Sunset Reels Slot Review
They say the early bird gets the worm, but in today's Sunset Reels slot review, we will consider the possibility of the best prizes being available at sundown. Sunset Reels is the creation of Realistic Games and has a 3x3 reel format, 5 paylines, and a bonus element called the ‘Full House Feature’. So, is this slot worth staying up for, or is it better to have an early night? Keep on reading to learn more.
Sunset Reels
Sunset Reels RTP and Wagering
Sunset Reels uses the standard fruit machine 3x3 reel configuration, and there are 5 fixed paylines in play. Winning combinations are formed when three matching symbols land on any of the five paylines that run across the reels in both horizontal and diagonal lines.
As with most Realistic Games slots, the Sunset Reels game has been designed to echo a real-world slot game, meaning that the setup options can be found on the dashboard below the reels. To configure your wager. As all paylines are fixed, this is as easy as picking from the available betting amounts, which are 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00, 2.00, 3.00, 5.00, 10.00, 20.00, 50.00, and 100.00. This means that the minimum wager of 25p equates to 5p per payline, and the upper limit of £100 equates to £20 per payline. No matter how you view it, though, the lowest accepted wager is 25p per spin, which means small budget players will not find much bang for their buck here.
For players in eligible regions (non-UK), autoplay is available, and players can have the reels spin 5, 10, or 25 times automatically, alongside being able to add a stop clause if a certain amount or more is won.
When it comes to the RTP of Sunset Reels, it is predictably low at 95.34%; not that drastically under the market average and in line with many of Realistic Games’ slots, but still not cause for celebration. Unlike some of Realistic’s other games, though, such as Splashtastic!, Sunset Reels has a very high volatility rating, meaning that the conservative RTP feels like more of a challenge to overcome.
The top payout of this slot is truly dismal, with 160x on offer in the base game for 3 red 7’s, which can double to 320x if the Full House Feature comes into play, but more on this later.
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Sunset Reels Symbols and Audio & Video Design
The Sunset Reels slot follows the traditional fruit machine style and, like many of Realistic Games’ creations, is based on mechanical and land-based video slots. The reels themselves even curve slightly to emulate the spinning cylinders of machines gone by. Instead of displaying a simple digital representation of a slot machine cabinet however the game has been overlaid with a highly simplistic illusion of a desert sunset, which brings the slightest element of the Wild West, though this is not continued anywhere else in the slot so seems like a very lazy attempt at theming with the only other nod to a sunset being the very name of the slot.
There is no music in this slot, which could have helped to establish a theme. There are generic slot machine sound effects which can thankfully be easily toggled on and off.
The designs of symbols on the reels are meant to seem like classic-style slot games, with winning symbols being fruits like lemons, cherries, oranges, and watermelons. Bars and Lucky Sevens are two of the most valuable winning symbols. I will applaud the visual quality of the fruits on this slot as they have retained their iconic 2d retro design, and also appear very large on the reels, which I think will unintentionally be beneficial to visually impaired players.
The full paytable for the game is as follows:
Lemon
Three of a kind on an active payline awards 8x the total stake.
Cherries
Three of a kind on an active payline awards 8x the total stake.
Plum
Three of a kind on an active payline awards 8x the total stake.
Orange
Three of a kind on an active payline awards 8x the total stake.
Watermelon
Three of a kind on an active payline awards 40x the total stake.
BAR
Three of a kind on an active payline awards 40x the total stake.
Lucky 7’s
Three of a kind on an active payline awards 160x the total stake.
Sunset Reels Mobile Features
Sunset Reels Bonus Features
There is no wild symbol, no scatter symbol, and no bonus symbol either. There are also no free spins to be found and no gamble feature. There is only one feature the Sunset Reels slot has: the Full House Feature. Let’s take a closer look.
Full House Feature
This feature is very simple, but uses a mechanic not seen in many other slots. Essentially if all the spaces on the reels stop on the same symbol then the Full House Feature activates and doubles the value of the symbol win. Therefore filling the screen with cherries would award 16x the total stake instead of 8 and filling the screen with Lucky 7’s would award the highest payout of 320x instead of its usual 160x.
This feature is in stark contrast with other retro slots, where filling the reels with the same symbol awards the jackpot prize.
Sunset Reels Final Thoughts
The Elton John song states ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’, but in the case of Sunset reels, I think it is time for the sun to set and the stars to come out. It is not the age of this game that has me saying this, as I have reviewed many older ‘legacy’ titles positively before, and even when the compliments have been scant, I am still able to picture a group of players (albeit small) that would enjoy the game. With Sunset Reels, alas, no such luck.
The 95.34% RTP is low, as is the overall payout potential, while the volatility is high, as is the minimum wager at 25p. There is no theme aside from an arbitrary sunset overlay, and while I enjoy the unique nature of the one bonus element, it only highlights what this slot lacks and how shortchanged I feel by the game. Filling the reels of retro slots with symbols normally means an exciting jackpot prize is coming your way, so when, instead of this, the Full House Feature doubles the original prize value like a basic multiplier wild, (offering a maximum of 320x the total stake), you start to wonder if there is any point in playing the game at all.
Sunset Reels was created in a time before the huge surge in online casino and mobile casino gaming, when requirements and expectations were more simplistic, and the competition less fierce. Nowadays, however, I can think of countless better slots to play for each and every part of the Sunset Reels game, so it is clearly time for this game to ride off into the sunset. All in all, it seems like a total eclipse is coming, as I rate Sunset Reels at just 2/10.
Rating: 2.0
If you like Sunset Reels, then check out these other Wild West Theme slot games
Sunset Reels FAQ
Here are some of the most common questions we get asked about Sunset Reels.
