Sumo Sumo Slot Review (ELK Studios)

Wrestling and staying in shape are just some things that sumo wrestlers focus on. The Sumo Sumo online slot reveals these and other activities that this category of athletes are interested in. This title, with an original story, is supported by previously unseen visual elements and music with a retro vibe. Besides the potentially lucrative bonus features, you will also find a relatively high max win cap, many betting solutions, and more.

Graphics, Music, and Sound Effects

You can’t create a successful slot game without suitable visuals. In the case of Sumo Sumo, we have excellent imagery, including animated icons in various colors. Many of them come in cubical forms. You can also see a semi-transparent purplish layout with Japanese banners and a tight street with fish shops behind the reels.

Players who like house and electro music will like what they find in this release audio-wise. The game includes modern sound effects, including special audio effects.

One must learn about the key game features to conclude it. We’ve found many fun features in the Sumo Sumo slot that promise a memorable gaming experience. It looks like this game has what an average user expects from slot games, plus a few other things.

In addition to the regular features, users can activate special ones. We like some of these features' complexity (without boring the gameplay). You can learn about the essential game features of this slot in the following paragraphs of our Sumo Sumo slot review.  

Theme – Sumo

It makes sense that sumo is the central theme of the Sumo Sumo slot, right? However, instead of entering a ring, players will be taken to a fish market where traditional Japanese wrestlers occasionally get into fights. They’ll also encounter fruits, ride speedboats, and do other unexpected things. So, this is one of the slots with unique stories.

To familiarize yourself with the theme, check the paytable, especially the standard symbols. There, you will find a mix of fruits and Sumo wrestlers. The Cherries, Grapes, Lemon, and Watermelon are in the first four positions. Then we have the Blue and Red Sumo Wrestlers. You’ll get the top prize thanks to the Red Sumo Wrestler, who delivers up to 10 times the player’s bet.

Reels

We have another online slot with 5 reels. The Sumo Sumo slot also has 5 rows, so the 5x5 grid provides 25 reel positions.

Paylines

Even though it doesn’t have standard paylines, this release has multiple winning ways. More precisely, players will get 259 ways to win, active both in normal mode and during free spins. Every winning combo starts with the leftmost reel and goes from left to right on consecutive reels.

RTP

The RTP (Return to Player) of a slot game is expressed as a percentage indicating the amount players can expect from the money they have wagered on a slot. In most cases, the RTP is above 94%. So, Sumo Sumo’s RTP of 94% is within the average value. Many other slots have higher RTPs.

Still, the value we mentioned is established by ELK Studios, and online casinos with this game can boost or lower it. You can see that in the table below. Of course, you should never pick a gambling website based on the slot’s RTP. Things like the casino welcome bonuses and deals (like free spins and cashback offers), the chance to play other casino games, the deposit/withdrawal options, and other things can significantly impact your experience.

The list of casinos with the Sumo Sumo slot and its RTPs will help you find some of the most reliable options. In addition, we have a page with the slot sites we recommend for those interested in gambling websites focused on online slots.

Stake Range

This is one of the slots with a good selection of stakes of different sizes. Namely, you can pick one of twelve options between £0.2 and £100. This is good news, especially for high rollers.

Max Win

One thing that makes the Sumo Sumo slot attractive is the high maximum win limit. Only a small number of active slots can compete against this title’s max win limit of 25,000x the stake.

Speedboat Bonus

The innovativeness of this game can be seen in the Speedboat bonus. Players will activate this unique feature when they hit three Bonus icons (Warning signs) anywhere on the reels. You will receive 3 spins/lives spiced up with a collection feature. You will find 5 reels and 5 rows equipped with mini-reels too. 

Players can expect a Speedboat icon with a starting x-bet value at the beginning of this feature. During this round, empty positions on the gameboard spin to uncover a symbol using a life. Whenever an icon ends in line of sight of the Speedboat symbol, the number of lives goes back to the initial 3, and the Speedboat collects the newly-landed icons.

The collected symbols promise various extras:

• Swimmer Sumo – the highlighted value is collected by the Speedboat.
• Ramp – multiplies the Wakeboarder counter and Speedboat x-bet value.
• Wakeboarder Sumo – provides its value to the Speedboat and attaches itself to the Speedboat. As it moves, the x-bet value goes up.

