Fast Colt Slots
Depending on what interests you, the phrase ‘Fast Colt’ can mean a few things. It could refer to a rapidly moving horse, a quickly drawn six-shooter or even a type of Mitsubishi car being driven at full speed. But the Fast Colt video slot from DLV is all about the Wild West, with a couple of references to guns to give us a clue about the title. The action fires up across five reels, crossed by ten paylines, which are set against a beautiful backdrop of the American West, where we see the tall sandstone towers that every Western themed slot machine seems to be unable to resist adding to the design. Original or not, it looks great and the style is highlighted by a frame around the reels that looks like a Native American carving, as well as the high-quality symbols of cowboys, Indians, beautiful belles and a grizzled lawman.
Players could be saying Howdy to some rewarding bonus features. Along with wild substitutions, and a gamble round, you could ‘trigger’ a free spins feature, where shots at a Wanted poster can add on extra games and win multipliers. It’s a unique way to collect extra coins in a slot machine that follows a very popular topic, even if horse-lovers and car enthusiasts may be a bit let down by the theme.
Although many punters might not be familiar with DLV, this Latvian company is well-known in the Baltic region and has been in operation since the mid-1990’s. Their collection of online casino games has started to raise their profile, so we’ll review Fast Colt to see if it’s going to hit a bullseye or be way off target.
Saddle up!
While the commonly-used playing card symbols will create the lower-value winning combinations, each has been designed to look like embossed leather to blend in with the theme. You’ll need at least three of a kind on adjacent reels from the left side across a payline to win anything, with prizes ranging from five times, 20x and 100x the line stake when either the J or Q appear, to double those amounts with the K and A icons.
We have five character symbols who will reward you with the higher prizes when they land across paylines, and while the guy in a bowler hat, who we guess is the busy undertaker, or the Indian chief will need to land on at least reels one, two and three to be worth anything, the rest of the cast only need to land on at least the first two reels.
A creepy-looking outlaw and the woman in an over-tight corset, carrying a six-shooter, will both pay out a high limit of up to 500x your line stake. The sheriff, in his somewhat flamboyant red and white shirt, blue cravat and manicured facial hair, is a wild symbol. When he’s in the right places to complete winning lines of symbols, he will be able to act as any other, apart from the badge and you still get paid as if you had a continuous line of the same symbol type. He’s also by some margin, the top-paying symbol, returning wins of between 10x and 5,000x your line bet, depending on how much of a payline he’s seen across.
Firing up free Games
The sheriff’s badge is a scatter symbol that doesn’t actually pay anything right away, but when it’s seen anywhere on reels one, three and five at once, the special Colt Bonus free spins begin. Although just 10 free games are awarded, before they begin, you select one spot on either reel two, three or four which will become a Wanted poster. Any time a character symbol stops in this position, you are given a spin of the Colt barrel and a shot get fired at the reels, awarding bet multiplier prizes or extra free spins.
If it’s the undertaker or Indian chief, you collect between 1x and 10x the total bet, or get three extra spins added to the round. The outlaw or girl will reward you with either a multiplier of between 2x and 25x, or five extra spins. The sheriff in the Wanted poster is worth between 5x and 25x your triggering bet, or 10 more free spins will be added on to the end of the current bonus round.
The luck of the draw
DLV slot machines all come with special gamble features that can be played after any winning spin. To stick with the Wild West theme, Fast Colt sets this feature against a backdrop of the township. Prizes will be doubled if you correctly click red or black buttons to either side of a face down playing card as the star in the middle of it flashes between the two colours. You can play again if you get it right and keep on going for a long as you dare, but if your itchy trigger finger clicks the wrong colour, the round ends and you lose the initial prize as well as any gamble gains made so far.
Betting Options
Between one and 20 coins can be placed on each payline and while it’s possible to activate any number of the lines, unless all 10 are in play, you’ll miss out on wins that land across inactive ones. At higher stakes, you will win correspondingly bigger prizes, so it could be worth going for the maximum bet and trying to claim the biggest bounties.
Free Fast Colt video slots are provided by DLV if you want to practice, but it’s always better to be quick on the draw and get playing for real cash. Click the Autoplay button to see the games play out on their own for up to 100 times, plus there’s a quick spin mode to speed things up and a button to turn on the sound effects. Unfortunately, there’s nothing even vaguely Western about the soundtrack and we found ourselves muting it pretty quickly.
Way out West
Among the myriad of Wild West themed slots, there’s games that have highly realistic symbols to make them look like movies, and at the other end, we have slots with fun styles that could remind players of Road Runner cartoons.
The Wild Guns slot from Wazdan is definitely in the first category, with stunning 3D graphics that bring the five reels to life. Guns, badges, gold bars and whiskey bottles all appear, while random wild symbols can be added in any spin, doubling the value of any lines that they help to complete. Up to 30 free spins can be claimed and this is another game where you can double winnings on the turn of a card in the gamble feature.
Mosey on over to the comic reels of Freaky Cowboys, by GamesOS, to find weird and wonderful characters like a cowboy cacti, blue sheriff and what looks like a pistol-packin’ chilli. A wild badge symbol completes winning combos, while the Shoot for Loot mini game awards prizes for each bandit you gun down.
Wanted, Preferably Alive
DLV has given the Fast Colt slot machine gameplay and features that can bring some impressive rewards. It’s a good-looking game where stylish symbols and some high-quality animations make even the base games a pleasure. Once the special bonus spins are in play, it becomes a unique slot that can treat you to far more than just the initial 10 free spins when these colourful characters line up behind the Wanted posters.
You can play on Android powered smartphones and tablet computers, as well as iPhones, iPads and Windows devices at casinos that carry the DLV range.
