Unusual Suspects: Slot Overview

Alright players, fancy playing at being a lawbreaker (purely for fun) or stepping into the shoes of the thin blue line to round up some fictional crooks? If that sounds like your kind of caper, then Unusual Suspects from Games Global partner Northernlights could fit the bill. The setup follows a moustachioed detective squaring off against a crew of villains—though it’s more like one henchman plus four bosses than a full-on mob—set against a lively, swinging backdrop. On the feature front, would-be heroes or hooligans can aim to trigger a Wild Sticky Frames mechanic, some nudging action, a touch of collecting, free spins, plus bonus buy/gamble options.

First up is the upbeat downtown scene where the base game unfolds. Yet once the bonus round kicks in, the energy oddly feels like it drops a notch, as the action shifts to the detective’s workplace—almost as if Unusual Suspects eases off rather than turning the excitement up. Strange, but it is what it is; at least the change of scenery reinforces the detective theme if we’re putting a positive spin on it. The music stays lively the whole way through, with a jazzy big-band tune that’s easy to tap along to. So far, though, there hasn’t been much that instantly screams “unusual.” Still, there’s time yet.

One genuinely slightly unusual touch is Unusual Suspects’ gamble option sitting alongside the buy feature. After choosing a stake of 10 p/c to $/€20, players can either purchase free spins for 38.6x the bet or choose gambling to win bonus round access instead. That second route uses a wheel with adjustable odds and costs, which spins to either award entry to free spins or come up empty. Also worth noting: Unusual Suspects includes a collection feature that can result in enhanced free spins. Switching stakes keeps your progress saved at each level. To round things off, Unusual Suspects is a medium volatile title with a default RTP of 96.05%, although lower configurations exist.

Played on a 5×4 gaming panel, the game uses 20 paylines to calculate wins. Winning lines pay left to right, starting from the leftmost reel. The lower-value symbols are striped 10-A card royals, each paying 1 times the bet for a 5 OAK result, while the premium set—handcuffs, a pistol, dynamite, and a bag of dough—pays 2 to 10 times the bet for landing 5 of the same high symbol.

Unusual Suspects: Slot Features

Wilds play a major role in Unusual Suspects, and they can appear on every reel. Hitting 5 wilds on a line returns 10x the bet, and wilds substitute for any other paying symbol. On top of that, whenever wilds land, they leave a frame around the spot where they appeared. If a Golden Wild lands, it spawns more wilds or another Golden Wild symbol. When wilds drop onto a position that’s already framed, they boost the multiplier by +1, up to a maximum of x5.

Detective Wild Bonus

When the Detective symbol lands, it populates all framed positions with wild symbols. Any multipliers present on a payline are applied to wins they contribute to. In the base game, once the Detective Wild bonus finishes, all sticky frames are cleared from the reels. In free spins, sticky frames stay put until the feature ends.

Free Spins Booster

Scatters may land anywhere on the grid. When exactly 2 of them appear, they add 1 token to the Booster Meter, which needs 50 tokens to fill. If the 2 scatters land on the top 3 rows, they activate Nudging Respins. Reels showing a scatter are held and nudged down 1 row, while the remaining reels respin.

Big Boss Free Spins

Hitting 3, 4, or 5 scatters awards 10, 15, or 20 free spins, respectively. During the feature, when Detective symbols land, they are collected on the Bonus Trail:

• Collecting 3 Detectives unlocks Big Boss 1, awarding +5 free spins with an x2 multiplier.
• Collecting 6 Detectives unlocks Big Boss 2, awarding +5 free spins with an x3 multiplier.
• Collecting 9 Detectives unlocks Big Boss 3, awarding +5 free spins with an x5 multiplier.
• Collecting 12 Detectives unlocks Big Boss 4, awarding +5 free spins with an x10 multiplier.

If free spins were triggered and the Booster Meter was full, Big Boss 1 is unlocked.

Unusual Suspects: Slot Verdict

We weren’t exactly blown away at first by how “unusual” Unusual Suspects claims to be, but it does have a couple of elements that can get the pulse going. One thing that may catch some players off guard is the framed-position mechanic. Features like this are often linked to a fixed spin counter, with the big transformation happening on the final spin. That’s not the case in Unusual Suspects, which keeps the frames around (in the base game) until the Detective symbol lands and turns every framed spot into wilds. It’s excellent when you’ve managed to build up a healthy set of frames that eventually get filled and something tasty lands as a result. On the flip side, it may be less appealing for players who like a more predictable, timed structure and don’t enjoy waiting an unknown number of spins for framed positions to pay off. Helping to make the wait worthwhile, wilds that land again on a framed cell also add a multiplier.

Free spins push things even further, because frames don’t disappear from the grid until the feature is over, regardless of how many Detectives land and get collected Big Bass Bonanza style on the progress track. The base game setting still doesn’t do much for us, though—an office and endless paperwork? A location with more sparkle could have lifted the fun factor. That said, we may be splitting hairs, because Unusual Suspects’ features connect together nicely, even if the bonus-round backdrop is a bit plain. The top prize is respectable too at 12,500 times the bet, so here’s hoping plenty of multipliers stack up when/if you decide to take Unusual Suspects for a spin.

There may not be a huge amount of “unusual” going on when you look at each feature in isolation. But taken as a whole, Unusual Suspects offers keyboard cops ’n’ robbers something slightly different to fire up.