Satsumo's Revenge

Martial arts aren’t something that is all too popular with slots, but it appeals to a great deal of us none the less. We recall training some form or another when we were younger, we could see it on TV and if you can trust cartoons, there are so many variants of kung-fu that it would take you hundreds of years to master them all. Must be why all the teachers are so old and have such rocking beards. That said, we’re not too sure on this sensei. Sure, his beard fits the bill, but apparently all his students are oversized fruits!

So, while you’re marvelling at the glorious sight of seeing a menacing strawberry with an eyepatch, you might miss that Satsumo’s Revenge has a 5×3 playing field with 25 fixed paylines. Wilds appear as normal, but if they land on the fifth reel, the grandmaster throws additional Wilds and even multipliers on the reels. And if you win two Scatters on the first and fifth reel at the same time, you’ll enter an epic duel of Rock-Paper-Scissors which allows you to gain a bunch of sticky Wilds and free spins. Well, maybe it’s not an epic duel, but the prize is awesome either way!

All joking aside, the slot has good graphics and the fruits do have personality attached to them. The backdrop of a traditional Japanese house is a nice touch, and you can tell Playtech put plenty of effort into this game just by checking out the super smooth animations on Sensei himself. We quite like the user interface, as well. It isn’t eye catching, the dark colours help it blend into the background so you barely even notice it, while all the information is cleanly labelled so you can adjust everything at any given time.

On the gameplay side of things, Satsumo’s Revenge is a medium volatility title with an RTP of 91.6%, which we have to admit, raised some concerns for us. In an era where standard RTPs float around the 95% to 97% mark, 91.6% sits way below that. However, either we were super lucky, or the game seems more inclined towards people who hold out over a longer period of time. We managed to get a sizeable win that sits at 154,4x the wager, and we feel the biggest result of such a wide disparity of opinions is the Rock-Paper-Scissors free spins.

This special feature can be very difficult to activate and just as difficult to wrangle a good win out of. Getting good scores demands decent placement of the sticky Wilds, and then getting plenty of draws to get big wins as a result. However, this doesn’t always happen, and if you don’t have a lot of luck with it, it certainly can explain why the RTP is as low as it is. You can play Satsumo’s Revenge for as little as $0.25 up to $500, so no matter what level of gambler you are, you can try this out for yourself

It has some poker card symbols. These are colourful and look nice, but they don’t really do much to make them stand out. Outside of them, however, the fruit martial artists are certainly weird, but they ooze personality. Plum ninjas, one real angry lemon, a menacing strawberry with an eyepatch – we have to wonder just what was going through the artist’s mind as he was designing these. There are two bonuses to speak of. The first comes out when a Wild appears on the fifth reel.

The grandmaster sitting at the side can then throw up to three shuriken on the reels. It will either make one, two, or three full reel Wilds in total appear. In addition to this, one of those full reel Wilds can be hit twice, which will add a multiplier to it. The second special feature is the Rock-Paper-Scissors one. You need Scatters to appear on the first and fifth reel, which will have two samurai fruits fighting each other in a game of rock-paper-scissors. If you win the round, you get a free spin and a sticky Wild placed somewhere on the reels. If there’s a draw, you just get the free spin, and if you lose, you don’t get anything. Both samurai have five lives, and the first one to take the opponents five lives wins. If you win the feature, you get an additional free spin as a reward.