I’m already convinced this will be an interesting and unusual new release, and I have only been looking at the game for a few minutes so far! It’s fair to wonder, that being the case, what is it about ELK Studios title SUMO SUMO that has me so intrigued? Let’s start with the main stats – the game uses 259 “adjacent payways” to award wins on its large 5×5 reel set. However, it comes with a lower than average RTP of just 94%, but maybe players can see past this low value and instead focus on the maximum win of 25,000x bet on offer.
The feature set is predictably huge; a free spin bonus round, stacked sticky wilds, walking wilds, multiplier wilds, re-spins, sumo fights, and even a speedboat bonus game which challenges you to surf to win prizes for style and posture. I’m not even joking! ELK’s trademark X-Iter bonus buy feature is included too, with five options to purchase a feature for up to 500x the regular price per spin.
Do you feel like getting knee-deep in a crazy, feature-packed new game? If so, this must be the perfect choice! Go ahead and fire up our free demo slot of SUMO SUMO, available to play below and see if you’ve got what it takes to mix it with these Japanese warriors.
| Provider | Elk Studios |
| Reels | 5 |
| Rows | 5 |
| Paylines | 259 |
| Bonus Rounds | 1 |
| Bet Range | 0.20 - 100 |
| Volatility | High |
| Max Win | 25,000x |
| Bonus Buy | Yes |
| RTP | 94.00% |
| Our Rating | 6.8 |
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Sumo Sumo Slot Theme, Stakes, Pays & Symbols
The sport of wrestling has acquired an almost comedic reputation during the past three-to-four decades after World Wrestling Entertainment/Federation overtook the more serious World Championship Wrestling as the dominant format of the sport. I’m sure this must infuriate those in Japan and Mexico who enjoy the actual wrestling part of … well, wrestling. There have been a handful of wrestling-themed slots released over the years, such as Clash of the Wilds, but I struggled to find an abundance of games to point you in the direction of it that’s the kind of game you like. Anyway, there’s definitely room for some more fighting-themed slots – games such as Barbarian Fury feel somewhat similar, but I’d love to see more boxing or MMA-focused games released in the future.
Back to SUMO SUMO specifically now, and it’s time to check out the game’s paytable. The two highest-paying symbols are a pair of sumo wrestlers; I’m guessing that the guy in red won their last fight, as he is worth 10x your bet for each complete pay way of five-of-a-kind. By contrast, the guy in blue is only worth half of that – 5x your bet – for all five of his symbols. In reality, it could be argued that there isn’t much to separate the two of them; the “purse” assigned to both fighters is relatively poor, if I’m honest! The remaining “high-paying” symbols appear to be curiously squared-off fruits; there’s a square watermelon at 2x your bet, a square lemon at 1.5x, a square grapefruit (I think?) at 1x, and, finally, a square pair of cherries at 0.5x.
Next, I went to look at the value of the low-paying symbols. This is where I made a pleasant discovery… there are no more symbols! Instead, the reel set is filled with enormous stacks of the six symbols I have already mentioned. This low number of unique symbols should make it much easier to win on a large number of pay ways simultaneously.
The minimum bet per spin offered by SUMO SUMO is €0.20, whilst the maximum permitted is a hefty €100.00 for each round. I’m okay with games having the option to bet these huge amounts, but in this case, there are only ten options between the two extremes. This doesn’t seem like nearly enough flexibility, in my opinion.
Base Game & Modifiers
The playfield used in SUMO SUMO looks enormous, with five reels consisting of five rows each. When this configuration is used alongside regular payways, it will result in a total of 3,125 unique ways to cross the grid from left to right.
The “adjacent pay ways” used in this game work a little differently, as each symbol must follow the previous one on either the same row or directly above or below it. This is where the term “adjacent pay ways” comes from – each symbol must be adjacent to the previous one horizontally or vertically. This limitation reduces the number of unique paths from left to right all the way down to just 259.
That is a massive drop in available payways, yet the numbers shown on the paytable would not look out of place on a game that used traditional pay ways. Clearly, something else is happening here – many things, it turns out! Here’s an overview of the many ways to boost your winnings in SUMO SUMO.
Walking Multiplier Wilds
If three high-paying sumo symbols of the same type appear next to each other on a single row, you will see them “stack” on top of one another at the end of your current spin. However, this is just the beginning, as the new stacked sumo symbol is wild and will begin moving around the reel set during a re-spin feature; see below for details.
