Hot Potato! (Thunderkick) – Review & Demo Play

The Hot Potato! Slot Game

Hot Potato! drops the action onto a lively cityscape with yellow cabs and towering blocks in view, then whisks you into a red‑hot kitchen once free spins land. It’s a 7x7 Cluster Pays grid where five or more matching symbols connect horizontally or vertically to score. Wins trigger Avalanches, clearing clusters and tumbling fresh icons into place. The cartoon art feels punchy, the soundtrack leans funky, and the whole thing plays with a brisk, snackable tempo that suits the theme nicely.

At the heart sits a feisty Exploding Wild potato that can blow out a 3x3 area and uncover a Multiplier Grid beneath. That’s the engine that ramps things up when the board starts cooking. Stakes cover a broad spread from £0.10 to £100, so I can set sessions to taste. The model punches on the high side, yet the rhythm of Avalanches and Wild-triggered blasts delivers a steady sense of potential building across each sequence.

Symbols and Payouts in Hot Potato!

The paytable keeps it tight with six regulars. Low pays are the cucumber and glazed doughnut, then come the canned soda and french fries, with burgers and the gold‑toothed chef topping the chart. At five of a kind you’ll see stakes from 0.1x on the cucumber up to 1x on the chef. Land 25+ in a cluster and it jumps: 10x cucumber, 20x doughnut, 25x soda, 37.5x fries, 62.5x burger, and 100x for the chef.

Two specials carry the heat. The Potato Wild substitutes and can detonate to reveal multipliers, while the HOT scatter is your ticket into the bonus. Clusters can land anywhere on the grid, and prizes scale with size, so those cascading chains matter. With the additive nature of multipliers later on, even mid‑tier symbols can push tidy returns when they line up over the right squares. That’s where the grid starts to feel properly spicy.

Hot Potato! Symbols and Paytable

Symbol	Quantity	Payout
	25+	x100
	20+	x40
	15+	x20
	7	x2
	6	x1.5
	5	x1
	25+	x62.5
	20+	x25
	15+	x10
	7	x1.3
	6	x0.8
	5	x0.5
	25+	x37.5
	20+	x15
	15+	x7.5
	7	x0.8
	6	x0.5
	5	x0.4
	25+	x25
	20+	x10
	15+	x5
	7	x0.5
	6	x0.4
	5	x0.3
	25+	x20
	20+	x7.5
	15+	x4
	7	x0.4
	6	x0.3
	5	x0.2
	25+	x10
	20+	x4
	15+	x3
	7	x0.3
	6	x0.2
	5	x0.1
	Scatter

Hot Potato! Slot Bonus Features

Avalanche is the ever‑present driver. After each evaluated win, the paying symbols vanish and the remaining icons drop to the lowest spots. New symbols tumble in from above, and the process keeps rolling while fresh clusters keep forming. It’s a clean loop that sets up board space for the potato to make mischief. When a chain stretches, the screen hums with movement, and you can feel the multiplier positions waiting to be uncovered by a timely blast.

Exploding Wilds can appear naturally or be generated into an empty area after a cluster win. When they pop, a 3x3 block is removed and a Multiplier Grid is revealed. Each affected cell starts at x2, and any new explosion overlapping an existing cell doubles that value up to x128. Multipliers are additive, so if a winning cluster covers, say, x2 and x32 squares, you get x34 to the payout. It’s tidy, intuitive, and genuinely satisfying.

Three HOT scatters trigger 10 free spins, with +10 on a retrigger. Any base‑game grid progress resets on entry, but during the bonus those Multiplier Grid values become persistent and build across spins. This is where sessions can truly heat up, as repeated potato pops layer bigger values into busy lanes. There’s a Feature Buy at 100x the stake, bumping the theoretical return to 96.44%, though availability depends on where you’re playing.

How to Win at Hot Potato! Slot

Gameplay flows around the 7x7 Cluster Pays engine. Aim for five or more matching symbols connected horizontally or vertically, let the Avalanche clear space, then hope new drops carry on the chain. I like to ride sensible stakes between £0.10 and £100 and let the tumbles do the legwork. When a potato lands within or after a cluster, that’s the cue to watch the board carefully, as fresh openings can set up multiplier exposure on the next fall.

The best sequences I’ve had come when explosions overlap existing cells to double values, then a fat cluster lands across several multiplier positions. Additive maths means two or three boosted squares can turn a normal combo into something tasty. Free spins magnify this, since the grid sticks. I’m happy to grind base spins for organic entries, but if Feature Buy is allowed in your region, jumping straight to free spins is a fair shout.

Hot Potato! Slot RTP & Volatility

The default RTP sits at 96.16 per cent, with alternative settings of 94.13, 92.16, 90.16, and 87.11 per cent also on offer depending on the operator. Buying the bonus nudges it to 96.44 per cent. Variance is high, so sessions can swing, but the ceiling hits a tidy 10,000x the stake. That profile fits the design: steady base play built on Avalanches and Wild blasts, then serious headroom once the sticky Multiplier Grid takes hold in free spins.

The Final Thoughts on Hot Potato!

Thunderkick’s first take on Cluster Pays feels straightforward yet lively. Regular Avalanches keep the screen busy, the Exploding Wilds aren’t shy, and the Multiplier Grid shines once it settles during free spins. The retrigger helps, and I rate how the additive maths delivers clean, punchy payouts when clusters sit over juiced cells. It won’t fire every session, given the volatility, but when the potato keeps popping in the right spots, 10,000x doesn’t feel out of place.