Hearts Highway

So, picture this. Push Gaming releases a new game called Hearts Highway on Valentine’s Day. Now, understandably, I expected to jump right onto some sort of cringy love-themed video slot. But I’ve never been so wrong.

The romance theme in video slots has always been pretty laughable and these games tend to come with loads of recycled features and little to no effort whatsoever. But Hearts Highway is going for a completely different type of game.

Sure, hearts and love to that extent are still very much at the centre of it all, but instead of some date night shenanigans, the provider has given us a somewhat bleak, 80’s cyberpunk setting. Yes, Bladerunner certainly comes to mind, and while androids don’t necessarily pop up on the screen, you can imagine them hiding around every corner of the grid, nonetheless. It’s a pretty unique setting that piqued my curiosity and held my attention long enough to discover all the features on offer.

And there are quite a few of these, all centred around instant pay symbols that get boosted during free spins play. They can lead you to the slot’s ultimate prize of 10,000x your stake, so there’s some good win potential in play here too.

So, settle in, take in the scene and get ready to find out all about Hearts Highway’s unexpectedly impressive set of features.

⚡ RTP	96.44% | 95.49% | 94.49% | 90.56% | 88.54%
🎲 Volatility	Medium – High
💰 Paylines	20
🔼 Maximum Bet	100
🔻 Minimum Bet	0.10
⭐ Bonus Features	Wilds. Scatters, Free Spins, Instant Cash Prizes, Reel Modifiers, Bonus Buy

Hearts Highway Slot Game Free Demo

Hearts Highway can be quite a challenge, so it’s best to check out the free demo first, before diving into the real game. This gives you the space to test out all the features and get a better idea of how red hearts can ultimately hold the key to the game’s biggest prizes.

You can also see just how worthwhile the bonus buy option can be and decide if this will ultimately feature in your overall strategy. The free demo is also the perfect way to decide on your preferred bet level, making sure it fits well with your gambling budget.

Pro Tips:

High volatility can be pretty tricky, so I recommend taking a cautious approach with Hearts Highway. Pick a rather low bet level, something that can stretch your gambling budget to give you more chances of triggering the free spins bonus. It’s your best shot at landing the game’s biggest wins, and you’ll want to trigger it as many times as possible. The game also has a bonus buy feature, but I’d be quite cautious about it. It cists 75x your stake and there’s a guarantee of making your money back.

Hearts Highway Slot Bonus Features

The desolate streets of Hearts Highway play host to loads of rewarding symbols, which pop up across 5 reels and 3 rows, offering a total of 20 paylines. You’ll need to put together three identical symbols to score a win, starting from the leftmost reel.

Although this isn’t technically a fruit slot machine, it does harken back to traditional video slots and the included pay symbols pay homage to these classics. You get a mix of both low and high-paying tokens represented by grapes, limes, watermelons and cherries, as well as green bars, red bars, bells and lucky number sevens. Maximum payouts for these symbols come when you put together five of a kind and you can score anywhere from 3.5x to 30x your bet.

That pretty much covers the basics, but things get into gear once you add in the slot’s special features.

Wilds

No classic slot setup would be complete without wild symbols and Hearts Highway makes sure you get plenty of these tokens in the form of diamonds. They step in for missing pay symbols that could form part of a winning combination. Wilds can save a near miss or even enhance an existing win to get a bigger payout. They also have their pay value which is equivalent to the lucky number seven, the slot’s highest paying token. So, five wild symbols can win you 30x your stake.

Red Heart Symbols

Red hearts are the game’s instant pay symbols, appearing in both the base game and free spins. You’ll find a rewards table atop the reels, spelling out just how much you stand to win based on the number of red heart symbols landing during a symbol. A minimum of four red heart symbols are needed to score a win and scoring four, five, six, seven, eight, nine or 10 red hearts will bag you a win of 2x, 5x, 10x, 25x, 100x, 1,000x or 10,000x your stake.

