Novomatic · Released 2022 · medium volatility
Released
May 22
Volatility
medium
Reel
5x4
Paylines
30
RTP
95.2
Min bet
0.2
Max bet
160
Max win
9,000
A Fistful of Wilds is a 2022 Wild West slot from Novomatic's Greentube division, played across a 5x4 grid with 30 paylines. It has medium volatility, an RTP of 95.20% and maximum win potential widely listed at 9,000x the stake.
The game drops you into a dusty Western town with the usual collection of cowboys, guns and Wanted posters, but there's a good reason for all the outlaw decoration. The Wanted poster sitting above the reels is actually part of the gameplay, displaying the feature you're currently chasing at the end of the Trail and Wins feature.
Winning symbols explode and new ones fall into their positions, creating the possibility of another win. Each successful drop also moves you one position along the Trail towards the Wanted poster. Depending on the spin, you'll need between two and five consecutive winning drops to reach it. Fail to produce another win and the Trail is cleared.
Complete it and there are five possible rewards to collect: Wild Shot, Wild Whip, Wild Dreams, Wild Dynamite or Free Spins. The four Wild features all manipulate the reels differently, while Free Spins introduce stacked symbols and the possibility of shortening the Trail.
It's a good setup because you always know what you're chasing. When you're one step away from a Wanted poster, even a small win can suddenly feel important.
The 95.20% RTP isn't particularly generous, but the gameplay is much better than that number.
Winning symbols explode from the grid and new symbols drop into the spaces they leave behind. If those new symbols form another winning combination, the process repeats until a drop produces no further win.
Normally I'd regard Cascading Wins as a useful but fairly routine feature. They're much more important here because every successful Cascade also advances Trail and Wins.
That gives each Cascade a second job.
You might only have landed a modest win, but if it leaves you one step away from Wild Dynamite, what drops next suddenly matters far more than what you've just won.
Trail and Wins is the feature that holds the whole game together.
A Wanted poster above the reels displays the reward currently available, with a Trail of between two and five positions leading towards it. Each winning drop lights another position. Complete every position and the Wanted reward activates. A drop without a win clears the Trail.
This is easily my favourite part of the game.
It's simple enough that you understand it almost immediately, but it creates a genuine sense of progression within an individual spin. Getting that first Cascade is useful. Getting another becomes more interesting. Reach the final arrow and you're sitting there willing one more combination to appear.
The fact that the Wanted reward changes also helps. You can see exactly what you're trying to reach before the sequence develops.
It's essentially a bounty hunt played out through Cascades, which is a clever use of the Western theme rather than simply sticking a cowboy beside the reels.
Complete the Trail when Wild Shot is displayed and a number of Random Wilds are fired onto the grid. Any resulting wins are then calculated, and the feature itself has the possibility of repeating.
It's the simplest of the four Wild features, but it can be effective on the 5x4 grid, particularly if the added Wilds connect several existing symbols.
There's not much subtlety involved.
The cowboy pulls out his gun and shoots Wilds onto the reels.
It's difficult to accuse the feature name of false advertising.
Wild Whip also introduces Random Wilds, but does so while the reels are still spinning.
The Wilds are placed before the reels settle, after which any resulting combinations are paid. Like Wild Shot, the feature can repeat.
Of the four Wanted rewards, this is probably the least distinctive mechanically because its eventual purpose is very similar to Wild Shot.
The animation makes it more entertaining than simply dropping another collection of Wilds onto a finished grid, but if I had to lose one of the game's four Wild modifiers, this would probably be it.
Wild Dreams uses a Transforming Wilds mechanic.
The cowboy dreams of one particular symbol and every matching example already visible on the reels is transformed into a Wild. Any resulting wins are then paid, with the feature again capable of repeating.
This is much more interesting because its effectiveness depends heavily on what the reels looked like before it activated.
If the chosen symbol is barely represented, the dream can be rather disappointing. If the grid is already packed with it, the transformation can suddenly cover a sizeable chunk of the reels with Wilds.
It's the sort of feature where you can tell whether you've had a good result before the game has even finished transforming everything.
Wild Dynamite is the most dramatic Wanted reward.
The cowboy throws dynamite onto the reels, which explodes to create a Colossal Wild measuring as large as 4x4.
On a 5x4 grid, that's enormous.
A maximum sized Wild can occupy 16 of the game's 20 positions, so there's a very obvious difference between hitting this and being given a couple of additional Random Wilds.
It's also the feature that best fits the game's slightly over the top Western presentation.
If you're going to throw dynamite at the reels, you might as well make a proper hole.
Reach the Wanted poster while Free Spins are displayed and you're awarded 5 Free Spins.
Five initially looks rather mean, but the bonus changes the reels so all regular symbols appear stacked, increasing the possibility of larger groups of matching symbols appearing together.
The Trail also gets more interesting here.
When Free Spins begin, the cowboy can shoot away one or more Trail positions, making the next reward easier to reach. Completing the Trail again can award another 5 Free Spins, allowing a good feature to keep itself going.
I much prefer this to simply being handed ten ordinary Free Spins.
The initial allocation is smaller, but the stacked reels and shortened Trail give you something meaningful to chase once you're inside.
Eligible wins can be taken into a traditional Card Gamble, where correctly predicting the next card allows the prize to be increased.
It's very much an extra rather than an important part of the game, but the old fashioned risk or collect decision actually feels at home in a slot that already owes plenty to classic Novomatic machines.
A Fistful of Wilds is one of those games where the individual mechanics sound less interesting on paper than they are when put together.
The reason is Trail and Wins.
Without it, you've essentially got a decent Cascading slot with several Wild modifiers. With it, every successful drop has another purpose because you're physically moving towards a reward.
