Super Hot Bingo
Most online bingo games are pretty simple affairs. You get some cards, some numbers are drawn, and you either make your winning patterns or you don’t. There are certainly plenty of variations on this basic theme, but it is rare to come across anything that might actively confuse players.
This is also the case with most of the games from Patagonia Entertainment. But we’ve found an exception in one of their titles: Super Hot Bingo. While the general gameplay of this version is just like the company’s other games in this line, there are some elements that are just a bit mysterious – and not in a way that was intended by the developer. The result is a game that can be fun to play, but which we’re not even sure we completely understand ourselves.
Heating Up
To start with, the basics of Super Hot Bingo are as straightforward as any other bingo-based drawing game that you may have encountered at an online casino. At the start of the game, you’ll see four tickets, each of which is made up of 15 numbers. These cards feature three rows of five numbers each, and are patterned (like the rest of the game) after the 90-ball variant which is mostly popular outside of North America.
Players have two main ways to customize their wagering size. First, you may choose how many tickets you’d like to play. While four are displayed at first, you can toggle each one individually by clicking on it, turning them on and off at your leisure. There’s also a bet size option at the bottom-left corner of the screen. This will allow you to set exactly how many credits you are playing each round (divided evenly among each of your cards). If you’d like to change the numbers you’re aiming for, the New Tickets button will generate a new set of cards for you. There are also options for instantly making a maximum bet, and a turbo setting that makes the game move at a faster pace.
Once you’re ready to begin, hit the play button. This will send a series of balls – each featuring a number – down a shoot into the bottom of the screen. These same numbers will be marked off on your tickets, with a slight delay occurring to recognize any winning patterns you might have achieved. In total, 33 balls will be released during this portion of the game.
In total, there are four prize patterns that you can potentially make. On each card, these prizes are cumulative: if you make one pattern, and then later another, you’ll get all the prizes rather than just the biggest one. These patterns are also very easy to spot, making it easy to realize if you’re close to a win. The payout structure is as follows:
- Four Corners: 1x
- One Line: 4x
- Two Lines: 100x
- Bingo (Three Lines): 1,000x
It will often be the case that the initial ball release will leave you close to a few bigger wins. That’s not necessarily a problem, though, as this game allows you to purchase extra balls if you wish to do so. At the top of the screen, you will see the price of the next ball, which will vary in cost depending on the current status of your tickets. If there are no potential wins out there, the next ball could be virtually free; be one spot away from filling a card, though, and you can expect to pay a heavy premium.
These extra balls are offered one at a time. After each one, you’ll have the choice of hitting the no button to end the round, or taking the next extra number. No matter what, however, there is a maximum of 10 extra balls each round.
Too Hot to Handle
There are a few additional features that are interesting in Super Hot Bingo, each of which could potentially improve your chances or provide bigger payouts. This is where the game starts to get a bit confusing, however: not so much because the features themselves seem particularly complicated, but rather due to a lack of documentation (either in the game or elsewhere) to explain exactly how they work.
First, there’s the jackpot payout that is common to all of the bingo games from Patagonia. As usual, you’ll need to play for at least three credits on all four cards in order to be eligible to win this prize. In the rules provided within the game, there is no reference to the rules for winning the jackpot, however. It might reasonably be assumed that the rules are similar to other games in this line – meaning you would have to make a full card before buying any extra balls – and Patagonia’s website suggests that this is the case. But there is another unusual and related tidbit: On each round, a jackpot symbol will appear over one of the balls drawn (almost always one of the last few to fall). What does this marking mean? We’re not sure, and we don’t know where to find out.
A slightly less mysterious feature is the promise of free extra balls. Occasionally, you’ll find that one of the extra spots on the chute will be covered by the word FREE. This extra ball will cost you nothing to buy, if you continue the round that far. Often, this can be the first or second extra number, making it worthwhile to take it for the shot at bigger prizes.
Finally, there’s the bonus round. To be honest, we’re still not sure exactly how this second-screen feature is reached, though the game once again leaves us with some tantalizing clues. The final free ball spot features the word “bonus,” suggesting that it is attached to this special round. We’ve also seen graphics promoting the game that show a number on one of the player’s tickets marked with the same BONUS word. However, nowhere is there any information on how this relates to the special mini-game.
All that said, the bonus itself seems rather straightforward once you get into that extra round. The game features 12 spots in a grid, and players may choose any they like in order to reveal rewards of instant credits. Players can continue picking until they fail to uncover a prize, at which point they collect their earnings and the game ends.
Strategic Decisions Heat Up Gameplay
We’ve gotten used to talking about how there is no strategy involved in these types of games, since the numbers picked and the patterns made are all up to chance. However, players can make decisions on whether or not to buy extra balls. And while we’ve only quickly noted that you shouldn’t do this in other Patagonia titles, the situation isn’t quite as clear in this game.
The key difference here is the inclusion of the occasional free extra balls that are awarded to players. It’s still true that the price that is asked for extra numbers is too high to be worthwhile. But if you only have to purchase a single ball in order to reach a free one, the price isn’t that bad; if you have any shot at making a good payday, it will usually be worth getting two balls for one purchase. And, of course, it’s always worth taking the first extra ball if it is a free one! If the freebie is further down the line, the value in going after it can vary; try to take the time to figure out how much you’ll have to risk to get to that ball and what the potential rewards are to determine whether or not the purchase is worth the cost.
Interesting, But Unclear
As you might expect, we have some mixed feelings about Super Hot Bingo. The game does have an intriguing mix of simplicity and variety: there are fewer winning combinations to worry about than in the majority of Patagonia’s bingo games, while also containing enough special features to stop things from getting boring too fast. There’s not much of a theme, but the presentation is still rather attractive and the interface is easy to navigate – all positives.
Unfortunately, much of this is betrayed by the fact that certain aspects of the game are unclear. Some players may never even notice that anything was amiss if it wasn’t pointed out to them, but eventually, we’re sure questions will be asked, especially when it comes to the very prominent “jackpot ball.” None of this is enough to make this game unplayable by any means, of course. However, with even this same company offering other games that are far more clear on their rules, we’d recommend trying any of those titles rather than this one.
