San Quentin Slot by Nolimit City Gets Parole

The world of online slots is full of candyfloss and bubblegum type games, with pretty colours and wide eyed creatures adorning the reels, and happy music playing in the background.

Then Nolimit City releases San Quentin, and its’ inmates steal the candyfloss, spray offensive graffiti over the pretty colours, smash the stereo playing the happy music, and what becomes of the wide eyed creatures is probably best left unspoken.

This is not your typical slot. The theme is brutal, much more true to life than we generally expect from a slot (there is a shower cutscene…), and not at all light hearted.

It’s a welcome change to the norm and I really liked it, although it will certainly be too strong for some players, which is understandable.

So let’s enter the prison, meet the inmates, and complete our very short sentence at San Quentin.

San Quentin Slot Gameplay

San Quentin Xways Slot Reels

The theme is harsh and gritty, but what about the gameplay?

This one has it all; 3 different wilds, a scatter, a bonus symbol, free spins, multipliers, expanding reels, split symbols, even a buy feature. The game is crammed with features as full as the prison it is set in.

Looking at the symbols, the inmates are the highest paying in the base game; Beefy Dick (stop smirking), Biker Bill, Crazy Joe Labrador, Heinrich the 3rd, and Loco Luis – but the rest of them make for pretty grim viewing too as you can see.

San Quentin XWays Slot Paytable

The game starts with a 5×3 grid plus a row of locked cells above and below the reels. These are the Enhancer Cells and they can be opened by landing a scatter symbol on the corresponding reel. This will open the top and bottom cell of the reel the scatter is on, as well as turning the scatter into a wild.

Inside the enhancer cells, you will find one of four symbol types:

  • Premium Symbol – One of the top 5 paying symbols, the inmates.
  • Razor Split – A single razor will split all symbols on the reel into two, a double razor will split all symbols on the reel into 4. This basically creates double or quadruple the number of symbols per space.
  • XWays – Creates a stack of 4 of the same symbol either from the top or the bottom of the reel. Can occur at both ends at the same time to fill a reel with 8 matching symbols.
  • Wild – Just another wild.

That’s the base game, so what about the main feature?

Lockdown Freespins

San Quentin Slot Lockdown SpinsThis is a different sort of lockdown to the one we are currently used to, and it’s one you won’t get sick of either.

Three or more bonus symbols will trigger Lockdown Spins, and all enhancer cells are open for this one so the grid becomes a 5×5 and the game’s full potential of 46656 ways to win can be reached.

The number of scatters you land will dictate how many jumping wilds are added to the board, and these will stay active throughout the round.

On top of this, one of the top paying symbols will be chosen as a multiplier. The number of spins and the value of the multiplier is decided at random.

San Quentin XWays Slot Freespins Round

If a jumping wild lands on a razor split then the win multiplier will double, and the max multiplier is 512x, and you will need it if you hope to reach the max win potential (more on that below).

There is a buy feature included with this game too which can actually increase the RTP:

Cost Jumping Wilds RTP
100x Stake 1 96.26%
400x Stake 2 96.26%
2,000x Stake 3 96.95%

I’m not generally a fan of buy features, I certainly wouldn’t go for the biggie, but I had decent luck with the lowest cost option when I played.

Win Potential and Volatility

San Quentin XWays Slot

Nolimit City rank this game 10/10 on the volatility scale, so it is as brutal to play as the world it is set in, but that all ties in rather nicely in my opinion; extreme volatility, an extreme theme, and extreme win potential.

Oh, did I not mention the win potential? There is a max win of 150,000x in this game! That’s huge. The max bet is £32 and that means the maximum win from a single spin is £4.8 million.

Worth doing time for? Your call.

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