War has given us some truly ridiculous weapons over the years. There have been exploding rats, bat bombs, pigeon-guided missiles and, at one point, an actual plan to strap incendiary devices to bats and drop them over Japan. So, honestly, weaponized potatoes barely even register on the scale of terrible military ideas.
Thunderkick apparently agrees. Three years after sending a gang of angry potatoes into the city in the original Hot Potato slot, the studio has drafted them into the army for the Hot Potato Battleground slot.
Welcome to the deadliest game of hot potato
Betting on the Hot Potato Battleground slot starts at $0.10 per spin and goes up to $20. With a 10,000x maximum multiplier, you can win up to $200,000 when betting at the maximum amount per spin.
With high volatility, the gameplay won’t feature much in the way of small, consistent wins, and you chase the rare big ones. The slot’s expected RTP is 94.23%.
The Hot Potato Battleground slot features a cluster pays win mechanic and avalanche spins, which is basically just cascading spins. Cluster pays form winning combinations when five or more matching symbols connect vertically or horizontally. The cascading/avalanche spins mechanic will then remove any symbols involved in the combination, allowing new spins to fall into the empty spots. If a new cluster forms, the process continues.
Each winning cluster also creates one of three Exploding Wild symbols at random. The Potato Wild explodes across a 3×3 area, the General Potato Wild covers a 5×5 area, and the Sniper Potato Wild explodes across an entire horizontal and vertical line. Exploding Wilds can also appear at random and will always detonate during the spin or avalanche in which they appear.
Each explosion affects the Multiplier Grid, with affected positions starting at 2x. If explosions overlap, the multipliers on those positions are doubled, with individual values capable of reaching 128x.
When a winning cluster covers positions on the Multiplier Grid, the game adds all applicable multipliers and applies them to the win. High-paying symbols are protected from explosions and therefore remain on the grid when one occurs.
Five feature symbols can also be detonated during an avalanche:
- Land Support: Detonating a Turret adds three exploding Potato Wilds after new symbols drop in.
- Sniper Support: A detonated Crosshair adds three exploding Sniper Potato Wilds. Only one Land Support and Sniper Support can be active at a time.
- Air Support: Detonating a Walkie-Talkie adds five Scout Wilds once the avalanche ends. It can trigger three times per sequence for up to 15 Wilds.
- Radar Symbol Transformation: A detonated Satellite Dish transforms one low-paying symbol into a medium- or high-paying symbol after the avalanche. Up to three different symbols can be transformed per sequence.
- Nuke Feature: Detonating the Red Button awards a respin and doubles the Multiplier Grid once the avalanche ends, provided Air Support or Radar Symbol Transformation has not triggered. It can activate once per sequence.
If you’re keen to skip ahead to the action, the slot gives you a number of buy bonus options to choose from.
Is the Hot Potato Battleground slot worth going to war over?
The Hot Potato Battleground slot reminded me of Worms on the PC. I used to play that game all the time. So, there was definitely a nostalgia factor here, and that was heightened by the additional dose of absurdity. All in all, the slot is a solid follow-up that keeps the original’s Exploding Wilds and Multiplier Grid while adding enough new features to feel meaningfully different.
I give this one a nine out of ten.
If you’re looking for a few other slots from Thunderkick that I would recommend, try Milk the Cow and Pink Elephants 2 Reborn.
