Narcos Mexico Slot Review

02/04/2022 | Categories: Red Tiger Slots | Published by: Joe | Last updated: 05/01/2024

After a couple of months of hiatus, we are back to posting slot reviews here on BTCGOSU. And, we have decided to pick up where we left off, with products from Red Tiger. The Malta-based provider, founded in the Isle of Man, has been super busy as of late, releasing games at a steady pace. Hustling was the last title of theirs we looked at, and since then, they have unleashed slots like Wild Tundra, Doggy Riches, Diamond Royale, Zillard King, and Genie Nights onto online casinos everywhere.

The last game out from this provider now operating under the wing of Evolution is Narcos Mexico, an adaptation of the famous Netflix show. It came out on March 23rd, 2022, and quickly shot up into the top 100 rankings, where it has hovered on the lower end of this elite society. Below, we explore how this spinner stacks up with Narcos from NetEnt. Is it the better of the two releases, and how does it hold up on its own.

Theme & Design

The American crime drama depicting the rise and fall of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar debuted on Netflix in August 2015 and ran for three seasons. The show starring Wagner Moura, Pedro Pascal, and Boyd Holbrook was a massive hit. When it concluded its Escobar storyline, Netflix decided to use its momentum and transfer it over to a spin-off focusing on Mexico’s illegal drug trade. Again, same as the original, the Mexico version of Narco’s aired for three seasons.

In May 2019, NetEnt set loose Narcos, a slot based on the original series, which featured painterly graphics. Now, Red Tiger presents this sequel, a game that boasts a similar visual look as its predecessor. It’s worth noting that NetEnt bought Red Tiger in September 2019 before getting bought out by Evolution in September 2020.

The graphics in Narcos Mexico have a bit of a rotoscope feel, and while it is a bit flat and will not stun anyone with its appearance, it fits the theme. The colors used are a bit washed out for that cliché Mexico vibe that Hollywood movies always go for, and the music utilized here is unobtrusive. We will rank it as suitable background fare.

The button configuration is the standard Red Tiger one. You have a bar at the bottom of your screen where the links to the game’s help page and the paytable live. At the top are your balance, the settings button, and the mute one. The spin and turbo-spin options are in the lower right corner, while the bet-adjuster and auto-spin functions are in the lower left.

Specs & Gameplay

Like its predecessor, Mexico is a five-reel, three-row slot, implementing the 243-ways-to-win format. It is also a medium to high variance game, but it features a lower RTP than the original, at 95.7%. The max win exposure setting of this title is higher (x10,486). Yet, its max bet option is dramatically lower at $10. NetEnt’s Narcos had one of $400. Wins here happen when you land three or more matching symbols on adjacent reels. Note that they do not have to link up.

The low-paying symbols in this reel-spinner are the classic A-10 royals. These will pay out prizes worth x0.4 to x1 a player stakes for five-of-a-kind. The series four cartel leaders are this slot’s high-paying tokens yielding rewards from x2 to x5 for five identical instances of them appearing on the reel-grid on the same spin.

A pack of cocaine is the Wild here, substituting all other pay symbols, showing up only on the middle three reels. Diego Luna behind bars is the Cartel Spins Scatter.

Bonus Features

Narcos Mexico has a few bonus features that we must unpack. First are the two random modifiers in the base gameplay. They are the plane and phone that power up the Supply Drop and Double Cash modes. At the start of any spin, an airplane can fly over the grid layout activating the Supply Drop feature by throwing several Wilds onto the middle three reels. The Double Cash one can trigger only at the end of the winning reel rotation. When that happens, one of the cartel bosses will make a phone call resulting in the doubling of the prize generated by the last spin.

The Cartel Spins in the main bonus round of Narcos Mexico, and it triggers when you hit three Scatters on reels one, three, and five. The mode presents a new 10×10 grid, with the cartel leader symbols locked in the four corners of this layout, each one of them claiming the Mystery Territory tokens that land adjacent to their turf, helping them expand it. The Mystery Territory symbols are multipliers. In this round, plane tokens can also hit, increasing the multiplier values in adjacent territories from x1 to x5. The phone doubles the multiplier values in the turf that it falls adjacent to on this new grid.

When you hit a win of x100 in this game, you get the opportunity to exchange it for three Cartel Spins. If the associated prize is above x100, you can pocket the remaining sum when this trade goes through. Wins from x30 to x100 can get risked on the Free Spins Gamble Wheel. It has a green and a red section, and losing a gamble (red) means you will forfeit your winnings and continue playing in the base game. Winning it (green) lands you in the Cartel Spins round.