Hundreds and Thousands: Slot Overview
Editor’s note: This review is based on an early access version of the game. We may update the review after the full release if necessary.
For kids, and sweet-toothed adults, hundreds and thousands is the term used to describe large numbers of teeny tiny candies that could be, for instance, poured on top of ice cream to make it extra specially good. There’s also a gambling connotation now, as Pragmatic Play partner Reel Kingdom has used the phrase as a title for its online slot Hundreds and Thousands. Whilst the studio might have made hundreds and thousands of fish slots, this game is not one of them, and being a rather singular gambling game means it shouldn’t take too long for players to make their minds up whether the response is yes or a resounding no thank you.
Hundreds and Thousands is peculiar, and this applies to its presentation. There’s a sort of Mr Money Bags, green felt table top, cash thing going on. A big bank note and gold trim dominate the base game, whereas purple and gold colour the free spins round. A green-suited chap with a pocket watch and bow tie adds personality to a game which really needs an injection of character, and yes, that is a man holding a fishing rod at the home screen. Why? That’s an excellent question. A love of retro might help gamblers appreciate Hundreds and Thousands, as well as an acceptance of several quirks we will soon see.
The game is played on a 5×5 matrix with no less than 100 paylines built into it, hence the first part of the title. Winning potential ain’t massive, but it’s got a high risk, highly volatile math model running things, pushing out a maximum RTP of 96.52% when betting 5c to $/€250 per spin. The same return value applies when using the ante bet, which, when activated, increases the stake by 100% to have more scatters on the reels, upping the chance of triggering free spins.
There sure as anything are not hundreds and thousands of symbols in this game. When it comes to pay symbols, there are but two of them – Xs and Bars, worth 1x the bet and 10x the bet respectively, for a 5 matching symbol win. Wilds do not exist in the game, and the 0 symbol has no value.
Hundreds and Thousands: Slot Features
Just as the game is light on pay symbols, so it is light on features as well. Mixing things up, ish, is a free spins round and a feature buy.
Free Spins
The banknote free spins symbol only appears in the base game. Hitting 5 free spins symbols in a winning payline triggers the free spins bonus round. The total number of spins awarded is determined by the total number of winning paylines which have formed with the free spins symbol. The bonus adds an x2 multiplier that applies to all wins during the round. The feature cannot be retriggered.
Feature Buy
The free spins feature can be triggered instantly from the base game by buying it for 100x the bet. When bought, a random number of paylines with free spins is guaranteed to hit.
Hundreds and Thousands: Slot Verdict
Hundreds and Thousands’ home screen displaying a fishing guy prompted a choking on cereal moment, as if Reel Kingdom, despite its best efforts, just cannot cut the apron strings connecting it to the Big Bass behemoth. And when you play some of Reel Kingdom’s non-Big Bass releases, you can see why the studio clings so tightly to the cash cow. Apologies in advance if this comes off a bit mean girls, but Hundreds and Thousands would struggle to be used as chum by a Big Bass slot. Let’s acknowledge that it is different, and somewhere out there in gambling land are people who might be drawn to Hundreds and Thousands’ ‘charms’. Maybe so, but positives the game may possess are outweighed by the weak spots.
One of Hundreds and Thousands’ greatest tricks is the way it is able to prevent so few symbols from connecting into wins, given the number of paylines. Sure, the 0 symbol getting in the way helps, and only 5 OAKs pay, but the number of dead spins generated in a game with 100 ways to win and just 2 pay symbols is impressive maths. Less impressive is what the thousands part of the title refers to, and that’s winning potential of 2,000x the bet, which, let’s face it, a lot of gamblers wouldn’t even get out of bed for in this day and age. On that note, even if Hundreds and Thousands shipped with enormous winning potential, no figure, no matter how large, could hide the dull gaming.
From start to finish, Hundreds and Thousands was an odd slot, one in which it was hard to see who might get excited about what there is on offer. It’s kind of retro, with all the Bars and whatnot, very basic if that’s what you’re after, a bit unique, admittedly. But still, drop the attempt at grasping to find positives for a moment, and Hundreds and Thousands felt like it was trolling, as if there’s a punch line here which only its makers are in on.
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