Introduction to Spice
Spice is a casino slot from NetEnt that takes you on a wild ride in the company of two badass turtles to sow mischief on the streets of a swanky, coastal city. Words like slow, careful, and steady don't exist in their dictionary, despite the nature of their species, so be prepared for some intense action with lots of rules being broken. The story unravels on a 6x6 grid, with an additional Feature Lane stuck on top of it, where a range of attractive boosters may land to enhance your every spin. From Bonus symbols and Bombs to Converters, Random Wilds, and Locked Wilds, the arsenal is quite impressive. On top of that, each win will generate multipliers underneath the symbols to further elevate the win potential of every successive Avalanche or throughout the entire Free Spins session, where multipliers remain persistent between rounds. Let's witness the green fellows come out of their shells in style.
Theme, Gameplay & Payouts
Spice is a video slot from NetEnt with 6 reels, 5 rows, and up to 15,625 ways to win. You can choose your stake from a range of options, starting from a Min.bet of 0.2, which makes the game affordable for most budgets, up to a Max.bet of 60, suitable for the most daring high-rollers. The math profile runs on a default RTP of 96.09%, which is in line with the industry standards, promising stable long-term returns. Two alternative variants of 94.05% and 92.03% have also been released, so pay attention to the version you're playing. You can expect high wins to carry more value on average at the cost of a decreased frequency due to high volatility, while the max win available on any single round is 15,000x the bet. The base hit frequency sits at an average rate of 19.60%, and it takes 250 spins on average to trigger the bonus round.
The main scene in Spice is set on a street of an exotic, coastal city. On the left, you can see the ocean meet a golden beach, and further inland, the urban environment starts shaping up. Concrete planters with palm trees and cacti line the sidewalk, and neon signs adorn various establishments on the other side of the street. Together with crime-related symbols on the reels, the setting wrapped in pastel colours gives off aGrand Theft Auto Vice City vibe. While playing, an energetic, hip-hop soundtrack sets the intense mood, pounding with its heavy beat. The entire setup features a detailed, eye-catching design, which is also fully responsive, allowing the game to be played on any desktop, smartphone, or tablet.
Winning combinations must contain at least 3 matching symbols, situated on neighbouring reels, starting from the leftmost one, making all 15,625 ways to win available. The paytable hierarchy consists of three groups of paying icons, with the low-paying ones represented by green, purple, yellow, and red chilli peppers, awarding 0.25x the bet for a combination of 6. A hot sauce bottle, a bag of yellow powder, and a red brick act as mid-paying symbols, offering payouts of 0.3x the bet for a way spanning all 6 reels. Two turtle gangsters occupy the top of the hierarchy, with payouts of 0.5x and 0.75x the bet for a 6-of-a-kind hit.
Wilds are depicted by a pink letter W, and they substitute for all regular symbols mentioned above. The reels also hold Scatters and Super Scatters in the form of a blue or yellow letter B. There's also a range of special symbols available on the Feature Bar, which we will describe in detail below.
Special Features & Slot Mechanics
What is the max win in the slot Spice?
You can win up to 15,000x the bet.
What features are available in the slot Spice?
The features are Avalanche & Multipliers, Feature Lane, Free Spins, and Feature Buy (Elevate).
Avalanche & Multipliers
Every time you hit a winning combination, it's removed from the grid, making room for new symbols to enter the view and potentially award more wins. Additionally, the positions underneath the winning symbols gain a multiplier of x2, which doubles with each successive hit scored in the same cell during the same round. Payouts from combinations landing on positions with multipliers are multiplied by the sum of their values.
Feature Lane
Above the reels, a single 6-cell row displays special feature symbols, which enter the view from the right. Whenever an avalanche occurs, these symbols may drop into the main playing area and activate their respective powers.
Scatter or Super Scatter = helps to trigger the bonus round.
Bomb = explodes in a 3x3 pattern, removing regular symbols and doubling multipliers in affected positions.
Row Converter = transforms all symbols on the same row into a matching type.
9-Square Converter = transform all symbols in a 3x3 pattern into a matching type.
Random Wilds = shoots up to 5 random symbols, transforming them into Wilds.
Locked Wild = locks a Wild symbol in place throughout all avalanches of the current round.
Free Spins
Gathering 3, 4, 5, or 6 Scatters anywhere on the grid at the end of a base game round activates 5, 8, 10, or 12 Free Spins, respectively. If at least one of the symbols is a Super Scatter, the enhanced variant is awarded. In both modes, the generated multipliers remain persistent between rounds until the end of the feature. In Super Free Spins, you begin with the entire grid populated with random multiplier values.
Feature Buy (Elevate)
In the Elevate menu, you can choose from a selection of enhanced spins and instant feature triggers.
3x = Bonus Hunt with an increased chance of triggering Free Spins.
10x = Base Multiplier Layer, filling the entire grid with random multipliers.
50x = Multipliers on all positions and a higher chance of triggering Free Spins.
100x = regular Free Spins trigger.
500x = Super Free Spins trigger.
Final Thoughts on Spice
It looks like crime among animals in online slots is spreading rapidly. Not so long ago, we visited a gritty, drug-soaked neighbourhood in Trap Tower from Shady Lady, accompanied a duo of thieving cats in Cash Crooks by Hacksaw Gaming, and rocked with anarchic birds in Punk Penguin from Print Studios. Now, it's time to get a taste of that lavish yet dangerous life in Spice, following two turtle gangsters in their rise to power. NetEnt has designed a pretty cool environment in this one, undoubtedly drawing inspiration from some popular video games like Grand Theft Auto. The scene of a Miami or California-like city gives the setting an exotic vibe, while the crime angle adds a solid dose of intensity. With a smooth, cartoon design, a powerful beat accompanying the gameplay, and a range of engaging effects, the presentation gets the job done with flying colours.
The feature configuration is a mash-up of two core elements, one of which has been dominating the industry in recent years. Position multipliers probably don't need much introduction, offering a boost from the layer underneath the symbols. However, NetEnt decided to combine them with way evaluation instead of clusters, which feels like an odd move. Why? Because clusters may land anywhere on the grid, while ways on most occasions utilise three or four reels from the left, often rendering the multipliers on the fifth and sixth reels useless. To mitigate that potentially unfavourable logic, there's the Feature Lane, which feels like an imitation of the Cool Reel in Tropicool by ELK Studios. It can drop a bunch of special symbols on the reels, which may help you eventually cover all six columns with your combinations and benefit from a wider range of multipliers. It proved to be quite helpful during our testing, effectively pushing the avalanche sequences in the right direction. As usual, Free Spins turn the spot multipliers persistent to maximise the potential, which culminates in a max win of 15,000x the bet.
Spice tries a different take on the popular position multipliers format, enhanced by a collection of helpful features in a cool, animal crime theme.
