Play Red Hot Tamales for Free in Demo Mode by IGT

Red Hot Tamales review

Theme and Storyline

Red Hot Tamales is a hugely simplified three reel fruit machine style slot. It’s title is taken pretty literally in the theme with a few gestures at Mexican cuisine and a rather alarming volume of fire consuming everything on the reels and behind them.

Like many three reel slots, the theme is thin. But it really doesn’t need much substance. Simple slots like this lend themselves to simple set ups.

And in that regard Red Hot Tamales over-delivers.

Graphics, Sounds and Animations

Having been built in 2019, Red Hot Tamales has a slick and clean style. Hi-def, high frame rate animations that actually make it feel authentically old fashioned. The reels have a pleasant chunkiness that emulates a slot with actual physical reals.

The sounds lend themselves to this too. The music is mariachi band, playing over bells and tumbling sounds when the reels spin. When a win hits and the music kicks up a notch keeping things fresh.

The graphics are simple – fire in the background and sevens with bars on the reels. It’s an example of neat design that is high quality and uncomplicated.

Gameplay

Red Hot Tamales is a three reel by three row slot machine. This makes it pretty compact on screen. The game has twenty seven win lines, which on a three by three slot effectively makes the game an any way wins slot.

There are no bonuses to speak of. So overall this is a pretty stripped down gaming experience. You gotta be here for simple click and spin play or you should go elsewhere for your kicks.

Wilds, Bonuses and Free Spins

The Wild symbol substitutes for all other symbols.

There are no free spins. However, landing the same symbol on every space on the reels will earn the player a Blackout Bonus – an additional payout on top of the line wins.

Bet Sizes, RTP and Variance

The return to player of this game is 95.83%, comfortably undershooting our yardstick for average of roughly 96%.

The range of bets on the site we tested ran from a minimum bet per spin of $/£/€0.27 up to a maximum of $/£/€540.00 per spin.

The volatility of this game is low, which makes it a very poor match for our preferred slot machine strategies. Our slot strategies target the highest possible volatility. Coupled with this slot’s low RTP, this slot is one we would steer players away from.

Conclusion

Red Hot Tamales has a great front end design. Neat and simple, it is a masterclass in putting the effort in where the customer will really feel it.

Unfortunately, that elegant front end covers some heinous statistics. 95.83% is a low return to player at the best of times, but coupled with a low volatility this slot is likely to drain your wallet steadily.

That’s a real shame for an otherwise solid slot. But we cannot recommend this, despite its high popularity.