Sumo Stack Respins ( Fight & Merge )
When wild stacks of sumo wrestlers begin wandering the reel set, you know things are about to get serious! The amount of sumos in each stack is indicated by a number on top of the symbol. Any matching sumos that spin in on adjacent positions will immediately add themselves to the existing stacks.
If you manage to stack up a set of both the red and blue sumo wrestlers’, then the two groups will rush each other and begin a fight as part of the walking multiplier wild functionality! Whichever stack is the largest will inevitably win the duel, and the size of the larger stack will be multiplied by the size of the smaller stack that they have defeated. This can create enormous wild sumo stacks which are guaranteed to boost your winnings enormously!
Additionally, if you manage to form two stacks of the same sumo, these groups will merge instead of fighting when they meet on the reel set, so this feature can end up having numerous different effects on the size of your winnings from the current round.
Sumo Sumo Slot Bonus Features
I hope I have done the base game features of SUMO SUMO justice in the previous section, as there is such a lot going on that it feels a little difficult to ensure that everything has been addressed.
Things aren’t about to get any easier in this section either, as SUMO SUMO includes many bonus features too! We’ll start with the free spins triggered by hitting just two scatter symbols during the base game. Don’t imagine that this means they are easy to hit; however – I only managed to trigger them organically twice while testing the game!
Free Spins
I feel as if the free spins are something of an added bonus in this game, as the speedboat bonus round feels much more fleshed out and seems to have the greatest winning potential of the two.
This is still a great catch, however, as any wild sumo stacks which form during this mode will stay in place for the duration of the feature. You only receive six free spins each time the bonus is triggered, but that is more than enough to build up some huge stacks of wrestlers if you are lucky!
The free spins feature can also be re-triggered by hitting two more scatter symbols during the bonus round, adding six more free spins to your remaining total.
Speedboat Bonus
This is the part of SUMO SUMO where things go from being a little bit wild to full-on crazy! Hit three bonus symbols – represented by the danger of falling traffic sign, nonetheless – and you will soon find yourself in the Speedboat Sumo bonus game.
This is a three-spin feature which shares many similarities with the much-loved bonus round from the Money Train franchise of online slots. There aren’t quite as many special symbols in this game, but you do have the ability to save swimmers from drowning, perform tricks on ramps, show off your stance whilst “wakeboarding”, or use a harpoon to err… collect yourself some sumos!
Interestingly, the cost to purchase this feature in the X-Iter bonus buy facility (see below) is far less than the cost of the free spins. This goes against my own results and experience whilst I was testing the game, as I seemed to do much better in this bonus round than I did during the free spins. I can only assume that I was unlucky.
X-iter Bonus Buy
Finally, we can’t ignore the multitude of options that ELK Studios has offered us in their X-Iter Bonus Buy Feature yet again! The first two options are relatively low-cost; there is a “bonus hunt” option at 2x the regular stake, which is effectively just a bonus bet that increases your odds of hitting a bonus round. Secondly, you have the “brawl” option, costing 25x your current bet and guaranteeing a fight between two sumo stacks on the next spin.
If you want to spend big money, then your first port of call could be purchasing a speedboat bonus round for 100x, the normal price of a spin. Dig a little deeper in your pockets, and for 250x, you can supercharge your speedboat bonus by transforming all harpoon symbols into “turbo-harpoons”, which is effectively the difference between making interest, or making compound interest!
Last, you’ll probably need to turn the sofa upside down if you want to purchase a few sets of free spins! This option costs an eye-watering 500x the bet to activate, and remember that you only receive six free spins for your money as well.
I guess I now understand why I struggled to trigger this feature organically whilst I was testing the game… and yet, my results from purchasing this feature many times were still poor. Utilise this option with caution, my friends.
Sumo Sumo Slot Review Final Thoughts
The last game I reviewed prior to this one was a Play’N’Go slot with just a handful of features and a total of five paytable pages to explain every feature the game had to offer, as well as the value of every line hit and diagrams of each pay line.
By contrast, it’s difficult not to feel somewhat bemused by the complexity of SUMO SUMO. The feature set included in this game isn’t as over the top as in some Nolimit City slots, for example, but the way they are implemented and explained on the paytable feels unnecessarily convoluted and ended up reducing my enjoyment of the title.
I love the quirkiness of SUMO SUMO and appreciate the potential for big wins; at the same time, the presentation and execution could undoubtedly be better.
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