Sumo Spins

Sumo wrestling is a very popular and important sport in Japan and a number of other places in the world. Along these lines, Red Tiger Gaming produced their Sumo Spins slot in a way that brings all of the action of this style of grappling to the reels. The graphics are cute and fun, and the gameplay is feature-centric for an exciting experience. The volatility is around the medium range, but there's plenty of balance between the value given from the regular pay table and the value that the multiple bonus features offer.

Format and Layout

The layout for this game has five reels, four horizontal rows and 40 paylines. This is a bit more screen real estate space than usual, and that means that you'll have even more room for these bonus features to give you extra chances to win. Betting actually starts down at the $0.20 level even though there are 40 lines, and that makes it easier for low stakes players to feel comfortable playing. On the high end, the game is actually designed to allow bets as high as $500, but you'll probably only have a maximum bet of $100 or so depending on where you're playing because the casinos can set the maximum values available.

Red Wrestler Nudge Feature

If you get the red wrestler on the reels, then he will activate the nudge feature. Note that you don't have to get more than one of this wrestler on the game board to activate any of the features except for the free spins. In this nudge feature, you'll see one or more of the reels shift upwards or downwards to make sure that you get at least one guaranteed win on the spin. This is a payout you wouldn't have received otherwise, so it's obviously a welcomed addition.

Blue Rolling Wrestler Feature

When the blue wrestler makes his appearance, he'll activate a rolling feature. The way this works is that he will roll directly to the left, and that will cause all of the positions in his path to turn into the same symbol. This feature also guarantees a win, and it makes it easier to hit multi-line payouts as well. On top of all of that, it fits into the theme because of the rolls that sumo wrestlers practice regularly so that they can fall gracefully if they are thrown or fall.

Green Wrestler Re-spin Feature

The green wrestler activates a re-spin feature. He will stomp repeatedly to give you chances for free re-spins. These are obviously good for getting extra chances to win.

Free Spins Feature

Two or more wrestlers on the reels will see them square off in competition against each other. You'll get free spins for each time they run into each other, and the free spins mode will continue until they are finished doing battle with each other. During this feature, you'll pick one of them to become wild on the reels to give you better chances of winning than usual.

Other Payouts and Wins

The stack of cash, which is the purse for winning the match, pays 300x if you line up five of a kind. This is the strongest regular win in the game. A big bowl of fruit and salad earns players 120x, and you can also score a payout of 60x for five of a kind wins of the bucket of water. The fan with red strings coming from it will award players 48x for five, and five of the tub of salt (thrown to purify the ring of spirits) gets players 32x.

Instead of using card rank symbols for the lower tiers of wins, there are four card suits. The golden spade, red heart, blue diamond and green club all give the same 20x payout for five of a kind.

Our Thoughts

We like what this game has to offer because it takes a very serious sport in sumo wrestling and turns it into something fun without losing the excitement. Sumo Spins is a good example of Red Tiger Gaming also using a theme that hasn't really been used all that much in the industry as a whole, and that makes it easier for them to stand out as well. Players tend to prefer games that aren't the same old thing, and by standing out with the theme of the game and the way that this title is based on multiple features, a number of which are not typical at all, it shows that they're willing to go the extra mile when putting together a title like this one.