Nuts & Bolts Slot: High-Tech Robots Just Might Provide A Winning Streak

Robots are popular figures in modern science fiction, from Robbie the Robot of Forbidden Planet, to R2D2 and C3PO of Star Wars fame, to Johnny 5 from the Short Circuit series of films.

This is what the Nuts & Bolts slot plays on. We join two robots, the tall Nuts (who pulls the lever to get the reels spinning when you click the button) and his sidekick Bolts, who appears when certain events are triggered in the slot. Their aim is to turn your spins on this space-age slot into a profitable session.

Overview: Nuts & Bolts

Nuts & Bolts is hard to define in terms of theme — partly sci-fi and partly a celebration of technology.

On the reels is a mix of lower value symbols (cogs, nuts, bolt, and spanner) and higher value symbols (a ray gun, rocket, and microchip). The two highest paying symbols are the Nuts & Bolts characters each of whom pays out 300 coins when landed five across one of the 25 paylines.

Who will the Nuts & Bolts slot appeal to?

This is a difficult question to answer as the theme of the slot is so broad. Certainly people who enjoy science fiction and/or technology and slots that have a little added humor will find plenty to enjoy.

In terms of slot characteristics, this is a 15-reel game, with each reel set in a 5×3 matrix. This is an unusual setup so fans of newer innovative slots will enjoy this game, as will those who enjoy a free spins feature that activates with every winning payline.

Gameplay: Nuts & Bolts

The most unusual aspect of Nuts & Bolts is that it has 15 individual reels, instead of 5×3 reels. However, the 15 reels are arranges in a 5×3 matrix, and paylines are in play across the matrix. So although it is individual reels, the 25 paylines are still worked out in a traditional format.

The symbols are a mixture of low-value symbols and high-value symbols. The easy way to remember them is that the old-school technology symbols are the lower value components (nuts, bolts, cogs, spanners), and the high-tech symbols (rockets, ray guns, microchips) are the higher value symbols.

The setting of the slot appears to be some kind of factory. The primary role of Bolts the robot is to pull the lever to get all 15 of the reels spinning once you have pressed the button to play.

The 25 paylines on the slot are not selectable, but you can wager from $0.01 up to $4 per line. This means you can play from $0.25 up to $100 per spin. The slot will appeal to low and medium rollers in particular.

The gameplay itself is simple. Soon, you’ll start to make sense of the setting and what is actually happening with the two robot characters and the symbols on the reel.

Additional features

The game seems to play like a medium-variance slot initially. Wins are not regular; however, as soon as you trigger a win, the exciting Winning Streak feature kicks in. This is where you can get added value for a win.

On a Winning Streak, every reel not part of the winning payline will be re-spun free of charge. If the reel creates an additional symbol to add to the existing paylines, then that symbol will be held, the value of the win increases, and the reels are spun again. This process continues until you hit a spin where no reel adds a symbol to the current win.

The value of the Winning Streak feature can be hugely variable. Sometimes you won’t hit any additional wins; sometimes you can almost fill the entire reels with winning symbols for a much bigger win across multiple paylines

This feature is essentially a Free Spins feature every time you hit a winning payline. Once you have all three symbols in a column locked, then the lightning pod above the reel will turn a random symbol wild on an unlocked reel, giving you a better chance of hitting successive wins.

Wild symbols are active during all spins and can replace high and low-value symbols to create wins, as well as offering the highest payout in the game of 7,500x your line bet if you land all 15 reels as a wild on a single spin.

Special features: Nuts & Bolts

25 individual reels

Rather than 5×3 reels, Nuts & Bolts has 25 individual reels. This isn’t immediately apparent in the base game, but it’ll clear up during the Winning Streak feature when individual reels are spun on the same column. The reels are still arranged in a 5×3 matrix.

Winning Streak feature

Land any winning payline in the game and trigger the Winning Streak feature. The feature respins any reels not part of the payline win. If you add additional symbols to the win, these reels will be locked and the remaining reels respun again, and so on until you add no more symbols to your win or you cover the entire reel set with winning symbols.

Wilds

Wild symbols can be used to replace high and low-value symbols on the reels. You can also receive additional wilds in the Winning Streak feature. When you lock one entire column of symbols, it will turn one of the unlocked columns symbols wild.

What works?

Winning Streak feature

The Winning Streak feature is undoubtedly the star of this slot. It triggers on every payline win and can retrigger many times to create some massive wins.

Winning Streak wilds

Another great feature during Winning Streak is the wilds generated each time you lock three symbols in a column. This adds another wild to an unlocked column giving you more chances to land a bigger win.

Presentation

Nuts & Bolts looks and feels very different from a typical slot. At first, this may be disconcerting, but the more you play, the more the slot grows on you. When you realize what the robots are doing (which I will not spoil), the slot makes a lot more sense.

What doesn’t?

No multipliers

Multipliers are lacking in this game. Perhaps adding some on wild wins in the base game would have livened this up a little and helped create added value.

No dedicated free spins round

Some people may be put off by the omission of scatter symbols and a dedicated free spins round. However, the Winning Streak feature offers free spins after every win, so you don’t lose out too much. If anything you probably gain from this new feature.

Few big wins

Even with all the Winning Streak options, base game wins are generally small. You can increase them markedly if you hit a decent Winning Streak bonus, but often they peter out after just a couple spins.

The scores

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Graphics and soundtrack: 3/5

The graphics and setting are good. The symbols are cleverly done to represent each stage of technological development. The main characters are nicely animated, and there are a lot of deft touches you discover as you play.

Originality and creativity: 4/5

Although this slot doesn’t have many of the features of a typical slot, the Winning Streak round is a stroke of genius. It gives the game a whole new dimension.

Play value: 2/5

Unfortunately, the one issue I had with Nuts & Bolts was that it just didn’t seem to pay out often enough to warrant additional play. Wins tend to be smaller, and big ones do not come around very often.

Jackpot potential: 3/5

The base game minimum of 300 coins is a very small return, but this can be increased to a 7,500x jackpot prize, which is a very decent amount of money to win, especially if you are wagering more per payline than most.

Repeat play: 3/5

The lack of play value stops a higher mark from being awarded here. In every other area, this slot hits the mark. However, the fact that it can be expensive to play at times means you’ll only play it when you feel you have the cash.

Total score: 15/25

Nuts & Bolts is an innovative slot with one standout feature. Its play value means it can be expensive, but this is a slot with long-term appeal, offering big wins and plenty of excitement.