Blazing Piranhas

Blazing Piranhas: Slot Overview

You know, reviewing online slots day in and day out, you get so used to a list of recurring themes that when something new comes along, it can be like a mental bolt of lighting from the sky. So it was when Blazing Piranhas appeared on the dashboard from Games Global partner Pear Fiction Studios. Perhaps we should get used to being surprised by what this team turns out because one of the last ones we tried was the uniquely bizarre LinkNWin slot Granny vs Zombies. As well as dealing with unusual subject matter, Blazing Piranhas also shares several other aspects of G vs Z, like some of the gameplay as well as a similarly presented look.

The look is thoroughly cartoonish, all the better to ease up on any horror that might be induced at the thought of toothy piranhas having a go at a quartet of young adults. The setting for Blazing Piranhas is a lake or riverside on what would have been an enjoyably bright and sunny day otherwise, if not for all the aggressive fish. The graphics and layout have a distinctively Granny vs Zombies feel to them, creamy and rich in colour, so perhaps we're seeing the birth of a franchise that pits, let's say, unusual meet-ups of goodies against baddies. In Blazing Piranhas, this means people bumping into a group of fish which have a reputation for devouring their prey at frighteningly fast speeds.

Statistically, Blazing Piranhas is close to the game which preceded it, too, possessing more than one RTP model; the highest is a 96.01% theoretical value. A highly volatile slot, Blazing Piranhas is played on a 5-reel, 3-row gaming panel with 20 fixed paylines and a hit rate slightly better than 1 in 4. Players are able to pick a stake of 10 p/ to $/€50 game round or choose one of four options from the bonus buy menu. Along each payline, winning combinations of 3 to 5 OAK are possible, starting from the leftmost reel. On the lower portion of the paytable, we find blue, green, orange, and purple piranhas, while the higher value pay symbols are the 4 characters of the story.

Blazing Piranhas: Slot Features

If it feels like the piranhas have already been and nibbled at some of the regular win values, then fortunately, Blazing Piranhas has a bunch of features to potentially help compensate.

Piranha Wilds

Piranha Wilds move to the left on the reels if a character symbol lands left of one. As it does so, it leaves a regular wild symbol in its place. Wilds replace any regular pay symbol and are removed for the following spin. More than one Piranha Wild can land at once.

LockNWin

Landing 6 coins triggers the LockNWin, and 3 respins are awarded. The triggering coins are locked, and all other symbols are removed from the board. Landing new coins in the active area resets the respin count. The round ends when respins go to zero or coins fill the reels. If all reels are unlocked and filled, the Mega Jackpot is awarded. The coins which may land are:

• Regular Coins - award 1 to 12 times the bet.
• Multiplier Coin - awards up to 5x the bet and multiplies all coins except star coins by up to x5.
• Key Coin - awards 1 to 12 times the bet and unlocks extra rows.
• Star Coin - triggers the Jackpot LockNWin at the end of the regular LockNWin.

Jackpot LockNWin

When activated, coin symbols land on a grid matrix. When 3 coins have landed on the same row, the corresponding Jackpot is awarded, which could be the Micro, Mini, Minor, Major, or Mega, awarding 15x, 25x, 100x, 500x, or 5,000x the bet, respectively.

Free Spins

Getting 3 or more scatter symbols in the base game awards the free spins selection feature. Players may choose:

• 3 scatter trigger - 5, 7, 10, or 12 free spins with 6, 5, 4, or 3 wilds, respectively.
• 4 scatter trigger - 10, 14, 20, or 24 free spins with 6, 5, 4, or 3 wilds.
• 5 scatter trigger - 15, 21, 30, or 36 free spins with 6, 5, 4, or 3 wilds.

During free spins, the number of wilds selected are randomly displayed on the reels. When it occurs, retriggers award the initially chosen number of free spins.

Jackpot Wheel

The Jackpot Wheel is triggered when its corresponding progress bar is filled by landing coin symbols. The Jackpot Wheel spins to award one of the aforementioned jackpots. Progress on the progress bar gets saved per bet level if changing the stake

Buy Feature

The bonus buy feature user interface comes with four choices. These are the Jackpot LockNWin for 31.7x the bet, the LockNWin for 30.93x the bet, free spins for 52.05x the bet, or a spin on the Jackpot Wheel for 31.25x the bet.

Blazing Piranhas: Slot Verdict

If you warmed to the way Pear Fiction Studios handled the last humorous horror slot, there are good odds you'll warm to this one as well. The colourful artwork eases the edge off the terror, though, resulting in a game that's closer in atmosphere to Sharknado than Jaws, let's say. Blazing Piranhas also shares much of the same gaming components as Granny vs Zombies, and if not exactly the same, then close in spirit, at least.

And quite a lot of features there are, too, meaning the base game can be a stepping stone to a number of bonus rounds of varying descriptions. The base game was decent enough. It's got those handy Piranha Wilds wriggling their way across the board from time to time, and the game's general humorous approach makes good use of the fish vs humans angle. In the review, it didn't feel like major levels of wow magic was going to happen in the main game on its own. Could be wrong; anyway, the good news for players intrigued by the whole piranha idea is that Pear Fiction Studios' everything but the kitchen sink approach means there are stacks of complementary extras to hopefully trigger. Not many of them you will have a tough time finding elsewhere as they are relatively common features but decently enough implemented and brought together in one spot. Outside the 5,000x Mega Jackpot, Blazing Piranhas gave off the impression it could be tough to cobble together impressive wins. Just an impression mind, happy to be proved to the contrary.

Whether players will achieve that objective or not, there are opportunities for a few laughs along the way in Blazing Piranha. Arguably not as much as Granny vs Zombies, though; it should get said since the theme, while fairly original, isn't quite as out there, nor is the feature list as fresh or as overwhelming as it was in the previous game.