Wild Fire Riches Pokies
Unsurprisingly perhaps, there’s lots of wild symbols and lots of images of fire splashed across the 5 reels of the Wild Fire Riches pokie from Ainsworth. As for the riches part of the equation, well, those can come about from bonus features such as free spins that run on expanded reel sets, and tasty-sounding treats like Whopper Wilds and even Mega Whopper Wilds.
The layout of the game is somewhat different to what players have come to expect, with reels 1 and 2 on the left side having their symbols stacked 3 high, and reels 3, 4 and 5 containing 4 rows of symbols.
The effect of this is that it’s pretty easy to get 2 matching symbols across any of the 100 paylines, but a little more tricky to land a winning combination of 3 or more. This is still a game where players should see plenty of wins however, so they shouldn’t be put off by a slightly different format.
Playing Wild Fire Riches
With a staggering bet range that goes from just 1.00 to 10,000.00, this pokie will suit all but the very smallest of bankrolls. As well as having an wide choice of bet size, players can also activate an Autoplay function which sets the reels spinning up to 100 times, but they will stop once certain win or loss limits are reached.
This game has a portrait-style design, so it’s taller than most, which becomes logical once the reels expand during the bonus games. Flames act as a background image, with coins being barbequed below the reels and a nice purple frame above them.It all looks pleasant enough, without over-doing things.
The classic 9, 10, J, Q, K and A symbols are in use, creating the lower value wins. They are all worth the same amount, and as long as 3, 4 or 5 of the same type land across a line, players win 2x, 4x or 10x the line bet, which isn’t actually going to amount to much.
Picture symbols are more interesting to look at and will be worth more, with flaming pots of gold, burning Poker chips, bowls of cash, red hot dice and a toasty $ symbol making up the top end of the paytable.
Because of the reel layout, Wild Fire Riches is already slightly unusual, but there’s a good selection of bonus features, some of which can be highly rewarding, to make this pokie stand out even more.
Wild Fire Riches
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Bonus Features
Wild and Scatter symbols can turn up as the reels spin, with a big diamond being wild, substituting for all but the scatter and Whopper Wild helping to complete winning lines.
Although the Whopper Wild will only turn up on the middle reel, when it does so, it will turn all of reels 4 and 5 into a giant wild as well, meaning that any lines of 2 matching symbols on the first reels will instantly become valuable 5 of a kind wins.
The scatter is simply the Wild Fire Riches logo and whenever this turns up in 3, 4 or 5 positions, anywhere on the reels, players scoop a nice prize of 1x, 10x or 100x the stake, not just the line bet which is paid out for any other win.
Once this win is credited, the reels expand in a giant set, 9 symbols high and the playing card icons are removed from the mix. This means that only the higher-value ones are in place, so there’s a good chance of getting a decent win during the 8 spins that are initially awarded.
The same symbols will always hit on reels 1 and 2 throughout the free games, and if the mega Whopper Wild lands on reel 3, it will transform reels 4 and 5 into more examples of the symbols on the first 2 reels, guaranteeing lots of winning lines right across them.
An extra 2 spins will be added to the total each time 3 or more scatter symbols turn up and it’s possible to retrigger them over and over, but with only 2 spins in which to do it, realistically, players won’t be getting that many added to the original 8.
The Verdict
This slightly unusual pokie doesn’t have much in the way of a theme, other than objects connected to casinos and money all being on fire. Still, it looks quite dramatic and once potential players take a look at the extra features and rewards on offer, many will be persuaded to give these hot reels a spin.
Certainly, the bonus features, like giant wild symbols, are an unmissable treat, but there’s plenty of wins to be collected in normal play as well.