Viral Spiral: Slot Overview

In the entertainment biz, if a creator does something new, they often tend to do it in a bigger, more sensational way than what came before. In slots, this typically translates to things like outrageous themes, extra reels, more ways to win, and bigger potential rewards. Viral Spiral from Red Tiger is an anomaly. For Viral Spiral, Red Tiger has gone in the opposite direction to make one of the most minimalist games you'll come across.

You might be thinking, okay, here comes another 3x3, 1-payline slot, but that setup is actually quite complex compared to what we find in Viral Spiral. This is a game which doesn't really have paylines, or reels and rows, in a traditional sense. Instead, in the centre of the screen sits one spinning reel, only ever displaying a single symbol. And in the case of symbols, it'll be either a losing symbol or a bonus symbol. The rest of the screen is just as simple, depicting a swirling pattern coloured in predominantly green tones, though it does shift colours during the Bonus Wheel segment of play.

The first thing to do is pick a stake from options starting at 10 p/c, rising to $/€20 a pop. Hit spin, and you either land nothing, or you trigger the Bonus Wheel; it's as simple as that. Statistically, Viral Spiral's default RTP is 95.69%, and its math model is highly volatile. That is essentially all there is to say for now other than be ready for quite a number of dead spins before getting to the good bits.

Viral Spiral: Slot Features

How it works is players hit the spin button, and the reel spins to reveal one of two outcomes – a placeholder symbol which is worth nothing and does nothing, or the Bonus Wheel symbol hits. Landing the Bonus Wheel activates the Bonus Wheel feature, which takes over the screen. The bonus wheel contains 8 segments – 4 losing segments, 3 smaller prize segments, and 1 larger golden coloured prize.

For the first Bonus Wheel spin, the winning segments are larger in size than the losing segments, offering a 75% chance of a win. Subsequent wheels have smaller winning segments, offering a 50% chance of winning. If the Bonus Wheel lands on a prize segment, all prizes are increased on the wheel and players are given the choice of collecting their win or gambling to respin the wheel. If the wheel lands on the golden big prize segment, the prizes on the following wheels are increased by a greater amount than when they land on a smaller prize segment.

If the wheel lands on a non-winning segment, players lose and go back to the base game empty-handed. In all, players can gamble up to 3 times. The minimum reward offered by the wheel is 15x the bet, while the maximum is 5,000x. It is only possible to spin for the maximum 5,000x if the pointer has landed on the golden big prize segments for each spin.

Viral Spiral also comes with a nudge feature, so if the Bonus Wheel symbol doesn't hit in the base game, the reel may be nudged, so it is pushed into view, triggering the feature. Finally, the game supplies a 'best gamble strategy' for interested players. If so, then according to Red Tiger, the best strategy is to gamble twice, then collect the prize.

Viral Spiral: Slot Verdict

Well, it's different; let's give Viral Spiral that. Will it actually live up to its name and go viral, though? It's a bit difficult to see that happening to be brutally honest. No doubt, in the wide spectrum of online gamblers, there will be some players who will lap Viral Spiral up, and the game has its merits. For one, it is the sort of slot a person could easily have running while they're watching telly or fiddling on their phone. Since most of the time there is nothing but dead spins occurring, you wouldn't miss much, if any, of the action if your attention was elsewhere.

Others might be drawn to Viral Spiral's sheer simplicity. It's hard to think of a more pared-back stripped-down game. If one payline is still a little too much, then having one single symbol at a time appear on screen is just the antidote. HarleCoin by Red Tiger came up as a possible alternative, as did Crazy Tooth's Seven 7's, but both of those games are like 4D chess by comparison. Potential in Viral Spiral is good for what it is, and the game can be surprisingly good at hooking you into a seemingly endless tail chase while trying to score the top prize. Since you have to land the Bonus Wheel on the golden top prize segment every single time, actually making it to the 5K happy ending would be quite a trip to witness. Apologies, Viral Spial's downtime provided ample time to kick back and daydream.

There may well be players out there who this game was literally made for, but after a bout of being hammered by losing Bonus Wheel gambles, low value wins, not to mention a flood of dead spins, the novelty of Viral Spiral inevitably wore off.