Hot Chilli Bells Review: Choose Your Spice Level In This Hot Slot From BGaming

Hot Chilli Bells Details

Hot Chilli Bells Review: How I Played

gave Hot Chilli Bells a good hour and change in demo mode. While I gave it the ol’ college try on my phone for a bit, most of my time was spent on a desktop (my preferred way to play). In general, I enjoyed my time with Hot Chilli Bells. I love when a slot can merge old-school vibes with modern mechanics, and this BGaming title does that quite well. Read on for my in-depth review of Hot Chilli Bells.

First Impressions with Hot Chilli Bells

My immediate reaction after spinning Hot Chilli Bells a few times was a respectful nod with an approving stank face and furrowing of the brow. The game’s graphics are simple and sharp, with the symbols outlined in bright gold to help them pop. Each spin was smooth and well-timed. After a couple of rounds, my brain got used to the cadence and I fell into a good rhythm. As I played more, Hot Chilli Bells continued to deliver and reveal more of its surprising depth.

Visuals and Presentation: 5 out of 5

To be honest, I’m pretty picky when it comes to slot visuals. I don’t have a particular lean toward a specific type of graphics. Instead, I have an eye for quality and small details by virtue of having played hundreds of online slots for countless hours.

With that context in mind, I’m happy to report Hot Chilli Bells does very well in this category. The visuals are tight and polished. Each symbol has a golden outline that makes it feel multidimensional. Small details—veins on the cherry leaf, striping on a watermelon, and shading on the star, for example—provide plenty of flair in what could otherwise have been a visually dull slot.

The thermometer on the right side of the screen is a fun measure of the number of active paylines,and it plays perfectly into the slot’s theme.

I’m also a stickler for animation flaws. It bugs me when a slot lags or the animations feel wonky. Hot Chilli Bells has no such issues, and is in fact super smooth in its animations. By default, the reels spin quickly—no weirdly long wait for the game round to end. When I landed in an expanding wild, the Chilli symbols moved onto the reel spaces with impactful animations that made it extremely clear something cool was happening.

After more than an hour with Hot Chilli Bells, I couldn’t find anything that put me off, visually. The slot knocks this area out of the park.

The Role of Sound: 3.5 out of 5

Nine times out of 10, you’ll find me playing slot games on mute. That rare tenth time typically happens when I play a slot based on a beloved move, TV show, or musical artist.

Hot Chilli Bells bears no such distinction, and I was sadly disappointed with the overall sound design. The sounds themselves were fine and dandy, but they suffer from the grinding repetition of most slots. The worst offense here, in my opinion, is the background noise. It’s obviously meant to emulate the ambient noise of a casino with coins clinking, people chattering, and other sonic fare. The effects are on repeat, though, so you hear the same sounds over and over.

Music only plays while the reels are spinning. In idle mode, Hot Chilli Bells resorts to the ambient casino sounds.

When I ventured to the settings to turn off certain sound elements, I was surprised to find the “Music” toggle turned off both the music and the ambient noise. The “Sound FX” toggle removed simple things like the boop sounds from clicking the spin button to selecting an in-game option.

I wasn’t clasping my ears in pain or anything, but my hand immediately sprang to the settings page to turn off all sound in Hot Chilli bells. Again, nothing deal-breaking, but also no reason to keep the sound on for longer than a few spins.

Gameplay Journey: 4.5 out of 5

Hot Chilli Bells is simple and easy to navigate. Its dedication to the old-Vegas slot feel blends nicely with the modern design I associate with newer games.

After loading the game, I immediately found everything I needed. The spin and autoplay buttons were in the bottom right corner. The information and settings buttons were on the bottom left. I appreciated those in particular, considering how many developers put them over the reels or in other distracting spots. Even worse, some developers make those buttons annoyingly hard to find. Hot Chilli Bells is clear with its design.

The pay line selector may be hard to manage for new players, especially those who aren’t familiar with games that allow you to choose your number of active lines. The thermometer and numbers beside it were clear as day to me (complete with a highlighted circle when I hovered over a number). A new or inexperienced player might not grasp what it means, so Hot Chilli Bells could be better at explaining it from the get-go.

• Pay lines: choose 20,40,60,80, or 100 using the thermometer on the right side.
• Auto-play: choose from many custom settings for auto spins.
• Bonus buy: clearly labeled on the left-hand side of the screen.
• Wins: prominently displayed after each winning spin.
• Bonuses: features are made abundantly clear with sharp animations.
• Info & Settings: Both are accessible at the bottom right.
• Toggle play: Arrows make for easy selection of play amounts.

Bonus Features Through My Eyes: 4 out of 5

Three bonus features add some heat to Hot Chilli Bells. The first is a base game feature: Expanding Wilds.

When the Chilli WILD symbol lands on any of the middle three reels, it expands to take over the whole vertical reel and make for bigger potential wins. This is accompanied by slick animations and sounds. I triggered this feature the most of any other in the game. While it created fun win opportunities, it didn’t have a lot of staying power. It started to feel common by the time I finished playing.

Scatter symbols feature shiny diamonds. Landing three or more of them on the reels will pay out in any position. The payout is directly correlated with your bet level.

Finally, there’s the big one: Hold & Win. The Bell symbol triggers this bonus when six or more land on the reels on a single spin. The bells stay on the reels and you are granted three spins. Only bonus symbols matter during these spins, a dn any time a new one lands, it sticks to the reels while the respins reset to three. Each symbol gives its value and possibly a multiplier, if the symbol lands on one. You can earn extra multipliers by collecting more symbols and moving up the progress bar, which replaces the payline thermometer for the duration of the bonus.

Balancing Risk and Reward: 4.5 out of 5

Hot Chilli Bells has an RTP of 97% and high volatility. The RTP is great. I consider anything 96% or above to be good, and this exceeds that minimum. The high volatility might be more divisive, depending on what kind of player you are.

I tend to prefer frequent wins, even if they’re smaller overall. I can’t dock Hot Chilli Bells for its high volatility with that in mind. It’s just not my style. I didn’t win much in my demo play, but I felt like the wins were fair and big enough to offset long losing streaks.

The Good and Bad of Hot Chilli Bells

Final Thoughts on Hot Chilli Bells

Hot Chilli Bells is a fun and interesting slot. It doesn’t exactly break new ground, but it doesn’t have to. Instead, it combines elements of classic slots with modern sensibilities to largely successful effect. Despite my preference for lower volatility, I found enough to enjoy that I would definitely consider playing Hot Chilli Bells again. Its features and smooth gameplay animations are reason enough to give it a few spins whenever it pops up at an online or sweepstakes casino.

Final Score: 4.3 out of 5