9 Blazing Diamonds Slot Machine: Review & Demo
9 Blazing Diamonds was designed by SpinPlay Games, and as it happened with the previous casino slots from this series, this is also going to be a Microgaming exclusive. The top payouts of the game have been improved, but the theme which was chosen here is going to involve a lot of classics, and it doesn’t end up quite as interesting as it could’ve been with a better story.
You’re going to have 25 active win lines to use, from 5x3 reels. 10,000x the stake, or $250,000, is a big enough jackpot to motivate a lot of players, especially as it can come from a slot machine with medium volatility. Its RTP is expected to be 96.33%. For its major features, 9 Blazing Diamonds has wild symbols, several scatters, a Blazing Wheel, along with the Blazing Diamond jackpot.
9 Blazing Diamonds Betting and Prizes
$0.20 to $25, this is the full range for available bets, which you can choose from. Either way, you are always playing with all 25 lines active.
The exciting payouts are not coming from regular combinations (200x the stake), not even during free spins (up to 800x). It’s the Blazing Diamond bonus, when combined with the right multiplier during free spins, that can trigger a 10,000x jackpot ($250,000 for the maximum bet).
At the same time, the 9 Blazing Diamonds game’s volatility is only a medium. The regular wins are a bit low for that kind of risk, while the jackpot is much higher than you’d expect, so I guess it all evens out. RTP wise, the game will pay back 96.33% of what’s wagered to its players, but that’s for its entire life.
Slot Features
Up to 8x the stake is paid for a single combo, and that’s both from regular symbols and from the game’s wild. That same wild is also a substitute, so lower value symbols can also get help from it when you’re forming combinations.
A major feature in this slot, Blazing Diamond gives it its name actually. With 9 Blazing Diamond symbols present, the game pays a prize worth 2,500x the stake (free spins multipliers can take it higher, to 10,000x). You can get paid with fewer scatters as well, the minimum being 3 scatters for 1x the stake.
The other scatter will show a Blazing Wheel, and will trigger just that type of feature for you. A wheel will spin, potentially giving you a number of diamonds and their jackpot, or access to free spins where up to 4x multipliers are used.
The best case scenario, if you get the free spins, is for 30 rounds to trigger for you, where a 4x multiplier will boost all wins. Since the multiplier can be used on the fixed jackpots as well, this is the point where you can get the most out of the 9 Blazing Diamonds slot.
Theme & Design
Don’t expect a lot from its theme or design. The theme looks like a regular classic, only it will focus more on other types of symbols, rather than fruits. You only get one fruit, the cherry, along with two variants for the Bar logo, a dollar sign, a bell, plus 1, 3 or 3 Lucky 7s. You can add the feature symbols, with the wild, the flaming wheel and the diamond. It will look fine for a game with classic roots, since you don’t have high expectations from it to begin with.
Conclusion
I think that 9 Blazing Diamonds can be appreciated by many, as a game whose risk is not terribly high, and yet it can deliver wins of 10,000x the stake. As unlikely as that might be, it’s still a good reward to aim for, in a game that’s more accessible than others which can offer that much.
Update Aug 2021: Microgaming and SpinPlay Games released another version of the game, called 9 Blazing Diamonds Wowpot. One of the world’s biggest progressive jackpots can now be won in it, but while many of the original features and graphics were kept, the volatility has increased and the RTP has dropped to just 93.30%.
