Shell Out Some Cash in NetEnt’s Spice Slot

From the moment NetEnt made Hotline, we’ve been hungry for more slots along the same avenue. Since then, we’ve seen an official sequel and the brilliant Narcos series, and the latest title to join the fray is Spice. Set in a fictional tropical city, you’ll be meeting plenty of tortoises as you make your way through all the features to chase down the 15,000x top prize.

Don’t expect the game to be slow and steady just because its mascots usually are. This is a highly volatile release with plenty of winning potential but also a chance to lose it all if you’re not careful.

Spice Visuals

The view you’ll see for most of the game is a quiet, tropical town. You can see the coast just past the walkway and a bunch of shops off to the side. Meanwhile, the Free Spins feature takes you to a disco party in the evening, where the dance floor illuminates the plants and walls. It’s a solid set of backdrops, though not quite to the same standard we’re used to seeing from NetEnt. We would have loved to see more animations added to the mix.

Symbol designs include several spicy peppers, hot sauce, spice baggies, bricks of spice and two turtle gangsters. The letter W is the Wild, while the letter B is the Scatter that activates the Free Spins feature.

Spice Gameplay and Features

You play the Spice slot on a 6×5 grid with 15,625 ways to win. Winning requires at least three matching symbols in adjacent reels, from the leftmost to the rightmost. How much you get depends on the number of symbols.

Avalanche

Each time a win occurs, the Avalanche feature is triggered. It removes winning symbols from the grid and allows existing icons to take their place. New symbols will drop from the top of the screen, potentially resulting in more wins. Avalanches continue until no more wins can happen on the reels.

Each winning position receives a 2x multiplier, which doubles each time it is involved in a subsequent win during the bonus.

Feature Lane

The Feature Lane sits above the main grid and can be used to activate a variety of bonuses. Bonuses that land in the Feature Lane activate once all wins are complete or when no wins occur. Features you can activate include:

• Bomb – The bomb symbol explodes on a non-winning spin, clearing its position along with all adjacent symbols in a 3×3 square.
• Row Convertor – On a non-winning spin, the Row Convertor transforms all eligible symbols across a horizontal row into the same icon. The game will always choose a symbol already on the row for the rest to transform into.
• 9 Square Convertor – On a non-winning spin, the 9 Square Convertor chooses a random symbol and transforms all icons in a 3×3 area adjacent to it into matching symbols.
• Random Wilds – Transforms a random selection of symbols into Wilds.
• Locked Wilds – Locked Wilds remain on the reels even after being part of a winning combination.

Free Spins

Three, four, five or six Scatters award 5, 8, 10, or 12 free spins, respectively. If even one of these Scatters is a Super Scatter, it triggers the Super Free Spins feature instead. While the bonus is active, Feature Lane enhancements can still occur. Multipliers gained during the Free Spins feature do not reset between spins, increasing the potential to score big wins.

You can score additional free spins by landing a regular or golden +3 symbol during the bonus. The golden +3 will also upgrade you to Super Free Spins if it’s not already active.

Elevate

Players can pay to activate various features instead of triggering them manually. Available bonuses are:

• Bonus Hunt – Increases your odds of winning the Free Spins feature. Costs 3x your stake.
• Base Multiplier Layer – Each round starts with multipliers already applied to all reel positions. Costs 10x your bet.
• Base Multiplier Layer with Bonus Hunter – Combines the previous two features into one package. Costs 50x your wager.
• Free Spins – Guarantees that Free Spins will activate. Costs 100x your stake.
• Super Free Spins – Ensures Super Free Spins will trigger. Costs 500x your bet.

Spice RTP and Payouts

The RTP for this NetEnt release is 96.09%. You can win up to 15,000x your stake on this high-variance slot, making it clear the game is primarily aimed at high rollers. However, casual players can also enjoy it with a bit of careful budgeting.