Extra Chilli Epic Spins, A New Live Game

What is Extra Chilli Epic Spins?

Extra Chilli Epic Spins is a new for 2023 live casino game by Evolution Gaming.  Just as you’d expect, it is a live version of Big Time Gaming’s seminal Extra Chilli slot game, playing on a big screen with a live host.  However, a few very important tweaks have been made to make it work well in the live format.

Live slots have not really caught on in the UK in the way they were expected to back when Playtech led the way with Buffalo Blitz Live; one problem is that with most live casino games you can use the autoplay setting to buy in for a set number of rounds but this is a very grey area for live slots.  If they fall within the definition of a slot game, autoplay is forbidden; there are arguments for and against but it’s understandable that game providers would want to play it safe and not have it.  Without autoplay, though, you only have a very narrow window to buy into the next spin of a live slot game before it’s too late (whereas in a regular slot game you can take as long as you like to hit the play button again) and this can be very annoying for players.

Extra Chilli Epic Spins gets around this problem in an innovative and very effective way.  There’s no autoplay, but instead you buy into five spins at a time, with a slightly longer gap between each set of 5 spins to give you a bit of time to realise that you need to hit the Play button again.  This is NOT autoplay by the back door; the whole game has been redesigned to make the cycle of 5 spins integral to the gameplay, as we shall see.

How To Play Extra Chilli Epic Spins

Buying in is super easy – just select your stake size (which is then saved for future plays) and hit the big green button to play the next set of 5 spins.

The base game of Extra Chilli Epic Spins is very similar to the original (Megaways, exploding wins, extra sideways reel at the bottom of the play area) but the bonus round works differently.  It’s still triggered by collecting the letters H-O-T but they don’t appear on the reels.  Instead, on every spin a spinning wooden crate appears in front of the reels and bursts to reveal a multiplier of 1x to 5x, one of the letters H-O-T or nothing.  If it’s a multiplier, it’s added to the existing multiplier and applied for both the current spin and the rest of the 5 spins.  If it’s one of the letters it flies up to the display above the reels.  Collect all three letters in the course of the 5 spins and you’ll trigger the bonus round. That’s pretty much all there is to it!  The only other thing to know is that occasionally a piñata will appear instead of the crate; when a piñata bursts it can contain higher value multipliers (10x or 20x) or all three of the letters at once.

If the bonus round is triggered it plays immediately after the 5 spins, starting with whatever multiplier was accrued during the 5 spins.  The bonus round itself takes elements including the gamble feature from the original slot game, but again there are some important changes.

It starts with 8 free spins.  During these spins, the wooden crate (or piñata) still shows up on every spin to give out multipliers, nothing or (if you’re lucky) H-O-T to retrigger the free spins (this can only happen once).  The spin value for the free spins is the same as in the base game (1/5 of your buy-in).

After the 8 (or 16) free spins have played, there are two rounds of the Gamble Wheel.  The first Gamble Wheel has two colours to choose from and the second Gamble Wheel has four; if you don’t pick a colour in time you will be randomly assigned one before the wheel is spun. After each Gamble Wheel, two more spins are played with the current multiplier still in force.  Crates still appear but at this stage all they can award is multipliers or nothing.  Only the players who picked the correct colour on the respective Gamble Wheel receive the winnings from the two extra spins.

Throughout the gameplay, a live host provides a running commentary; you can chat with them and with other players in the chat window. And the game looks good as well as playing well; Evolution have really gone to town with the Mexican theming in terms of the background and the host outfits.

Extra Chilli Epic Spins has a theoretical Return To Player of 96.74% and the minimum stake is 50p (equivalent to 10p spin value).

Where To Play Extra Chilli Epic Spins

Eventually we expect most online casinos with Evolution games to add Extra Chilli Epic Spins, but not many have yet done so.  Here’s some we know have it: