Wheels Of Flame Slot Review
Three gold-rimmed wheels rise above the reels like a shrine’s dials, fire streaking their rims against swirling violet filigree. That trio is the whole of Wheels Of Flame: every prize worth having sits on the largest wheel, and the game’s real hook is that even a modest trigger can climb there.
The frame around them is heavy gold with red inlay, twisted scrollwork and a deep navy backdrop, the jewel-toned sort of build that suits a shrine. Playtech fill it in the same fire-and-fortune register as Fire Blaze: Jinns Moon and Hot Gems Xtreme, with Buffalo Blitz the older classic.
The numbers are cooler than the artwork: an RTP of 90.99%, a 5×4 grid and 30 fixed paylines. That’s well below what most modern slots return, so the wheels have a lot of earning to do.
Symbols and Pays on the 5×4 Grid
Thirty fixed paylines cross the five reels and four rows, and all wins pay left to right, with only the highest combination counting on each line. There’s no scatter to hunt. The entire bonus structure hangs on Flame symbols instead, covered below.
The Wild substitutes for all symbols and sits at the top of the paytable, level with the Phoenix. It pays the same as the bird does, so a wild line is the best line on the board. Two of a kind is enough for it to pay, which no other symbol manages.
The picture symbols carry the personality here: a Phoenix, a crowned woman, a pink gem, a silver tiara, a ring and an amulet, in descending order of value. Values below are as printed on the game’s paytable:
- Wild / Phoenix – 1.00 for two, 12.50 for three, 25.00 for four, 75.00 for five
- Crowned Woman – 7.50, 17.50, 50.00 for three, four and five
- Pink Gem/Shell – 6.00, 12.50, 37.50
- Silver Crown/Tiara – 5.00, 10.00, 25.00
- Ring – 3.50, 8.50, 20.00
- Pendant/Amulet – 2.50, 7.50, 17.50
- A, K, Q, J – 1.00, 5.00, 12.50
Two things stand out from that ladder. The top pays are worth chasing: five Wilds or Phoenixes at the quoted bet returns 75.00, more than the royals pay for a five-of-a-kind by a factor of six. Everything from the Ring down is pocket change by comparison.
The Phoenix is also the game’s stacking symbol, filling whole reels when it lands in force, and stacked wilds appear the same way. Four premium royals and four picture symbols round out the board, with a steep drop from the top two pays to everything beneath them.
That top-heavy spread is what gives the stacked reels their teeth. A reel full of Phoenixes with a wild or two alongside is where the base game’s real money lives.
Flame Symbols and the Wheels of Flame
On any spin, any symbol can arrive as a Flame symbol. The marking isn’t limited to premium icons; a royal can carry the flame as easily as the Phoenix can. Land three or more adjacent Flame symbols on a single row and you trigger the corresponding wheel: three Flame symbols unlocks the 3 Flame Symbol Wheel, four the medium wheel, five the large one.
Each wheel spins for one of four outcomes, and the size of the wheel you reached determines what’s on offer:
- Free Games – up to 50 on the five-in-a-row wheel
- Respin with up to 12 Wilds – the ’12 WILDS’ segment on five in a row
- Cash Prize up to 500x – the ‘X500’ segment on five in a row
- A spin of the next sized wheel – the four-in-a-row outcome, stepping you up
The smaller wheels carry humbler segments. A three-in-a-row spin can land 4 Wilds, 5 Wilds, a 5-spin award, 8x or 15x prizes, or nothing at all – the zero segment is a real outcome, so a trigger isn’t a guarantee of anything. The respin with 12 Wilds works the other end of the scale: wilds dropped across a 30-line grid can complete several lines at once, which is what makes both wild segments worth more than their labels suggest.
The ladder structure is the point of the whole thing. Three Flame symbols rarely ends the story, because the wheel can promote you to the next one up and everything resets at a higher level. A spin that begins at the bottom can, in principle, climb all the way to the large wheel and its 500x segment without ever landing five adjacent Flame symbols on your own.
