The Wonder 4 series of games by Aristocrat has proved to be a popular and enduring series, leading to competitors to develop their own concepts, such as the Power 4 by Light and Wonder and the Fortune Link 4 game by IGT. Each of the games features four reel sets and four different games that can be mixed and matched.
But an early entrant in the competition space, then-WMS’s Hot Hot 8, pushed things a bit further by offering eight reel sets, and eight different games that could be placed on the screen. The game also featured eight progressives that could be won.
Two versions of the game were released, the original and a Bier Haus version that featured a few other games in the mix. Both had in common a $2 max bet, which works out to 25 cents per reel set, but you could play as little as two reel sets. However, to qualify for all the features, you needed to play the $2 max bet.
With 8 boards and only 25 cents per board, the line hits weren’t amazing, so it took a bit to get some real oomph out of the base game. Enough hits on enough reel sets could pay a little bit, but most of the money was found in the feature and bonus.
The game featured the Hot Hot character, hence the Hot Hot of the game. If he landed on three or more of the reels, it would trigger a wheel spin, which was the games’ feature. The reel sets that he appeared on would determine which wedges would get upgraded to progressive wedges.
Depending on where the wheel would land, you could win a credit prize (boo), a progressive (yay), or Award All (woo), which would award all the credit prizes/progressives on the wheel. I did just that, as seen above, to the tune of a $300 bet on a $2 spin, but if the Hot 7 and/or Hot 8 progressive were lit up I could have won a whole lot more. That is where a lot of the potential of the game could be found.
Another big opportunity is the free spins bonus. It can be triggered on any reel set, and whatever game the bonus is triggered, that is the game on which the free spins are played.
First though, a wheel spins to determine how many reel sets you get for the bonus. It can land between 2 and 8. You then decide if you want to play those reel sets at 1x, or have one reel set at a multiplier equal to the number of reel sets you got (from 2-8x). This is effectively a volatility choice.
I certainly had my share of good bonus rounds, and there was always the chance for duds, especially if you got a lower reel set count. But when the right circumstances aligned it could pay quite well.
The game was on a slot machine type that was found in small numbers in casinos, and the machines have been finding their way off of casino floors in recent yeras, a bummer. A part of me hopes they’ll get redone on one of the tall cabinets, which has the room to lay out eight reel sets, but that might just be a pipe dream.
Hot Hot 8 Slot Machine Videos
In an early video from Brian Christopher, he landed a progressive that yielded a jackpot handpay on the game:
Slot Queen was a big fan of the game, and played it often. Here’s one of her sessions:
TheBigPayback includes two bonuses in this video, one on Great Zeus and another on Black Knight, choosing the riskier one board method, which paid off well:
Finally, VegasLowRoller has a video deep in the library featuring a great run on the game:
