Hit the Route is a new retro-styled slot game from Bgaming, taking players on a road trip through the iconic Route 66. Here Bgaming delivers a perfect blend of eye-catching design, exciting feature set, and generous stats, offering players to enjoy Respins, Free Spins, and loads of Wilds, as well as win a top prize of 15,000x of the bet.
Stretching across all of the United States, Route 66 is a legendary highway, which became one of the most popular roads in the US. People call it the Main Street of America, or the Mother Road, as it runs from Illinois to California, covering almost 4 thousand kilometers. Repeatedly recognized in pop culture, various songs and movies featured Route 66 as a notable symbol of freedom and escape. Hit the Route uses highway 66 as a source of inspiration and perfectly conveys the atmosphere of a secluded road trip.
The actions take place across a 5×4 grid with 40 ways to play, dominating the view. Behind it, you can see the cult Mother Road surrounded by American savannah and massive canyons. The music deserves special mention here as you can choose your preferred soundtrack by switching to Rock, Country, or Relax radion stations.
Playable on any device, Hit the Route allows players to place wagers from 0.4$ to 40$ per spin. When it comes to the stats, Bgaming did an amazing job of balancing its brainchild. Powered by the medium volatile math model, it comes with an exceptionally high RTP of 97%, so you should get your returns fairly often. The maximum potential is also decent and all players can hope for a whopping win of 15,000x of the bet on a single spin.
As we head over to the paytable, we see a bunch of retro-styled symbols split into 2 categories. The pay symbols start on the lower end with A-9 royals, which are followed by motel signs, Route 66 badges, radio sets, and elegant autos. Scoring wins requires matching at least 3 symbols on the same payline, while full combos are achieved by landing 5 instances of the same symbol on a line. Lows are worth from 2.5x to 3.75x of the bet for combinations of 5 symbols, and premiums from 6.25x to 10x.
Hit the Route relies heavily on Wild symbols that assist players in making winning combos. There are multiple Wild symbols included, each able to appear on different game stages. All of them act as substitutes for any other regular symbols, plus pay 25 times the stake for 5-of-a-kind combos. Regular Wilds are represented by flaming eagles, and they can appear both during the base and the bonus games. Moreover, they can land stacked onto the reels, covering either a part of the reel or an entire reel.
Whenever 3 Scatter symbols appear simultaneously on reels 2, 3, and 4, the Free Spins feature is activated. Triggering bonus symbols will transform into Wild girls and become Sticky, and players will proceed to the free round with 5 spins to start. During the Free Spins, new Wild girl symbols also become Sticky and add +1 additional spin, up to 14.
Last are wheel Wilds, which appear in the Mystery Wild feature only. It can trigger at random during the base game to add Wild-wheel symbols to the reels and award Respins. It tosses 4 Wilds to random positions on the grid, and if a new Wild symbol lands, it gives a Respin. All Wild wheels are Sticky for the duration of the Respins, which continue up to the moment when no new Wild symbols drop on the reels.
With a superb design and exciting features, Hit the Route seems to be a perfect option for those who seek a decent action-packed slot with a retro feel to it. Add a generous math model and you get a slot that is likely to make it to the top of players’ favorites. While it fails to offer any innovations to the gameplay, it easily sticks out from the crowd of other slots thanks to its impressive RTP and decent winning potential, which probably will be the main reason why players will feel drawn to spin the reels on it.