Hot Gems Extreme Slot Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Hot Gems Extreme Review

Hot Gems Extreme is the third installation in this series, and the original game was released as far back as in 2012. In 2019 a virtual reality version of the original game was released, but with this 2020 Extreme version Playtech has finally polished what used to be a diamond in the rough. This is a highly entertaining mining game, and it’s up there with the best of them.

You can place bets between 20p and £240 per spin, which is a solid enough bet range for most players. The RTP of 95.81 % might be a tad below what’s considered the standard these days, but that’s hardly a dealbreaker. The base game never feels boring, and you can also adjust the pace via the turbo mode feature. Hot Gems Extreme has all the hallmarks of a mega hit game, and we hope Playtech is considering a VR version of this one also.

A screen of the Hot Gems Extreme playing space

Hot Gems Extreme Features

Hot Gems Extreme comes with Playtech’s innovative WaysBoost mechanic. This means that the number of rows will increase by +1 for every win and cascading win. Winning symbols explode, and new symbols drop from above. This can expand the reel set from 6x4 to 6x8, which means that the number of win ways can go from 4,096 to 262,144.

You will sometimes land a TNT symbol on the reels, and this will explode and remove all adjacent symbols. The TNT then turns into a wild, and new symbols drop to fill the empty spaces. The TNT cannot explode mega symbols, wilds, bonus symbols or mystery symbols.

Speaking of, you can land 2x2 and 3x3 mega symbols here, and these will crush all regular symbols in their path to the bottom of the reels. In addition, you have a flaming mystery symbol that walks around to and clones itself to random positions.

All instances of the mystery symbol will then turn into identical symbols.

You need at least 3 of the closed mine scatter to trigger the free spins bonus round. You get 10, 12, 18 or 25 free spins when you land 3, 4, 5 or 6 scatters, respectively. You will unlock new rows the same way as in the base game, but now the number of rows and win ways don’t reset on losing spins. You will get 3 extra spins when you land at least 3 scatters during the feature.

The 200 Spins Hot Gems Extreme Experience

We had a grand time with this game, hence the longer than usual highlights video. We landed solid wins in the base game via the wandering mystery symbol feature, and we trigger the bonus round at 2:34 into the video. You can see how it all went in the video below, and we don’t recommend skipping straight to the free spins round.

Review Summary

Hot Gems Extreme really lives up to the name, as it takes the dated original game to a whole new level. The WaysBoost mechanic is not only a clever innovation, but it’s also a highly entertaining one. This is not one of those volatile slots where you’re only waiting to trigger the bonus round by the way, far from it.

The base game comes with fun and effective features, and especially the wandering mystery symbols landed us some solid payouts.

Combined with the WaysBoost feature, this adds up to an action packed base game with a bonus round to top it all off. Locking the extra rows in place can be very lucrative, and it certainly heightens your chances of closing in on the 10,000x max win potential.

Pros

• WaysBoost mechanic with up to 4 extra rows and 262,144 ways to win.
• TNT exploding wild and wandering mystery symbols
• Crushing 2x2 and 3x3 mega symbols
• Bonus round where the extra rows and win ways don’t reset
• Win up to 10,000x your stake

Cons

• RTP of 95.81 % is below the “magical” 96 % limit

If you love Hot Gems Extreme you should also try:

Hot Gems - was launched by Playtech all the way back in 2012, and it’s the first game in this series. It comes with exploding winning symbols, just like the game at hand, but that was a bigger deal back then. You will also benefit from a bonus round with a progressive win multiplier for payouts up to 5,000x your stake.

Hot Gems VR - was released in 2019, and it allows you to really immerse yourself in the virtual mine with the prospector. If you are in the possession of a pair of VR goggles, we highly recommend checking this out asap.

Dragon Spark - is another Playtech game that utilizes the Ways Boost mechanic. It comes with a fantasy theme, and you can increase a progressive win multiplier up to 50x in the base game.

Up to 16,807 win ways can be achieved here, and this is easier to do in the bonus round. The max win is 10,000x in this game too.

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