Fire in the Hole by Nolimit City - user review

[vanHooff]

Hey all,

my user review for Fire in the Hole xBomb by Nolimit City, as I expect this one to become one of the most played games of 2021.

Fire in the Hole (abbrev: FITH) has been released last week, is available to play at many casino's as well as 
at Nolimit City's website, for fun money: https://www.nolimitcity.com/games/fire-in-the-hole-xbomb/  

The official Casinogrounds slot review is to be found at https://casinogrounds.com/slots/fire-in-the-hole-xbomb/ where you can also rate this game (1-5 stars)

In my opinion FITH is an excellent game and a challenger for best 'Money Train'-style slot.
Currently the best slot in that category is Money Train 2, which has been voted Casinogrounds overall game of the year 2020.

Graphics, sounds and theme:
The goldmine theme has been used many times before. 
Both the graphics and sounds (music + sound effects) are very good, but not exceptional.

Gameplay: base game.
I have played about 3000 basegame spins and I found that this plays surprisingly well.
The bonus (3 or 4 scatters) triggers fairly often and I racked up a handful of 100-150x basegame wins thanks to the 'x-bomb' mechanic.
It is fun to clear up the field for getting more 'ways' win combinations.
Especially brilliant is the 'wild mining' mechanic because when there are no matching symbols in reel 1 and 2, this still gives a chance to land a good win.

Gameplay: bonus buys.
The bonus game in FITH is called 'Lucky Wagon Spins'.
There are three levels which can be triggered by landing 3,4,5 golden nuggets in the base game or  be bought directly through bonus buy. 
Coins or special symbol enhancers are carted in on the top row and can land in available spots on the reels below.
For any symbol drop on the active grid you  get 3 fresh spins/chances.
You'll be looking for dynamite to drop in to get extra spaces. The win potential gets really good when the bottom row is opened up, or if the persistent collector dwarf lands. The bonus game has some especially smart game mechanics too.
A couple of those are the bags, chests and dwarf that clear up spaces again for new drops.
One of the shortcomings of other 'money bank' type slots is that the grid fills up completely. (although completing gives a reward)

My greatest concern for this game is the suspected (lol sample size) win distribution for bonus payouts.
Arguably this type of slot is best when the result of the bonus is unpredictable at almost all times. 
In MT2 I have had a return of 6x or 8x for a 100x bonus buy, once even when I started with a persistent symbol.
In FITH I have had numerous returns of 40% of the bonus buy but seldom if ever any lower.
This results in that when playing  the bonus I am not worried that nothing drops when the total is lower than 40% of buyin.
It also results in many many bonus game playouts where the last 50x drop or so completes the win to a total that just does not improve anymore.

Overall I found playing 3K basegame spins and a couple of hundred bonus buys highly entertaining.
Especially good about this game are some of the game mechanics. I am sure I'll be playing FITH a lot more.

p.s. enjoy the game but don't go overboard on bonus buys 

[Janalleman]

Yeah, another nice addition I would love to hit the motherload on 😅.

It seems there is a 15x bonus guarantee on the 3-scatter buy, which seems a bit odd on a 60x buy. 

[vanHooff]

10 hours ago, vanHooff said:

My greatest concern for this game is the suspected (lol sample size) win distribution for bonus payouts.
Arguably this type of slot is best when the result of the bonus is unpredictable at almost all times. 

I am afraid that this could prove to be a little bit of an issue for this game and detracts from the fun for me.

For the 500x bonus (buy) I have found that on the third spin most if not all of the times exactly one symbol drops.
That is always a 50x or 100x coin on the bottom row, and very rarely such a coin on third row on top of another coin. 

[Retrikkeri]

No Limit City is way ahead of most providers at the moment imo, the others need to step up their game. Too many providers keep making the same old slots we have seen hundred times before.