La Bomba

Side City Studios' video slot La Bomba has a type of theme that stands out as being fairly unique. It's released through NYX and gives players a gorgeous visual aesthetic that has a lot of appeal with a classic Spanish town in the background and a lot of related symbols on the reels.

Despite this being a great-looking title, the bottom line is that this video slot is really about the gameplay. The main payouts and bonus feature are tied together through the same symbol, which increases the volatility a bit, but the pay table is balanced enough from top to bottom that the swings don't get out of hand and instead serve to add an additional level of excitement.

Betting and Layout

This game's format has five reels with three horizontal rows of symbols. A static set of 25 paylines extend across this grid and pay from the left side to the right side only. You can choose from 16 total bet sizes that range from $0.25 to $625 per spin, but some casinos will limit the maximum to something closer to the $125 or $250 options. This won't affect very many people at all, but it's important to know for high rollers.

In what follows, all of the payouts will be listed as line bet win equivalents. If you want to see how much is being wagered on each line, you can check at the bottom of the bet selection screen in the options window. This can help to avoid any confusion over what to expect when you take down a win.

The Bomb Wild Symbol and Payouts

The wild symbol for this game is the bomb on a blue background. It makes an appearance on the middle three reels only, but it helps to get plenty of extra wins that you would have otherwise missed out on. You'll notice a mouse playing with a bomb across the bottom of the screen if you want a laugh, but it's the ones on the reels that can give you serious wins.

This wild also acts as a limited scatter symbol for the purpose of payouts. Get three of a kind at once, and you'll get a very solid win of 75x. Since they only appear on the second, third and fourth reel, it's not possible to get more than three of a kind on the reels at the same time.

Free Spins Feature

Getting three of the bomb symbols at once also triggers a free spins bonus round. You'll start with five free spins. Special trigger amounts are listed over the second, third and fourth reels. You'll be given those amounts as instant payouts for getting one, two or three of the bomb symbols on the reels at the same time during the free spins mode. You'll also get an additional free spins for two of them on the reels at once, and three of a kind adds two more free spins. This is a balanced feature that steps outside of the box just enough to make it particularly interesting.

Other Payouts and Prizes

There's a beautiful woman with a flower and her hair who holds a bomb, and she's the highest-paying symbol that this game has to offer with a 500x prize for five of a kind. You'll notice that the pay table is very flat through the middle wins with 250x prizes for five of the bell symbol and 200x for the Venus fly traps or five of the cactus symbols with flowers on a golden background.

Four types of explosives round out the lower half of the pay table. A 125x win is yours for five of a kind wins of the barrel or dynamite. This drops just slightly to 100x for five of a kind of the bottle or cherry bomb symbol.

Overview

The key to this game is the balance in the volatility between the flat pay table and the value packed into the wild bomb symbol. It creates a fun dynamic in the La Bomba slot, and Side City Studios definitely did a solid job with making sure that the same motif is held throughout the entire game. The style of graphics is also a lot of fun, and you'll notice plenty of small details and animations if you take a few moments to really check it out with fresh eyes.