Original Release: Bally, 2011
An early 2010s release from Bally that builds on some of their common core structures, but with a unique bonus round
Hot Hot Habanero (Bally, 2011)
Review by: C. M0use
Debuting in 2011 as one of the titles for the then-new ALPHA 2 Pro Series slot cabinets, Hot Hot Habanero was among the first Bally games to see mechanical buttons replaced with a touch screen for wager types as well as a touch display for the actual game. It wasn’t used all that much here, really you might need to just touch it once to set your wager and then keep hitting the “respin” button, but maybe that’s for the better as I don’t like being asked to touch the screen repeatedly during Bally’s comparable Quick Hit Platinum game that’s packed into the same cabinet sometimes.
The name might indicate a knockoff of Konami’s Jumpin Jalapenos games, but it’s actually a “sexy devil” theme that just kinda throws in random ghost pepper as one of its symbols. The busty devil girl mascot kinda looks like Maya Rudolph in the face, a little bit? I dunno, maybe it’s cause I just watched Idiocracy on IFC recently.
Let’s talk what the game is good for – which, like Bally’s Quick Hits, seems to be grinding and smaller wins on long play sessions without big risk. Really, it’s kinda an alternative to Quick Hits that has a different bonus game and a more tarted-up and flashy presentation.
It is important to evaluate the bonus game if you’re looking for a grinder in the style of Quick Hits. Like Quick Hits Platinum it does pop up very often, but it’s more of a tease. The gimmick is that you always get 12 free spins, with play proceeding as normal except that “bullseye” symbols are now scattered in. Every time you get four of these, or just one for the very first reel, you “lock down” a vertical column (moving from right to left) as fully wild for the remaining bonus spins. I say it’s a tease because while this initially looks very promising with all those wilds on the field, you’re still only playing primarily for the 5-of-a-kind symbols you were in the base game that are respectable little line wins individually but really don’t add up to big money. Like even with three or four columns of wilds in play, most of your hits are still a single 5OAK that goes for 10x-20x your wager. With the minimum wager at 30 cents, that’s like $3 to $6 per win, but you don’t start getting these “virtually guaranteed” wins until like 8 to 10 spins into your 12.
You can very well wind up with a bunch of dead spins on each bonus round and leave it with only about 10-15x your wager, but savvy slot players should recognize that’s a likelihood when the bonus feature pops as often as it does here. As usual you can’t get a firm rate, but on my $100 330-ish spin experiment I had it pop six times (1 per 100 spins is a good rate let alone 2). I think the only way to get “big money” from it would be to luck into quickly getting four Wild bars locked down and then happen to hit one of the special symbols (chili pepper or devil girl) and/or other wild tiles to fill the playfield entirely with one symbol. And if you’re curious I came out a whoopin’ $5 ahead after plugging through $100 at the minimum bet.
There’s a bit of an aesthetic tossup for choosing this one too. Though similar to Bally’s Quick Hits of the period in its play style, it’s not similarly chill and low-key in its presentation. It’s generally louder in everything, you get a handpay bell ringing every time you hit the bonus spins, and devil chick moaning about your “hot win” (you big stud) for anything that’s around 10x+ your wager. Horses for courses or whatever.
This game wouldn’t be one of my first choices, but if I was looking for favorable Quick Hits and only saw this instead I’d probably give it a go. It has a fair amount of regular line wins and the frequent bonus games can be relied on for about 10x to 50x your bet, making it feasible to hang around and grind for long periods and potentially even surge ahead for some small profit to close things up.
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