Free Games
The Free Games feature is triggered through the wheels rather than by its own symbols, and the wheel you were spinning when you won it sets the scale:
- Small wheel – 5 or 8 Free Games
- Medium wheel – 8 or 12 Free Games
- Large wheel – 12, 24 or 50 Free Games
Fifty free spins from a single wheel segment is the biggest attraction of the whole game. Reaching it requires five adjacent Flame symbols on a row, then a favourable spin of the largest wheel, so the path is narrow by design.
Even the floor of the ladder isn’t negligible. Five free games from a three-symbol trigger is a modest return, but the wheels that award Free Games can also award the other three outcomes, so every climb is a fresh spin of the same structure rather than a guaranteed route to free spins. The middle of the ladder overlaps deliberately: eight free games is reachable from both the small and the medium wheel, so promotion doesn’t always change the prize on offer.
Feature Bet Mode
Feature Bet mode is a toggle in the main game: switch it on and your total bet increases in exchange for a higher chance of landing Flame symbols. It’s the game’s own answer to the frustration of watching the wheels sit cold: pay more per spin and the door to them opens wider.
How much the stake rises by isn’t spelled out beyond the increase itself, so the honest read is that this is a heat control rather than a priced extra. With the RTP already sitting at 90.99%, paying a premium to chase the feature faster is a decision to weigh carefully rather than toggle on reflex.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 6.5/10
This is a game about climbing. The reason to pick it ahead of plainer five-reelers is that one row of three marked symbols starts an ascent that can end, two promotions later, at 50 free spins or a 500x prize. Few triggers anywhere do that much with so little.
The ladder is the strength, and it’s a real one. Because a wheel’s prize can be a spin of the next wheel up, even the bottom rung keeps a live route to the top, and the overlapping middle means no promotion is ever wasted. Weak triggers still matter here, which is rarer than it should be.
The weakness is the price of admission. A 90.99% return is low by any modern measure, the paytable falls away steeply below the Phoenix and the Wild, and Feature Bet charges extra to reach the wheels sooner. This is one for the wheel-chasers and Playtech loyalists who enjoy a long build; anyone who reads the return figure first has already made their choice. It’s a climb worth making with the odds in plain view.
Wheels Of Flame FAQs
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What is the RTP of Wheels Of Flame?
The RTP of Wheels Of Flame is 90.99%, which is well below what most modern slots return. -
How do you trigger the Wheels of Flame feature?
Any symbol can appear as a Flame symbol on any spin. Landing 3, 4 or 5 adjacent Flame symbols on a single row triggers the corresponding 3, 4 or 5 Flame Symbol Wheel. -
What can the Wheels of Flame award?
The wheels can award Free Games (up to 50), a respin with up to 12 Wilds, a cash prize of up to 500x, or a spin of the next sized wheel. The biggest prizes sit on the 5-in-a-row wheel, and every wheel also carries a zero segment, so a trigger doesn’t guarantee a prize. -
How many Free Games can you win in Wheels Of Flame?
The small wheel awards 5 or 8 Free Games, the medium wheel 8 or 12, and the large wheel 12, 24 or 50. -
What does Feature Bet mode do in Wheels Of Flame?
Switching Feature Bet mode on increases your total bet in exchange for a higher chance of landing Flame symbols. You can toggle it on or off in the main game. -
What does the Wild symbol do in Wheels Of Flame?
The Wild substitutes for all symbols and is tied with the Phoenix as the highest-paying symbol on the paytable. It’s also the only symbol that pays for two of a kind. -
How many paylines does Wheels Of Flame have?
Wheels Of Flame has 30 fixed paylines on a 5×4 grid. All wins pay left to right, and only the highest win pays on each line. -
Who makes Wheels Of Flame?
Wheels Of Flame is made by Playtech. Its release date is 19 January 2023.
