Running Sushi

Theme and Design

There are a whole host of Japanese slots out there, but not too many that focus exclusively on sushi. This slot is set inside a traditional sushi restaurant with paper panelled windows and Japanese lanterns to either side of the grid. Things change up a bit for the free spins round where night falls and you get to enjoy the Tokyo skyline. Overall, it’s a unique take on the Japanese theme and the sushi looks good enough to eat, though we can’t help but wonder if avocado is truly traditional.

RTP and Variance

Running Sushi is available with three different RTP rates 96%, 95% or 94%. It’s really key to check that the site you’re playing on is offering the 96% RTP as the others are a little on the low side, and don’t offer any additional benefits. This slot has medium volatility, meaning you’ll see balanced gameplay with bigger and smaller wins, with shorter dry spells.

Maximum Win

Running Sushi has a max win of 3,000x your bet which isn’t that exciting, but is pretty good value considering the RTP and medium variance. If you’re after a bigger top payout then Sakura Masks takes the Japanese theme in a different direction, but offers a max win of 15,138x your stake.

Symbols and Paytable

Running Sushi is played on 5 reels and 4 rows, with 1,024 ways to win. To secure a win, you need at least 3 matching symbols on adjacent reels, starting from the leftmost reel. 

The game has 10 pay symbols, plus a wild and a scatter. The low value symbols are diamonds, clubs, hearts, and spades, offering payouts between 0.75x and 1.5x the stake for five of a kind. Premium symbols are: avocado, rice, meat, shrimp, soy sauce, and hot sauce, paying between 1.75x and 7.5x the bet for five symbols..

Features and Gameplay

Running Sushi keeps the mechanics fairly simple, but introduces some powerful features in the free spins round. Let’s take a look at how it all works.

Wilds

The wild is a coin symbol that only appears in the free spins round on reels 2, 3, and 4. It can substitute for any normal pay symbol to help to complete wins. 

Ante Bet

If you pay an additional 25% of your stake each spin then you can activate the ante bet. This increases your chance of entering the free spins round by 100%. 

Take Sushi Feature

Beneath the reels on a kind of sushi conveyor belt, after every spin, between 1 and 10 money symbols - represented by different bits of sushi - will appear. Each of these symbols displays a value between 1x and 1000x the bet (except during the free spins round when they reach 2,500x). If you also land three ‘Take Sushi’ symbols then you can scoop up the values of all of the money symbols for that spin. 

Free Spins

Scatter symbols - the sushi chef - can land on reels 2, 3, and 4. If you land three of them then the free spins round begins with 10 free spins. During this round all of the money symbols that appear are added to a meter to the left of the reels. The Take Sushi symbols are also swapped for Take All symbols. And if three of these Take All symbols land on a spin then you win the value currently displayed in the meter. After this, the meter resets to zero. 

NOTE: During testing we saw the Take All meter rise as high as 248x so there are some big potential prizes to be won there.