Penalty Blast

Penalty Blast Slot Review

A bearded keeper in a green-and-yellow shirt stands pitch-side with a ball tucked under one arm, floodlight gantries stacked against a pale sky behind him. Penalty Blast does something most football slots don’t: it hands the entire game to its goalkeeper, so every prize on the board is a ball either caught or dropped rather than a payline that happens to be dressed in boots and trophies.

Belatra has committed to that idea fully, and it’s the making of the game. It runs at 96.00% RTP with medium-high volatility and a 10,000x win ceiling, and it shares its loud, crowded energy with sister titles like Blast the Bass and Foxy Eggs. When the ball drops, you’ll know exactly what it’s worth.

Base Game & Features

The grid is irregular, roughly six columns wide and six or seven rows deep depending on where you measure, and wins cascade rather than sit on fixed paylines. Winning clusters clear from the grid and new symbols drop into the gaps, so a single spin can chain several results together.

Down the side runs the part that gives the game its shape: a diagonal catching ladder, climbing from the keeper’s gloves at the bottom towards the top corner of the grid. Each tile on that ladder carries a fixed multiple:

• 2x – the lowest catching tile, nearest the keeper’s gloves
• 50x – one step up the diagonal
• 250x – mid-ladder
• 500x – the second-highest tile
• 1000x – the top of the ladder, and the ball the whole game is built around

A catch on the bottom tile is a modest result; a catch near the top of the ladder is a session-changing one. The gaps between the tiles are steep, and the game never hides that. On a medium-high volatility slot, most of the paying happens on the lower rungs while the upper ones stay live possibilities.

Catch the Balls

Balls drop towards the keeper during play, and a catch pays whatever tile the ball reaches. The 1000x ball is the prize the screen is organised around, and every other catch on the ladder pays its own multiple. The keeper isn’t a spectator here – his reach is what the ladder measures, and each ball in play is a live result.

The mechanic works in one step. A ball appears on the grid, it moves along the diagonal towards a tile, and the tile it lands on is the multiple paid. There’s no second stage, no pick screen, no gamble on the result – the ladder price is settled the moment the ball stops. That directness is unusual for a ladder feature, and it’s what keeps every drop watchable.

Symbols and Clusters

The symbol set stays on theme throughout. Boot, trophy, stopwatch, whistle and clipboard symbols tumble alongside the royals, and connected clusters of five or more form the wins between catches. The patterns aren’t restricted to straight rows – diagonal connections count, which suits a grid this shape.

• Boots, trophies, stopwatches, whistles and clipboards form the themed symbols
• J royals and the rest of the letter set fill the lower clusters
• Clusters of five connected symbols are the standard winning shape
• Green FS tiles carry the bonus trigger
• Ball symbols feed the keeper’s ladder

Cascades are what keep the base game moving between ladder hits. A cleared cluster brings fresh symbols down, and any new cluster that forms pays again. A cascade can also land an FS tile or a ball in the same drop, so one spin occasionally does the work of three.

That’s the rhythm of the base game in miniature. Cluster wins arrive in bursts, the ladder sits alongside as the bigger prize, and the FS tiles tick up quietly in the background until the bonus arrives. Nothing in the base game competes with the keeper for attention.

Hot Mode and Bet+100%

There’s a stake modifier on offer, and it’s priced openly. Double the bet and free games and Hot Mode both arrive roughly three times as often. Hot Mode is the state where the ladder’s bigger tiles come into range, so the doubled stake buys frequency, not value – the tiles pay what they pay either way.

A player on the standard stake sees the same ladder, the same 1000x ball and the same free games – just less of them. The modifier is a tempo control rather than a tier system, and it’s honest about being one. Whether that tempo is worth double the outlay depends on how long you plan to sit in this particular stadium.

Penalty Blast Free Spins & Bonus Features

Green FS tiles land on the grid during base play and drive the bonus side of the game. Collect enough of them and the free games round begins, with the keeper’s ladder still live throughout.

The round is where the ladder matters most. Hot Mode overlaps with it, and the two together are what the doubled-stake option is selling, so the bonus round is the natural home for both.

• FS tiles land during base play and cascades alike
• Free games run on the same grid, ladder included
• Hot Mode raises the frequency of the ladder’s upper tiles
• Bet+100% roughly triples how often free games and Hot Mode arrive

Structurally, the free games round keeps everything from the base game and raises the density. The same clusters pay, the same cascades run, the same ladder catches – but with the bonus frequency boosted and Hot Mode in the mix, more of each spin’s drops carry something worth watching.

Medium-high volatility shapes how that plays out in practice. The ladder’s lower tiles do most of the day-to-day paying, while the 1000x ball and the upper reaches of the 10,000x ceiling stay rare events. The free games round doesn’t change that arithmetic – it concentrates it, stacking more ladder opportunities into a shorter run of spins.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.6/10

Playing Penalty Blast means watching one man’s gloves for most of the session, and that’s exactly why you’d pick it: every result you care about runs through the keeper, and you always know what a catch is worth before it happens. No other football slot we can think of gives its keeper the whole paytable.

That’s the strength too – the ladder is a real mechanic with five honest prices on it, not a meter filling towards a vague promise. The weakness is everything between the drops. The cascade play is standard cluster work, and the boots-and-trophies symbols don’t give it a personality of its own, so stretches of the game pass by unremarkably.

It suits players who like one clear mechanic they can watch working, and who’d take a well-built keeper over a crowded feature list. Anyone after constant eventfulness will find the quiet spells long. For the patient, there are worse afternoons than this stadium.

Penalty Blast FAQs

• What is the RTP of Penalty Blast?

  The RTP is 96.00%, which sits right at the industry average for an online slot.
• Is Penalty Blast high volatility?

  It’s a medium-high volatility game, so wins can be sizeable but you’ll need some patience between the bigger ladder hits.
• What is the grid size of Penalty Blast?

  The game uses an irregular cascading grid, roughly six columns by six or seven rows, with a diagonal ball-catching ladder column running alongside it.
• How does the Catch the Balls feature work?

  Balls fall towards the goalkeeper and the ladder beside the grid, with catching tiles marked 2x, 50x, 250x, 500x and 1000x. Catching a ball pays the tile it lands on, and the 1000x ball is the top prize on the ladder.
• What does Bet+100% do in Penalty Blast?

  It doubles your stake in exchange for free games and Hot Mode arriving roughly three times as often. It’s a permanent bet modifier rather than a one-off purchase.
• What is Hot Mode in Penalty Blast?

  Hot Mode is the state where the ladder’s bigger catching tiles come into range more readily. It arrives roughly three times as often when you play with Bet+100% active.
• How do you trigger free games in Penalty Blast?

  Green FS tiles land on the grid during base play, and collecting them starts the free games round. They can arrive during cascades too, so a single spin can collect more than one.
• Do the free games use the same ladder as the base game?

  Yes. The free games round runs on the same grid with the same diagonal catching ladder live throughout, so every ball in the bonus is worth the same as it is in the base game.
• When is Penalty Blast released?

  Penalty Blast’s release date is 24 September 2026.
• Who makes Penalty Blast?

  Penalty Blast is made by Belatra, a studio whose other titles include Blast the Bass, Foxy Eggs and Lucky Barrel Tavern.
• What is the maximum win on Penalty Blast?

  The maximum win is 10,000x your stake.