Checkmate Hot 1 Slot Review, Demo Play, Payout, Free Spins & Bonuses

Checkmate Hot 1 Review

With the Checkmate Hot1 slot, the Hot Rise Games studio decided to take quite an unorthodox approach and pays tribute to the classic board game. We don't get to see slot developers use the chess theme very often, so the game can definitely bring new experiences. It's also fairly original on the inside, as the features laid down beneath work in a somewhat different and unique way.

Loading the game will take you to a majestic castle, with massive marble columns, mosaic windows, and chessboard floors. The chess pieces of all kinds are found on the reels, which make up the pay symbols. Well, the graphics are nice, but the Checkmate Hot1 slot looks more dated rather than stylish, probably due to the drawing style. Anyway, the actions take place across a 5x3 reel set producing 30 ways to play on each spin, where 3 or more symbols landing adjacently starting from the leftmost reel award a win.

The paytable of the Checkmate Hot1 consists of classic card suits, which are the low symbols, and six chess pieces, which are the premiums. Those include in ascending order pawns, knights, bishops, rooks, queens, and kings. Five-of-a-kind low symbol wins are worth from 2.5x to 3.125x your bet, and high symbols pay from 3.75x to 25x the bet.

Playable on any device, the Checkmate Hot1 slot comes with a betting range of €0.4 to €400 per spin, so there are a lot of options for both high-rollers and casual gamblers. The volatility tends to the high side of the spectrum, while the RTP is slightly above average at 96.14%. Moreover, the payback value can be boosted up to 96.34% in the Buy Bonus, which is nice. Despite the high rating of the game's variance, wins should occur fairly often according to the hit rate of 39.33%. As for the wins, players can hope for payouts of up to 4,953x the stake.

Checkmate Hot1 Slot Features

The blonde lady is Wild, which can appear both during the base and the bonus games to substitute for any other regular symbol and help you achieve a payout. All Wild symbols land with a 2x multiplier attached to them, which is then applied to all wins the Wild symbol takes part in. Unfortunately, the multipliers do not stack if more than one Wild symbol substitutes in a combination.

Look out for Bonus Symbols during the base game, as whenever 3 or more lands in view, players receive 7 Free Spins and proceed to special reels. Moreover, landing 2 Bonus Symbols on the reels can trigger one of the following features to increase your chances of triggering the free games:

• Bonus Chance Respin - two reels containing Bonus Symbols are held while others spin again.
• Wild Gambit Respin - two reels containing Bonus Symbols are held while others spin again, and Bonus Symbols transform into 2x Wild symbols for the respin.

Once the Free Spins feature is activated, all triggering Bonus Symbols will lock in place and transform to the lowest chess piece symbol. When a new Bonus Symbol appears in view, it also turns sticky and awards +1 extra spin. When no new Bonus Symbols appear, the sticky symbols turn into the next chess symbol, and the same process continues through to the top-paying chess symbol.

The final free spin triggers the Hot1 feature, during which all sticky symbols turn into Wild symbols. If a new Bonus Symbol appears during the Hot1 spin, it also turns into a Sticky Wild and an additional spin is awarded. If no new Bonus Symbols land in view, the Hot1 feature comes to an end and players return to the base game.

Those willing to skip the less exciting part and jump straight into the bonus can opt for the Buy Feature, which allows you to immediately trigger the Free Spins with 3 to 5 Bonus Symbols for the cost of 75x your current stake.

Review Summary

All said and done, Checkmate Hot1 is decent and a highly enjoyable slot, which really feels like a breath of fresh air in the world of online slots with its unique look and gameplay. It's not the most polished slot out there, but it's still charming on the outside. As for the inside, the features lurking beneath are fun and most importantly are capable of delivering payouts nearly 5,000x the bet. In conclusion, those hunting for new experiences should certainly try Checkmate Hot1, as it has a lot for players to offer.

Pros

• Great theme choice
• Multiplier Wilds on any stage
• Thrilling free spins feature

Cons

• Somewhat dated look

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