Hot Gems

Ah, OK, so it’s a different sort of hotness. Presumably, these gems are really hot from being warmed by the warmth that you find when you start to dig so far under the earth that you’re heading for the molten center of the earth. This is a mining, western-themed game crossed with a classic slot. Gems are very traditional slot symbols and you will find them in a number of games. This game is genuinely retro though because it was released waaaay back in November 2012.

It comes from Playtech, who style themselves as the biggest online gaming software company in the world, and we don’t ever see any need to doubt them on it – they have thousands of employers in bases around the world, and they have released nearly 600 slots. The most popular of them are Buffalo Blitz, Age of the Gods, Age of the Gods King of Olympus, Epic Ape, and Age of the Gods: Furious Four.

The Age of the Gods series is now so popular that it is crossing over into Playtech’s live casino world with live versions as new types of slot play are experimented with. Nothing so up to date here (though there are sequels to this game that are much more current in their design), and Hot Gems is a very simple sort of slot.

The game has very decent mathematics with about average RTP and a maximum prize of 5,000-times stake with betting from 25p to £25. The game is on a classic 5 by 3 grid with 25 pay lines rather than the more modern setup of multiple ways to win.

The main bonuses are free spins that come with a multiplier and wilds.

The graphics are cartoon style and they don’t make much of the western theme, choosing instead to opt for a really colourful classic look.

This is a long-running success that is still in the market, but should you climb into the mine today?

Let’s have a look.

How to Play Hot Gems Slot

If you have played any of these games then you will soon find your way around Hot Gems which has a very standard slot set up.

• At the left of the control panel is the info button. Click on this to open up the paytable and full game instructions. You should get into the habit of doing this every time you play a new game, as knowing how the game works are one of the best ways to stay safe.
• Next to this is the pay-line window and the bet per line window, with which you set the total bet. This is displayed, along with wins, in the centre of the control panel. To the right is an auto-play and turbo play mode (although these will be outlawed in the UK shortly). And finally, we have a rock-themed spin button.
• The paytable opens with our gems. These start with orange and green gems that payout 2, 5, 15, and 40-times stake for sets of 2, 3, 4, and 5. Then we have blue gems paying out 5, 30, and 60-times stake. Then purple gems payout 7, 30, and 60-times stake. Red gems payout 7, 40, and 80-times stake. Yellow gems are the top payers in this lower section of the paytable and they pay out 10, 40, and 80 times stake.
• The high-paying symbols are cartoon illustrations of a minecart paying 30, 100, and 200-times stakes for sets of 3, 4, and 5. A pickaxe pays out 50, 150, and 300-times stake. The miner’s lamp pays out 75, 200, and 400-times stake. And the miner pays out 100, 250, and 5,000-times stake. The biggest win on the reels for a single prize.
• There is also a wild, a scatter, and a free spins symbol. The Hot Gems symbol is a scatter and it pays out 1, 4, 20, and 100-times stake for sets of 2, 3, 4, and 5. The wild subs in for everything except for the scatter and the free games symbol.

Hot Gems Slot Bonus Rounds

The main bonus rounds are respins and free spins in this game.

Unusually, the scatter isn’t the trigger for the free games, which have their own symbol.

• The respins are delivered as they so often are in these games by collapsing reels. Any win in either the main game or in the free spins round causes the reels to collapse. Any symbol that was used to create a winning combination is exploded out of existence and new symbols drop into place. This continues until no new wins are found.
• The free spins round is awarded via the free spins symbol. This appears on odd-numbered reels only and triggers a set of 15 free spins with the collapsing reels multiplier.

Hot Gems Slot - The Verdict

I wonder if this game kicked off the craze for going underground for your slots thrills. It was certainly a big hit back in the day, but it has lost out since then with enormous hits like Bonanza, the first big Megaways game taking up the slack and proving that players love this genre.

There’s plenty to like about this game, even nearly 10 years after its first release. It looks fine in a cartoon style and sound, animation and graphics haven’t really dated.

The game is fairly simple but can be rewarding. The main criticism most players will have in 2021 is that the game’s bonus features are rather one-dimensional, without even a retrigger on the free spins round.

However, you can hit a nice vein with the respins round, which must be one of the earliest examples of an explode-and-collapse mechanism.

If you like mining games then this is a decent offering. With the RTP just about on average and a nice small betting range, it is a game you can enjoy playing for a while. Check it out.