Game: Ultimate Wheel Blast
Manufacturer: Aristocrat
Advantage play potential: Low
What Makes it Special: Every time a jackpot wheel is spun and credits are landed, that wedge turns into a jackpot, increasing the chances it’s hit on the next attempt.
Ultimate Wheel Blast, which features a couple of themes, is an evolution of an earlier game series of theirs, Super Wheel Blast. The new game series carries forward a lot of the signature traits of the previous one, with a common trigger that leads to a lot of different bonus options depending on what the wheel spins.
The new game also features a persistent state jackpot wheel feature, which is why I’m looking at it today. I’d like to thank The Slot Cats for bringing this game to my attention on my most recent Las Vegas trip!
Understanding the Game
The Ultimate Wheel Blast games are 5×3 reel sets with 30 lines and a 50 credit bet level. The base game is pretty straightforward, and has the Ultimate Wheel Blast symbols as its wild symbol. They appear on reels 2, 3 and 4.
The game has four progressive jackpots, shown on the top box of the game and available at all bet levels, which is fun.
There are solid line hits when you can get them, but the game has a lot of dead spins. The bonus is where a lot of the value is derived, so make sure your bankroll accounts for this.
Ultimate Wheel Blast Feature
The Ultimate Wheel Blast feature serves as a bonus selector, effectively. The outer reel features a variety of bonus options. The inner wheel features numbers that add a volatility level to many of the bonuses that exist.
To trigger the Ultimate Wheel Blast feature, you must get the Ultimate Wheel Blast feature symbol at least once each in reels 2, 3 and 4.
Wheel Upgrade
When triggered, the wheel will flip around and show higher numbers, improving the quality of many of the numeric-driven bonuses.
Free Games
You’ll get the number of free games that the number of the inner wheel lands on. During the free spins each line hit gets multiplied by a number spun on the inner reels, just to make the bonus a bit more fun and interesting.
X Win
Since reels 2, 3 and 4 have wilds, you’ve won something – the x win feature will multiply that win by the number that lands on the inner wheel.
Mystery Added
A five free spin bonus will get triggered. The initial wheel spin’s internal number will add that many mystery symbols. That inner wheel will spin again for each additional free spin, adding more mystery symbols along the way.
The mystery symbols are added to reels 2, 3 and 4 and reveal themselves after each spin (so there’s no guarantee of a win, but if you line something up it can be strong).
Repeat Win
This feature offers three free spins and an Ultimate Wheel Blast symbol without the words is on the reels. Each time one shows up, you’re paid a multiple of your bet, with the multiple determined by the number in the inner wheel. So if you land 3, each symbol that lands pays 3x your bet.
Wheel Pick
Wheel Pick is a predetermined pick bonus that lets you pick symbols for credits, and when you get three X’s the game is over. Lightning bolts symbolize a pay upgrade for that particular pick, improving the overall bonus payout.
Jackpot Wheel
When landed, you get a spin on one of four jackpot reels. The jackpot reel chances vary based on bet, but you can presume higher bets increase the chances of a higher wheel. The wheel selected will spin and either award credits or the progressive.
If credits are awarded, the space you landed on will change to be a progressive space. Over time, the wheels will fill with progressive spaces until one lands. This increases the chances of getting that progressive, presuming you can access that wheel in the bonus.
Understanding the Advantage
With the persistent state reels giving you increasing chances at the jackpot, this is the potential advantage for the game. However, here’s what it takes to get one:
- You have to get the Ultimate Wheel Blast symbols on reels 2, 3 and 4
- You have to land the Jackpot Wheel wedge
- You have to get the wheel that has a heavily enhanced amount of progressive symbols
- You have to land on the progressive
Doesn’t sound very likely, does it? Theoretically a lot of wedges paired with a pretty high progressive could make it worth pursuing, but you’d have to have a lot of patience, and bankroll, to see it through.
Furthermore, getting the Ultimate Wheel Blast feature to begin with isn’t exactly easy. And then the volatility of most of the options is sufficient that you could have some dud bonuses, further making it difficult to persist.
I think this falls closer into the normal progressive rules: Pick the machine that sets up the best outcome if you do manage to get into a Jackpot Wheel scenario, and maximize your chances accordingly.
This would be very low on my persistent state machine options. But compared to one wedge per wheel when a machine like this is first deployed, there’s definitely a difference between that and one where the progressives haven’t hit in awhile, they’re built up, and most wheels have a lot of progressive wedges, so there is an accumulator scenario happening.
Watch and Learn
RandomSlots is there, as always, with a gameplay video and screenshots of the key payable screens:
The Slot Cats had a bonus on Ultimate Wheel Blast when it first came out:
Finally, here’s KURI Slot with a couple of bonuses on the game, showing other aspects of the game as discussed in the review:
