Hephaestus Cash Eruption Slot Machine

Those Greeks had a God for everything and everyone, didn’t they? You have to credit their thoroughness. The Hephaestus Cash Eruption slot machine depicts one of them, and a lesser-known one at that, which is pretty cool in itself.

For those who don’t know, Hephaestus was the Greek God of Blacksmiths. Honestly. According to mythology, he was the one who forged Zeus' lightning bolt. I kind of love how they involved everyone, even the tradesmen. If I were a God, I’m not sure I’d necessarily declare the plumber who installed my new tap as a God, but those Greeks seemed to really appreciate good workmanship.

The game is developed by IGT and is one of a growing stable of Cash Eruption titles. I like almost all of them.

What is it that the Hephaestus Cash Eruption Slot Machine offers, though, where can you find it, and, most importantly, is it a game for you? Let’s try to answer all of those questions.

I would describe the theme as grandiose, which is what a theme should be for a game based on Gods and Goddesses. It’s the same, after all, when you play the Zeus, Kronos, Medusa, or Athena Power Link games.

It definitely presents some real pomposity in the music, sound, and symbols, and I kind of love that about it. It ultimately comes across as immensely impressed with itself, which again fits the theme very well.

The design itself is highly familiar. In fact, I’d say that the Cash Eruption games in general took off in European land based casinos because they looked and felt a bit like the great Aristocrat games that, until recently, you could only play in North America and Asia-Pacific.

It’s played on a 5x3 grid with a hold-and-spin bonus round. You also get a free games bonus for landing three scatter symbols, in this case, a temple.

That said, the appeal of Hephaestus is a lot more than mere familiarity. IGT has done a brilliant job with the animations, sounds, and the game's overall look and feel, with the wild symbol (Hephaestus himself) a real thing of beauty.

As I alluded to before, you are looking for six cash symbols to trigger the hold-and-spin, or three scatter symbols to trigger the free games. And that is pretty much it.

The cash symbols are really striking rings of fire that have been animated exceptionally. They tend to come in fives a lot, although not as often as the utterly torturous Money Mover, so it’s easier to live with. Those symbols can also feature progressive jackpots.

The scatter symbol is the blue temple, and if you get two of them, it will make a song and dance about the possibility of getting a third. Each subsequent reel starts spinning one by one, turning all blue and electrified. Much more often than not, the third doesn’t land, but you at least get to see it spin past a couple of times along the way.

The other big symbol that you want is the wild. As mentioned, that is Hephaestus himself, and they can really line up. When they do, the screen is both beautiful and profitable.

At a glance:

• Layout: 5 x 3
• Denominations: Multiple in the US, 0.01 in Europe
• Minimum Bet: 0.40 on a 0.01 denomination
• Theme: Greek Mythology
• Return to Player (RTP): Approximately 90 - 95% but dependent upon casino and local regulations
• Volatility: Medium to high

The bonus features on the Hephaestus Cash Eruption slot machine are both exciting and maddening. I know you could maybe say the same thing about all bonuses on all slot machines, but Hephaestus truly excels at it.

I have no problem with the hold-and-spin feature. Everyone loves a hold and spin, right? It’s the slots version of pizza. On Hephaestus, it’s the bonus that you play to get.

The maddening frustration comes with the free games bonus. Firstly, as I said before, it can be very difficult to get, and it teases you a lot before you actually do. It’s the nature of the feature that drives you most mad, though.

I call it a free games feature, but I am not sure it’s entirely accurate. You do get three free spins, but it’s also a picky bonus. By that, I mean you get 9 tiles on-screen before each spin, and you have to pick one of them.

When you do, it will reveal a symbol, and that symbol will go to the centre nine squares for the next spin. Now, when you pick a wild, that next spin is great. It can be good too if you pick a high-value symbol, as long as the first and last reels line up with it.

What you really want, though, is the ring of fire, as that will trigger the hold and spin. It is a hold-and-spin with a slight difference: the symbol covers all nine middle squares. That means you need it to be a good cash amount, given how much space it’s taking up.

There is also only one of each symbol, so you can only get a maximum of one hold and spin per free games feature. Oh, and at the end, it will reveal where the other symbols were that you could’ve picked. I mean, that’s just trolling.

I would normally stress in this section about the importance of player rewards cards and how you must have yours in the machine when you play anything. With Hephaestus Cash Eruption, that is still the case if you find it in the US or any property with a good loyalty program.

Since you will most likely be playing it in UK casinos, though, that is a lot less important. There are no hotel comps and very little freeplay to be earned, so you don’t need to worry too much about a card.

You should still get offered drinks while you play. They might be soft drinks, but you still might as well avail yourself of the offer. Either way, waitress service is a nice perk for land-based casino players, even if you have to pay for something stronger.

I really like Hephaestus Cash Eruption. I started playing slots in the US casinos before I did in the UK, and when I first saw the Cash Eruption games, I was very happy about their hold-and-spin format. I know a lot of Novomatic games have them too, but you can never have too many hold-and-spin slot machines, in my opinion.

I think Temple of Fire Cash Eruption was the first one I found, and although I liked it, I hated the free games feature with a passion, and I still do. Hephaestus, then, felt like a bit of a find. The free games aren’t perfect, but they are better, and for all my earlier complaints, they actually do use a mechanic I hadn’t seen before.

In fact, I would say without hesitation that Hephaestus is my favourite Cash Eruption slot machine by far. I love the symbols and animations, and I absolutely adore the sheer pomposity of its presentation.