Colt Lightning: Slot Overview

Sorry, animal fans, but when Colt Lightning, an online slot from Play’n GO, first loaded, it genuinely made me laugh to myself. The reason was the sight of a horse sprinting across the desert, only to be wiped out by a lightning strike. Not exactly an everyday scene—thankfully. The surprise factor sparked the quiet chuckle, though what comes after is far more of a tribute to horses than any sort of equine destruction. It’s also packed with features, including Colt Strikes, Rapid Re-spins, and Super Colt Spins. Giddyap.

In Colt Lightning, players head back to one of slot design’s go-to settings: the North American wilderness—think cacti, jagged rock formations, and plenty of scrubland. And yes, lots of lightning. Aside from that unfortunate intro horse getting zapped, no animals seem to suffer during play. It’s worth admitting up front that Colt Lightning is a reskin of another Play’n GO nature-themed title called Beasts of Fire. This version looks brighter and, naturally, swaps buffalo for horses as the headline creature. Beyond that, the mechanics are extremely close—almost identical.

The numbers remain unchanged, so the game runs on a highly volatile math model, which Play’n GO rates at 7 out of 10, and it’s released with multiple RTP settings depending on jurisdiction. RTP goes as high as 96.24% and can be lower, so it’s worth checking where possible. Available across devices, Colt Lightning allows stakes from 10 p/c, rising to $/€100 at the top end.

There’s a lot going on in Colt Lightning, and the action plays out on a grid that can shift, extend, and expand. In its default state, the layout uses 5 reels with a 3-4-4-4-3 symbol setup, which provides 576 ways to win. Most paying symbols come framed with a rocky border, including the 10 through Ace low pays, returning 1.2 to 2.5x the stake, plus the snake, wolf, cougar, and eagle premium symbols, which pay 3-2x the bet. The top-value icons are the colt (base game only), paying up to 6x the bet, and the Super Colt (free spins only), which pays 12x the bet for six-of-a-kind combinations. Also, landing on reels 2, 3, and 4 is the game’s wild symbol, which substitutes for anything except scatters or Horseshoe symbols.

Colt Lightning: Slot Features

The three main mechanics to keep an eye on in Colt Lightning are Colt Strike, Rapid Re-spin, and Super Colt Spins.

Colt Strike

Colt Strike randomly triggers on any spin in the base game. Once it kicks in, the number of Colt symbols on the reels is increased.

Rapid Re-spin

Horseshoe symbols show up only on the middle reel. When a Horseshoe lands, it activates a Rapid Re-spin. During the Re-spin, each reel is expanded by +1 extra symbol, increasing both the grid size and the ways to win. Two additional Rapid Re-spins can also be triggered, and once the reels have expanded by +3 positions (6-7-7-7-6), there are 12,348 ways to win in play. Free spins can’t be triggered while Rapid Re-spins are active, but the chance of activating Colt Strike actually increases. After Rapid Re-spins finish, the grid drops back to its standard 3-4-4-4-3 layout.

Super Colt Spins

Landing 3 scatter symbols on reels 2, 3, and 4 awards 10 free Super Colt Spins. In this bonus, the Colt symbol is removed and replaced by the Super Colt, which is worth twice as much. Colt Strikes don’t trigger here, but if Horseshoe symbols appear during a free spin, the reels expand by +1 position, up to a maximum of 6-7-7-7-6. Once the grid reaches its maximum height, the Horseshoe is taken out of play. Any expanded reel size persists until the round ends, then resets to normal for the base game. Hitting 3 scatter symbols again during Super Colt Spins retriggers the feature with 10 more free spins, up to 100 in total.

Colt Lightning: Slot Verdict

Much like Beasts of Fire, Colt Lightning is a feature-heavy slot and seems reasonably generous with triggers. In practice, Colt Strike showed up the most, Rapid Re-spins came next, and Super Colt Spins were the hardest to land—though that makes sense. Free spins are typically where a slot can really erupt, while Colt Strike mainly boosts the presence of horse symbols that might have landed anyway. Still, the game notes say they appear in greater numbers, and the voiceover announcing them—paired with a dedicated animation—does a good job of making the base game feel less samey than it otherwise could. It’s a little odd, though, when all that hype happens and then, well, a single Colt symbol lands.

Rapid Re-spins were hit-and-miss and appeared at irregular intervals. They can certainly produce a solid outcome on paper, but nothing especially memorable came up during testing, even with the much higher number of potential winning ways. It helps that Colt Strike can also trigger during a respin in the base game. It’s a shame there’s no Super Colt Strike in free spins; however, the free spins intro screen does state there are more Super Colts on the reels anyway. Free spins are also where players have one of their strongest chances of getting close to Colt Lightning’s standout 25,000x the bet maximum win—or even landing it. For full transparency, Beasts of Fire advertises the same max win, yet we still haven’t seen anything close to that figure. The biggest win we found on Youtube at the time of writing was roughly 2,500x, although to be fair, it doesn’t seem to be a particularly popular slot among streamers.

Strangely enough, after playing, one of the funniest parts of Colt Lightning was still that intro animation mentioned at the start. Either way, no real horse was harmed—which is what matters—and what follows is a well-done reskin that should appeal to anyone after a strong North American nature slot with a good spread of features, expanding reels, and serious win potential.