Hot Sake Slot Review

The Hot Sake Slot Game

What inspired Pragmatic Play to create this online slot should be clear now. So, I hope your mouth is watering already, ready to gobble some Japanese dishes while accompanying them with sake.

As is the trend nowadays, this video slot happens in two locations, depending on the game mode. The base game occurs on a pristine street lined up with buildings and a beautiful, traditionally dressed lady standing next to the 7x7 gameboard. It’s a beautiful scenery set at night under the full moon’s glare.  

Meanwhile, triggering the bonus game takes you inside a diner, where several people are waiting to taste the day’s menu. If you think the visuals are the only high-standard craft in this game, you must enable the ambient sounds for a more atmospheric adventure.

Symbols and Payouts

A total of nine symbols can hit on the reels of this slot. As expected, there are more regulars, as they should help you complete winning combinations.

Since the gameplay is engineered with a cluster-paying technique, you should aim for at least 5 symbols to hit in vertically or horizontally connecting positions. As usual, with cluster slots, the payouts indicated in the paytable are multiplied by the selected stake!

After winning combinations are paid, all the symbols participating in that win will disappear from the reels. The remaining symbols drop to the bottom, while new symbols from above replace the empty positions. The tumbles continue until no more winning combos appear due to them.

Hot Sake uses the Green Q, Blue K, and Red A for its low-win category. For 5 or more O-A-K, they pay 0.2-20x, 0.25-40x, and 0.3-60x the bet, respectively.

The superior symbols include Sashimi, Salmon Teriyaki, Prawn Udon Noodle Soup, and Bottle. Also, hit 5+ of each to win 0.35-80x, 0.5-90x, 0.6-100x, and 0.75-150x the stake, respectively.

The remaining symbols are the scatter and Hot Sake Wild, which can trigger extra features. Let’s figure them out in the next section.

Hot Sake Slot Bonus Features

The slot’s main highlight is the special Hot Sake Wild, which substitutes for all symbols except the scatter. Further, the slot has free spins, an ante bet, and a bonus buy.

Hot Sake Wild Feature

The Hot Sake Wild appears due to any winning combination that doesn’t have it, randomly hitting in a position within the cluster after wins have exploded. The wild remains on-screen until the end of the tumbles resulting from the spin. 

Whenever the wild appears, it starts with a 1x multiplier, increasing by +1x up to 2,500x after explosion every time it participates in a winning cluster. Further, the wild randomly moves one position up, down, right, or left within the paying cluster. The multiplier applies to all the clusters with the wild.      

Two or more wilds in the same winning cluster merge into one, and their multipliers multiply after the combo is paid. However, 2+ wilds shared with multiple winning combinations merge according to priority. First is the clusters with the most wilds, followed by combos with the highest-paying symbol.

Free Spins

Hitting 3 to 7 scatters in the triggers 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18 free spins, respectively. If any Hot Sake Wilds hit on the triggering spin, the round will start with them in the same positions. During this feature, the Hot Sake Wild remain sticky until the end.  

If you’re lucky enough to hit the same number of triggering scatters during the feature, they’ll retrigger additional free rounds.

Ante Bet & Bonus Buy

You can pick the ante bet option and advance the bet multiplier from 20x to 25x. In return, the chance to win the free spins round becomes higher. But it deactivates the buy feature.

Finally, you can instantly trigger the free spins from the base game for 100x the current bet using the feature buy option. Afterwards, 3-7 scatters can randomly hit on the triggering spin.

How to Win at Hot Sake Slot

Every online slot player fancies a simplistic gaming process. Well, this Pragmatic Play release is nothing different. It uses 7 reels and 7 rows, whereby you win using a cluster pays system.      

Any seasoned player should be familiar with the payout system. However, if you’re new, it entails hitting at least 5 of the same symbols in connected positions, horizontally or vertically. As mentioned, tumbles trigger after winning, potentially leading to multiple wins per spin!

According to the Hot Sake payout rules, you can win up to 10,000 times your stake in any game round!

Spinning every round means you should stage between €0.20 and €300 bets. So, you can only experience this video slot if the bets are within your budget.

The spin button triggers a single spin, while the Autoplay lets you start several preselected spins automatically. Also, the slot has the Turbo/Quickspin options to allow you to spin the reels faster.

Hot Sake Slot RTP & Volatility

A theoretical RTP of 96.06% isn’t bad, especially when the game offers high volatility, translating to less frequent payouts. However, the RTP changes to 96% and 96.01% when using the ante bet and bonus buy, respectively.

The Final Verdict

You’d think that since Pragmatic Play is among the tier-one iGaming developers, the company would at least invest more in fresh and innovative gambling experiences. While I’m not saying the Malta-based developer isn’t putting in the effort, it has more cloned releases than original ones.

Hot Sake looked unique until I compared it to Hot Pepper from 2022. Both slots have avalanches, special wilds, multipliers, free spins, an ante bet, and bonus buy. The only difference is how the special wilds perform their functions. The features aren’t the same but follow the same trajectory.

Again, it’s not like the online slot world has never experienced games with Asian cuisines. But in terms of aesthetics, it comprises state-of-the-art visuals and ambient sounds, which should leave you immersed.

After comparing the likes and dislikes and analysing every game feature, I think it’s worth giving a chance. After all, it boasts a significant win cap of 10,000x stake, which would be life-changing to any lucky player!