Slot Wheels Slots

Time to put the pedal to the metal, not to mention some money where your mouth is, with this five reel, 25 pay line gambler that looks to put some much-needed fun into the oft-overly macho world of tuner car racing.

Well, at least that’s what it looks like it’s probably meant to be. Slot Wheels doesn’t exactly value realism, but instead celebrates a childlike state of adulthood, wherein cars seem to have personalities as you might expect in a cartoon, and everything else is presented with a graffiti-style that falls someway short of the artwork mark.

On immediate impressions, then, perhaps this one doesn’t have the ‘Quick you need to play this’ appeal. Good thing we all know not to judge a book by its cover, then, or indeed a car without looking under the hood, because this one has more bite and clutch control than you might first expect- and in case we weren’t clear enough those are supposed to be euphemisms for chances to win, and size of winnings.

That’s Why We’re All Here, Right?

New Paint Jobs Please

Well, that’s why you should be here. First, though, let’s get used to the inner workings.

Like every other gambler out there, the idea is matching up like-pictures, numbers, letters and icons. Get three or more of anything along an active pay line and you’ll win something.

The lowest value stuff are the letters and the one number in play (10). Up the ladder you have three cars – purple, blue and yellow – and that’s really all there is to it. Up against many others you could find yourself playing, the range of colors and the overall look is pretty unadventurous, although the graphics are clean and far from pixelated- which is a crime from which you can’t really come back from in the eyes of any avid gamer.

Tuning Up

OK, so the aesthetics aren’t amazing but she runs like a beaut, right? Whoa there, petrol head; don’t get too far ahead of yourself. Before you hit the road you need to learn how to drive, and by that we don’t mean an automatic.

First of all, understand that the bigger the coin size in the bottom of the screen, the bigger the payout will be when you win. You can increase and decrease this by hitting the – or + symbol in the coin size bit. Add more if you’re feeling confident, but as this will deplete your cash reserves faster you may well need to start bringing those bet sizes down in due course.

Next you want to select how many pay lines you have in play. Slot Wheels allows for up to 25. The more you have in play the more chances there are of winning, but this will not increase the amount each bet will win unless you also boost that Coin Size.

Test Drive

There are limited extras on offer in Slot Wheels, which is a shame because the developers could have really exploited the whole cartoon car theme with some nice bonus rounds, and perhaps even animated sections as you see on other gamblers.

Most would expect Wild and Scatter symbols – actually in this case it’s a Wild (which literally just says ‘Wild’ on it), and a Free Spin, coming in the form of a flag with a crudely drawn car on it. Wilds can be substituted for any other to form winning combinations when there is part of a combination missing, and Free Spin does exactly what it implies. Landing 3 gets you 5 freebies, 4 is 20, and 5 is 50 – hardly the most generous numbers you’re likely to find.

Slot Wheels on Fire

Sadly, there’s arguably too much to dislike about Slot Wheels for it to really grab your attention and keep it more than other slot machines currently out there. It’s not that we’re suckers for bells, whistles and whatnots, but more that the whole theme and presentation feels just fit for purpose, and a little rushed.

In terms of the payouts these aren’t the biggest anyone has seen, either. On the whole then this is a decent enough, perfectly playable online gambling machine but let’s face it, when you’re talking about this kind of thing you’re usually after a game that fully embraces that traditionalism – straight up card suits, pub styles, and definitely no children’s cars involved. Had those making it made more of the overall theme, then perhaps the engines would be running differently.