These symbols are crucial to gameplay since they also form part of the slot’s other features, including free spins and the heart slot feature.

Heart Slot Feature

You’ll notice that slot machine symbols will also be popping up on your reels, appearing on the first and fifth reels in both the base game and free spins. Whenever they land together with a red heart symbol, they trigger the mini-feature. This will make the single reel on the slot machine symbol spin, revealing up to three mini red heart symbols. The red hearts that land here combine with the rest of the red hearts on the reels, pushing your chances of landing a better red heart win.

But their full potential is unleashed when you land both the symbol on the first and last reels together in the same round. This activates the heart slot feature which brings up a six-reel row where you can land red hearts, double hearts or blanks. Any red hearts or double hearts that land are held on the row and trigger another spin. This carries on until no new symbols land and you’re then awarded a prize based on the number of hearts that landed in the heart slot feature combined with those on the main reels.

Scatter Symbols

To gain access to free spins you’ll need to score a minimum of three scatter symbols. These tokens have no value of their own, and the more you land in a single round, the better your free spins bonus will be.

Three, four or five scatter symbols give you 10, 12 or 15 free spins respectively, as well as adding zero, one or three initial golden hearts.

Free Spins

Free spins completely change the pace of the game, removing all symbols from the reels except for red hearts. You can also land blanks or golden heart symbols which can appear on reels two, three and four. Whenever they hit, they’re collected into their respective reel’s golden heart meter before being replaced by a red heart symbol. Collect three golden hearts on one reel and you get a stack of red symbols stuck to that reel for the duration of the bonus. You’re also given an additional free spin to add to your tally.

You can also trigger the heart slot feature during free spins, activating the same six-reel, one-row setup you get in the base game. The biggest change in gameplay here is that golden symbols are added in and these are randomly allocated to golden heart meters at the end of the round.

Bonus Buy

If you want to jump straight into the free spins bonus, you can simply activate the bonus buy feature. This will cost you 75x your bet and give you a random number of scatter symbols, with a minimum of three.

RTP & Volatility of Hearts Highway Slot

This joyride can be pretty challenging with a volatility set between a medium to high setting. You’ll find several versions of the game with different RTP settings, including 96.44%, 95.49%, 94.49%, 90.56% and 88.54%. It may not be the most hardcore video slot I’ve ever played, but it’s no walk in the park either and will make you work your way towards that 10,000x maximum win.

Push Gaming has built a fairly great reputation over the years, so you can rest assured that Hearts Highway is a fair and safe slot to play. With that being said, make sure you play it at a secure online casino that runs with licenses from top gambling regulators like the MGA and UKGC.

Hearts Highway Slot on Mobile

Hearts Highway has excellent mobile compatibility across both Android and iOS devices. The game can be played in both portrait and landscape modes, with the interface automatically adapting itself to suit your screen size and orientation. It runs seamlessly on both smartphones and tablets with all the same features, graphics and win potential that you get on a desktop.

Conclusion

I never could have anticipated what Hearts Highway eventually turned out to be. Although I initially dreaded the idea of suffering through yet another heart-themed video slot, I ultimately loved my time with the game.

The presentation might not be all that mind-blowingly spectacular, but it’s solid, with a subtle setting and neat designs, peppered with a fitting soundtrack and minute animations. It lives up to the provider’s reputation and drew me into the game’s world.

When it comes to features, I’ve already played through similar online slots that have rekindled an interest in instant paying symbols operating outside of the regular paytable. But Hearts Highway manages to find a way to make these mechanics feel fresh again. There’s a sense of progression to the features and I enjoyed building my way up to free spins in the hopes of landing a much bigger prize. The slot machine symbols are a neat addition too and they made sure the base game spins were just as satisfying as their bonus counterparts.

So, overall, I’d say Push Gaming managed to turn the tables with a surprise that will certainly delight those of you who are hoping to play a meatier game with a love theme.