x our bet
• 3 extra spins – for the Fire Pointer that landed on the symbol (if you have multiple Fire Pointers, they don’t get those spins unless they land on that symbol as well)
• Extra – You get another Fire Pointer (up to 5 are possible)
• Chillie Multiplier – The multiplier increases 1x each time a pointer lands on that symbol

When all spins on all pointers are down to zero, the bonus feature ends.

Verdict: Nowhere near as spicy as it could have been

The theoretical RTP (Return to Player) for Willy’s Hot Chilis is 96%, which is smack bang average. This is a slot with low volatility, which means wins are frequent and small (thanks to those low value symbols). Only the multiplier wilds manage to get us somewhere at all.

We didn’t find it overly difficult to trigger the bonus feature, but it was a little confusing at first and then it lacked excitement. Yes, you can win some coins here and the multiplier is nice, but the maxim potential win is no more than 2,000x our stake.

This ain’t a slot for high rollers or action seekers. If you are looking for some very tame chilis that add no spice to your soup at all, Willy’s Hot Chilis may just be the kind of slot you’re able to stomach. Everyone else will probably look elsewhere.