That's particularly effective when you're sitting on the final Trail position. A tiny combination that you'd normally barely notice can suddenly be exactly what you wanted because it unlocks Wild Dynamite or Free Spins.
I also like the changing Trail length. Sometimes you're only two winning drops away from the bounty, while another sequence can require five. That prevents every spin from feeling as though it's following an identical route.
The downside is that unsuccessful sequences can end abruptly. Get the first couple of Trail positions lit and then watch the next drop do absolutely nothing and you're straight back to the beginning. It's deliberately designed to create that frustration, but you certainly feel it.
The 95.20% RTP also counts against the game for me. It's confirmed in both current operator implementations and published game rules, and I'd much rather see this sitting around 96%.
Still, the Trail gives the base game a reason to keep your attention rather than simply waiting for a bonus symbol.
Score 8.3/10
The feature package works because almost everything feeds back into the same central chase.
Wild Shot and Wild Whip are the weaker rewards for me. Both essentially provide additional Wilds, and although they're presented differently, they don't feel dramatically different once you've seen them several times.
Wild Dreams is better because the existing grid determines how powerful the transformation can become.
Wild Dynamite is the standout. Seeing a 4x4 Colossal Wild explode across a 5x4 grid provides exactly the sort of payoff you want after successfully completing the Trail.
Free Spins are well designed too. Five spins doesn't look particularly exciting until you realise the symbols become stacked and the Trail itself can be shortened. That means the bonus isn't simply more of the same without the stake.
What I particularly like is that the game doesn't overwhelm you with five completely unrelated bonus systems. The Trail is always the destination. What changes is the bounty waiting at the end.
That's much cleaner design.
Score 8.6/10
The Western theme isn't subtle, but A Fistful of Wilds has enough personality to make it work.
The dusty frontier setting, cowboy characters, revolvers, dynamite and Wanted posters immediately establish what sort of game you're playing. The artwork is sharp and slightly exaggerated rather than trying to look realistic, which suits the more playful nature of the features. Contemporary coverage at launch also highlighted its Wild West presentation and four themed modifiers.
More importantly, some of the visual ideas actually matter to the gameplay.
The Wanted poster isn't just decoration. It's showing you your next reward.
The arrows aren't just part of the Western scenery. They're showing your progress towards it.
The cowboy isn't simply standing beside the reels looking moody either. He shoots Trail positions during Free Spins, dreams symbols into Wilds and throws the dynamite that creates the Colossal Wild.
That makes the theme feel integrated rather than pasted behind a generic slot engine.
Wild Dynamite is easily the visual highlight. Blowing up most of the grid and replacing it with one enormous Wild has considerably more impact than another flashing multiplier appearing in the corner.
It's a good looking game that still holds up nicely four years after release.
Score 8.3/10
Trail and Wins is what gives A Fistful of Wilds its own identity.
I particularly like that you can see both the destination and how difficult it's going to be to reach before the sequence develops. A two step Trail with Wild Dynamite waiting at the end immediately feels different from staring at five arrows with Wild Shot on the Wanted poster.
That changes how exciting individual Cascades feel.
The Wanted poster concept also makes unusually good use of the theme. You're quite literally chasing a bounty, with every successful drop taking you another step towards collecting it.
The four Wild rewards provide enough variation once you arrive. Wild Dreams can completely transform an already promising screen, while Wild Dynamite can occupy almost the entire grid. Free Spins then change things again by introducing stacked symbols and allowing the cowboy to shoot away sections of the Trail.
Wild Shot and Wild Whip are a little too similar for me, and that's probably the biggest missed opportunity. I'd have preferred the fourth modifier to do something completely different rather than having two variations on adding Wilds.
Even so, there's a clear idea running through the whole game, and you could describe how A Fistful of Wilds plays without simply describing a hundred other slots at the same time.
That's a good test of originality.
Score 8.1/10
Overall Rating
8.4/10
A Fistful of Wilds is much better than another cowboy themed slot has any right to be, largely because the Wanted posters aren't just there to remind you that you're in the Wild West.
The Trail and Wins mechanic gives the game its hook. Every Cascading win moves you closer to the Wanted reward above the reels, and with the Trail varying between two and five positions, there's a genuine sense of trying to keep a winning sequence alive long enough to collect the bounty.
The rewards themselves are a mixed bunch.
Wild Shot and Wild Whip are useful but feel a little too similar. Wild Dreams is considerably more interesting because a well timed transformation can turn a screen full of matching symbols into Wilds, while Wild Dynamite is the one I'd most want sitting on the Wanted poster thanks to its potential 4x4 Colossal Wild.
Free Spins are better than their initial allocation of five suggests. Stacked symbols make the reels more dangerous, the Trail can be shortened and another successful chase can add five more spins.
The presentation deserves credit as well. Rather than simply surrounding the reels with cowboy artwork, the game uses Wanted posters, shooting, dynamite and the cowboy himself as part of its mechanics. It feels like somebody designed the features and theme together rather than introducing them for the first time at the office Christmas party.
My main criticism is the 95.20% RTP. That's disappointing for a game I otherwise rate highly and enough to keep Gameplay below the very top scores.
Maximum potential is widely reported at 9,000x the stake, although I've found conflicting figures elsewhere, so that's one specification I'd still flag for verification if you're putting it into the database as a hard value.
Overall, though, this is a strong slot. It's easy to understand, the features arrive through a mechanic that makes sense, and there's a proper feeling of anticipation when you've got one arrow left between you and the Wanted poster.
A Fistful of Wilds doesn't just send you into the Wild West looking for a bounty. It makes you earn it one Cascade at a time.
Overall Rating: 8.4/10.
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