Harpoonist or Turbo Harpoonist – add their values to Speedboat and boost the value of uncollected Wakeboarders and Swimmers upon landing and for consecutive spins. The Turbo version increases the values of the rest of the Wakeboarders and Swimmers whenever the Speedboat gathers an icon.

At the end of the round, players receive the collected values.

Free Spins Feature

The purple neon Free Spins signs with blue outlines act like Scatter icons. Players need two signs anywhere on the reels to get 6 free spins. Lucky users with two Scatters during this round will get additional six free spins. Also, the Wild Sumo Stacks keep their positions between free spins.

Sumo Stacks

Whenever the Sumo Wrestlers appear stacked on the reels, they serve as Wild icons. In other words, they can replace any basic symbol to help users create winning combinations. Remember that these are Wild stacks that carry a multiplier that matches the number of Sumo icons participating in the Stack. Any win that goes through the Stacks is multiplied.

In addition, once a Stack shows up on the layout, you get a Respin, and the Stack moves one position to the right. Once they get to the rightmost reel, they will begin a new round in which they will move to the left. The Respins end when players hit a non-winning round with no new Sumo icon added to the Stack.

Finally, during any Respin, when two kinds of Wild Sumo Stacks end on the same row, you will witness a brawl. The winner of the fight is the bigger Stack, whose multiplier will be multiplied by the value displayed by the other Stack.

Jackpot

Let’s get straight to the point – a direct jackpot prize is unavailable in the Sumo Sumo slot game. Those looking for titles with this type of reward should check our page with the best jackpot slot games.

Play Experience & First Impressions

You know it will be an exciting gaming session when you activate a bonus round after just six spins. That happened to us in Sumo Sumo when we launched the Sumo Stacks. On top of that, this bonus feature provided a payout worth 24.5 times the bet. We were lucky to activate it several times during our 100-spin test. Watching the wrestlers go on top of each other is fun, boosting the potential multiplier. The same goes for the Speedboat bonus that we also activated once.

Overall, we were surprised at how many times we have activated bonuses here. On the other hand, the wins in the base game were not very impressive. Typically, they provided less than 1 time our bet, which didn’t occur often. When we add lively visuals and music to the mix, we can say that we had a unique gaming experience.

With extensive experience in playing this game from Elk Studios before running this 100 spin test, I was all too aware of 2 things.

• It is a really fun game to play
• It can burn hard and much up your balance quickly

On the occasion of running this test, I am afraid the latter was very much the case and with just 17 winning spins from 100, returning just 27.6% RTP for the session and an average win of just £1.62, and a high win of £7.60, you can see that this was a burn!

And here is the dangerous part, this session included no fewer than eight bonus bait spins, and a couple of Sumo Stack runs, one paying £7.60 and the other £6, and was still really entertaining. Take those stack wins out and it brings the average 'Winnin spin return value down below £1, less than the spin was costing! And I still had fun.

Well, all this really says, and I can attest to, is when this age goes off, which always feels like you are on the edge of, it can be amazing.

My advice is to approach this game with care, and if it is burning through your balance, drop it, and come back later. 

The Sumo Sumo slot might be a good choice if you are interested in something different and exciting. This ELK Studios slot includes several bonuses and extras, including a few unique ones – Sumo Stacks and Speedboat Bonus. The game has a relatively low RTP – 94% - so we can’t say it should be on the list of the best paying slots even though we ended our trial with an RTP of 103.1%.  

Additionally, it’s a medium-to-high volatility title with 259 ways to win and 5 reels. Players will probably enjoy the thrilling music, sound effects, and carefully designed animations. If you are thinking about spinning the reels of this game, we say go for it!

Editorial Team Information

This Sumo Sumo slot review was written by the OLBG Slots Content Team, beginning with Andrej Trajkovski, who has worked in the online gambling industry since 2013, playing and reviewing online slots and casinos daily for the past four years. The review is Fact Checked by William Westerlund, an online casino expert reviewing casinos and slots for over five years, and published by Steve Madgwick, our Editor-In-Chief with over 18 years of experience creating and managing high-quality sports betting and Casino content for OLBG & multiple other publications.